How does one cook a regular meal with the prices of kitchen staples rising by the day? It is almost impossible to avoid using tomatoes, an integral part of India’s diverse cuisine, but its price has been oscillating between Rs 60 and Rs 80 per kilo. But Indians are known to find cheaper ways to achieve the same results and things are no different in the kitchen. To help beat the food inflation blues, we invited home and restaurant chefs to part with their favourite thrifty cooking hacks.

With inflation at an all-time high, cooking daily meals on a budget means one will have to sit down and work out how they can afford ingredients or find alternatives for them. Keeping this in mind, city chefs have shared their favourite substitutes for daily staples, hacks for using affordable produce as a stand-in for exotic ingredients, as well as tips to make supplies last longer.