What "nut-free" means at Yum! Curries
Our central kitchen produces every curry, biryani, rice, tikka, kebab, and samosa under a strict zero-tolerance protocol for cashews, pistachios, almonds, peanuts, pine nuts, and chopped-nut garnish. We built the kitchen this way deliberately, because nut allergies have been served too casually for too long.
- All curries — Yum Makhani, Chicken Nihari, Chicken Curry, Shahi Paneer, Amritsari Chole, Dal Makhani: zero nuts, zero traces of nuts as ingredients.
- Royal Chicken Biryani — Sella 1121 basmati, fried onion, coriander, mint. No chopped almonds, no chopped cashew. Never.
- Jeera basmati rice — basmati, cumin, ghee. That's the recipe.
- Tandoor & grill — Chicken Tikka, Chicken Seekh Kebab. Marinades use yogurt, spice, ginger, garlic. No nut paste.
- Samosas — Aloo Samosa, Chicken Samosa. Pastry, potato or chicken filling, spice. No nut filling.
- Shahi Paneer specifically — finished with cream and saffron, never cashew. Most UK Shahi Paneer uses cashew gravy. Ours doesn't.
- Biryani specifically — uses fried onion, coriander, and mint. Never chopped nuts.
One exception — our desserts contain nuts
Our desserts (Ras Malai and Gulab Jamun) are made off-site by a separate supplier and contain nuts (pistachio garnish, sometimes chopped almonds). They are not covered by the in-kitchen nut-free guarantee. If you have a nut allergy, please flag it at order time and skip the desserts — every other dish on our menu is safe.
This carve-out is not a marketing footnote. It's a regulatory and safety obligation under the UK's Natasha's Law (the Allergen Information for PPDS Food regulation, 2021) and EU/UK FIR 1169/2011. We mention it every single time we say "nut-free", because someone's life can depend on the precision of the wording.
What you can do if your allergy is severe
- Email allergens@yumcurries.com — we'll confirm the spec of any individual dish, ingredient list, and supplier chain.
- See the full allergen sheet under each dish on Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
- Use the order notes box on any aggregator app to flag your allergy — it goes straight to the kitchen.
- Avoid Ras Malai and Gulab Jamun. Every other dish is safe.
Why we built the kitchen this way
Indian cooking traditions use cashew gravies, almond-thickened kormas, and chopped-pistachio biryani garnishes routinely — which means most UK Indian takeaway is a minefield for nut allergies. Customers with serious allergies have been told for years to "ask the kitchen", "check each dish", or "just avoid Indian food." That's not good enough.
Sakshi designed every Yum! Curries recipe from scratch with the same flavour outcome but zero nut ingredients. Cream and saffron replace cashew in Shahi Paneer. Fried onion and herbs replace nut garnish in biryani. The recipes were tested over 18 iterations each precisely so that nothing was lost.
Pair this with our halal certification
If you have multiple dietary requirements — for example, halal AND nut-free, or vegetarian AND nut-free — read our halal certification page for the full picture.
Halal certification policy →Honest answer to "why scoped?"
Because honesty matters more than marketing. Saying "entirely nut-free" without the dessert exception would be a regulatory issue (Natasha's Law / FIR 1169/2011) and a real safety risk. The carve-out must appear every time the claim is made. Customers with nut allergies have to be able to trust the wording — and they will, because we say the same thing every time, including the part that's slightly inconvenient for us to say.
Suggested customer-facing wording
"Every dish we cook is nut-free. Desserts are made off-site and contain nuts — please flag any nut allergy at checkout."