The long version. Every question we have been asked about the mix, the first batch, delivery and how to cook with it – answered in full, in one place.
The first batch is a limited UK run, sold before it ships. These are the questions people ask before committing.
Yes – payment reserves your pouch from the first UK batch. We expect to dispatch in October 2026, and we will email you before your order goes out. If that date moves you will hear it from us first, and you can cancel for a full refund at any point before dispatch.
We expect to dispatch the first UK batch in October 2026. That is our honest working date rather than a promise, and we are trying to pull it forward. You will get an email with the confirmed window before anything ships.
Yes – while pre-orders are open you can change or cancel any time before the first batch dispatches. Just reply to your confirmation email and we'll sort it.
It is the first production run of the mix, made to one recipe in one go, and it is a limited run. Everything about the blend – the grind, the ratios, the roast – is fixed for that run, so every pouch in the first batch is identical to every other. Later batches will be made to the same recipe, but there is only ever one first one.
Because a first run has to be paid for before it can be made, and because we would rather make exactly what people want than guess and sit on stock. Pre-orders tell us the real number. It also means nobody is paying for warehousing we did not need, which is part of how the price stays where it is.
You get a confirmation email straight away with your order number. After that you hear from us twice: once when the batch is made and a dispatch window is confirmed, and once when your pouch actually ships, with tracking. We do not send anything between those points unless something changes, and if a date moves you will hear it from us before you read it anywhere else.
Each pouch in the first batch is numbered in the order it was reserved, so pouch № 001 belongs to the first person who ordered. It is a record of who backed the first run, nothing more – it does not change the mix, the price or the dispatch order.
Yes. There is a single 250g pouch, a two-pouch bundle and a three-pouch bundle, and the per-pouch price falls as the bundle gets bigger. Most people who cook a few times a week take two, because one pouch is roughly 30 dishes and the second one removes the thinking.
Not yet. The first batch is sold only here, at authenticlahori.com. If you have seen the mix listed anywhere else, it is not us.
Yes, and it travels well – it is a sealed pouch, it does not need refrigerating and it is not fragile. You can have it delivered to a different UK address at checkout. We do not currently offer gift wrapping or a gift note.
Where it goes, what it costs, and what happens when something is wrong.
We deliver to UK addresses only for the first batch, including Northern Ireland. Delivery is free on every order – there is no minimum, and nothing is added at checkout. We are not shipping internationally yet.
Yes. Delivery is free on every UK order at every basket size, and nothing is added at checkout. There is no spend threshold to reach and no separate postage line – the price you see on the pouch is the price you pay.
Yes – every UK address, including Northern Ireland, the Scottish Highlands and the islands, at the same free rate. We do not charge a surcharge for remote postcodes.
Not for the first batch. We are UK-only to start with. Sending food across a customs border brings labelling, duty and food-import rules that a first run cannot carry properly, and doing it badly means your pouch sits in a depot. Join the list and we will say plainly when that changes.
Email info@authenticlahori.com with your order number and, if it is damaged, a photo. We will replace it or refund it. We would rather sort it in one reply than put you through a process.
Yes. Our first-pouch promise lets you actually cook with it: open one pouch, make one dinner, and if you do not rate it, email info@authenticlahori.com within 14 days of delivery and we will refund what you paid for that pouch. Keep it – nothing has to come back and there is no return postage to pay. Any pouches still sealed can be returned within the statutory window. The full detail is in our terms and conditions.
It replaces the spice step, not the cooking. These are the questions that decide whether it earns its shelf space.
Start with 1 pouch from the first batch. Use it as the base for a karahi, a curry, keema or pilau, or as a marinade and everyday seasoning. Adjust to taste and make it yours.
Warming, not harsh – a balanced everyday heat that lifts your food without overpowering it. Use more or less to suit your taste.
Garam masala is a finishing blend – warming spices stirred in near the end. Curry powder is usually turmeric-led and built for a British-style sauce. This is neither: it is a complete Lahori base, so the earthy spices, the chilli, the aromatics, the salt and the tang are already balanced together. You cook with it from the start rather than adding it at the end.
Not for everyday cooking – the mix is built to be the whole spice step, so a karahi or a curry needs only the mix, your onions, tomatoes and meat or veg. Keep your own spices for the dishes you like to tune, and add to the mix rather than around it.
About 30. A level tablespoon seasons roughly 500g of chicken, and a 250g pouch holds around 31 to 42 tablespoons – we say 30 because people pour generously and we would rather the number held in your kitchen than look good on ours.
Start with one level tablespoon for every 500g of meat, fish or vegetables, added early rather than at the end. That is the measure every recipe on this site is written to. Taste at the end and add more if you want it stronger – it is far easier to add than to take out.
Early. Add it to the onions and oil once they have softened, give it thirty seconds to a minute in the hot fat before the tomatoes or the liquid go in, and let it cook rather than boil. That short bloom in oil is what turns raw ground spice into a base, and skipping it is the single most common reason a curry tastes dusty.
Yes, and it is one of the easiest ways to use it. As a rub, work it into the meat with a little oil and leave it for at least thirty minutes. As a marinade, mix it into yoghurt with garlic, ginger and lemon and leave it for a few hours or overnight. The oil or yoghurt carries the spice into the meat in a way a dry sprinkle cannot.
Yes – that is what all-purpose means here. It works on chips and wedges, roast potatoes and cauliflower, scrambled eggs and omelettes, grilled chicken, burgers, and stirred through rice or yoghurt. There are 42 recipes on this site and a good number of them are not curries at all.
Yes. The mix is the spice step, not the whole dish. A karahi or a curry still needs your onions, tomatoes and fresh garlic and ginger – the mix means you are not measuring out eight jars behind them.
Yes, and it is one of the reasons it exists. The hard part of Lahori cooking for a beginner is not the technique, it is knowing the ratios – how much cumin against how much coriander, when the chilli goes in, how much salt the dish can take. That part is already done. Start with the karahi or the keema recipe and follow it once as written.
That depends on the child and the amount you use, and you are the better judge than we are. The heat is warming rather than sharp, and because you control the quantity you can start with half a tablespoon for a family pan and go up from there. Cooking it into a yoghurt or tomato base softens it further.
Yes to all three, with one adjustment: these spices are at their best when they meet hot fat first. Bloom the mix in oil in a pan for a minute before it goes into a slow cooker or a pressure pot, and for an air fryer toss it with oil onto the food rather than dusting it on dry, or it will scorch before the food is done.
The pouch carries the full legal ingredient and allergen declaration. These are the questions we can answer before it is in your hand.
Real, plant-based spices – cumin, coriander, chilli, garlic, ginger, ajwain, long pepper and more. No preservatives, no fillers, no anti-caking agents. The full list is printed on every pouch.
The full ingredient and allergen information is printed on every pouch. If you have a specific allergy, please check the pack before use.
It's made purely from real, plant-based spices – no preservatives, no fillers, no anti-caking agents and no animal products.
Yes – the mix is made purely from plant-based spices, with no preservatives, no fillers, no anti-caking agents and no animal products. It suits vegan and vegetarian cooking as it is.
No. It is ground spices and salt, with no preservatives, no fillers, no anti-caking agents, no colourings and no flavourings. Nothing is added to bulk it out or to keep it free-flowing, which is also why it may settle or clump slightly in the pouch – that is ground spice behaving normally, not a fault.
Salt is part of the blend rather than an afterthought, which is why the recipes on this site ask you to taste before adding more. If you are cooking something that is already salted – a stock, a brine, a salty cheese – hold back on extra salt until the end and let the mix carry it.
The full ingredient and allergen information is printed on every pouch, and that pack is the only place we will state it. If you have a specific allergy, please read the pouch before you cook with it, and do not rely on a web page for that decision.
No, and we are not going to imply otherwise. Organic is a certified status with a legal definition, and the mix does not carry that certification.
Yes. The mix is made purely from plant-based spices with no animal products, so it suits both. The recipes on this site are a mix of meat and vegetarian dishes, and the vegetarian ones are cooked with exactly the same blend.
It is a fine, even grind that dissolves into a sauce rather than sitting on top of it, which is what you want when the mix is doing the work of a whole spice rack. It is not a coarse rub-style blend with visible seed pieces.
Ground spice does not spoil so much as fade. Storage is most of what keeps it worth using.
Cool, dark and sealed. Press the air out and reseal it after each use, and keep it in a cupboard rather than on the worktop next to the hob – heat and daylight are what dull ground spice fastest. It does not need refrigerating, and the fridge is actively worse because opening a cold pouch in a warm kitchen draws moisture in.
The best-before date is printed on the pouch and that is the date to go by. As a general matter ground spice does not become unsafe with age, it becomes flat – it loses aroma long before anything else changes. If you open the pouch and it does not smell like much, it will not taste like much either.
Yes, and an airtight jar kept in a dark cupboard is genuinely better than a part-used pouch, because it keeps less air against the spice. Write the best-before date from the pouch onto the jar before you throw the packaging away – that date is the one piece of information a jar loses.
There is no need, and we would not. Freezing a dry ground spice gains nothing, and every time you take it out condensation forms on the cold powder, which is the one thing that genuinely spoils it. A sealed pouch in a cupboard is the right answer.
Who is behind the pouch, and how to reach a person.
Authentic Lahori is a family kitchen recipe from Lahore, now a small UK business run from Leeds. The blend is a household recipe rather than a formulation written for retail, which is why it is one mix built to do everything instead of a range built to fill a shelf.
Because the recipe is one recipe. A Lahori kitchen does not keep a different blend for every dish – it keeps one balanced base and changes what goes around it. Selling five variations of the same thing would be a marketing decision rather than a cooking one, and it would make the choice harder rather than the food better.
They are written for this mix and tested against it, and they are written to the same measure the pouch is – one level tablespoon per 500g. They cover Lahori classics, street food and a good number of dishes that are not South Asian at all, because an all-purpose blend that only works on curry is not all-purpose.
Email info@authenticlahori.com. It is read by us, not by a queue, and it is the fastest route for anything about an order. You can also reach us on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Threads – the links are in the footer of every page.
