NJ Mom & Daughter Bring Indian Food Business To Delicious Orchards

COLTS NECK, NJ — A New Jersey mother and daughter are bringing their love for cooking to the local community with their small-batch Indian food business, Nikki’s Rasoi.

Co-founded by Nikki Bhasin and her daughter, Sunah, Nikki's Rasoi was born from a lifelong dream of starting a food business.

Throughout Sunah’s childhood, she would often find herself in the kitchen with her mother as she was making a meal or preparing a new recipe, she told Patch.

She described her mom as “the cook in our family,” and grew up watching her make Indian food “without recipes or measurements — just years of knowing how to make the food our family loved.”

“I’ve always been passionate about cooking, and I love feeding people – especially my daughter,” Nikki told Patch. “Growing up, she’d be in the kitchen watching me and asking, ‘What are you doing? What are you making?’”

Nikki’s love for cooking, similar to Sunah's, started when she was a young girl herself, watching her own mother, aunt and friends in the kitchen.

It was years later, however, that this shared love officially started a business.

“We [Nikki and Sunah] were actually going for a walk one day when [Sunah] asked, ‘Why don’t we just start something?’” Nikki said. “She’s always been a go-getter. And I would say that I love to cook and I would do that, but I’d never execute it. Sunah was the one who was like, ‘Why don’t you start your own business? Why don’t you open up a restaurant?’”

From there, the mother-and-daughter duo formed Nikki’s Rasoi in 2023, which grew from stands at farmers' markets to selling their products at beloved Monmouth County locations like Delicious Orchards.

Currently, the business is best known for its Butter Masala Simmer Sauce and Cilantro Chutney, which can be used in various recipes with ingredients ranging from chicken to chickpeas, potatoes, vegetables and more.

When speaking with Patch, Sunah described the simmer sauce and chutney as versatile, adding that there are various ways each can be used.

“It’s very versatile; they can go really well together, but if you’re not a fan of cilantro, you can always try the sauce. If you’re not a fan of spice, you can always try the chutney,” she said. “You can also mix it with something to tone it down as well, like yogurt or sour cream – it can be used with anything.”

In addition to the sauce and chutney’s versatility, Sunah emphasized that neither has to be used with just Indian food either and can complement other cultural foods as well.

“There’s no right or wrong way to use either product,” she said. “It’s always really fun when we have people try samples and come back and let us know all the interesting things they’ve done with it that maybe aren’t ideas we had originally [for the products].”

Since starting Nikki’s Rasoi in 2023, the pair described community response to their business as “overwhelmingly great,” adding that they’ve loved getting to attend different events and markets to meet new people.

“We started off in a commercial kitchen, just doing really, really small batches of chutney and the simmer sauce ourselves,” Sunah said. “And I think when we tell that to people, or they hear more about our story, they really appreciate that.”

“Whenever we meet new people, whenever they find out about us, they’re just extremely supportive,” she continued. “It’s heartwarming.”

To learn more about Nikki’s Rasoi, you can visit their website.