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Indian · regional cuisine

Andhra

Famously the hottest of India's cuisines: Guntur chillies, pickles such as avakaya and gongura, tamarind pulusu, pappu with ghee, and a meal built around rice with podi, pachadi and curd.

Flavour character: Fiery and sour: red chilli powder and garlic, tamarind and raw mango or gongura for sourness, mustard and fenugreek in pickles, ghee to round it out.

12 recipes
Andhra chicken curry: spicy chicken gravy with lime slices in a steel pot

History

Telugu-speaking coastal Andhra has long been a rice region in the Krishna and Godavari deltas, while Rayalaseema to the south-west is dry and grows millets and groundnut. After chillies arrived from the Americas, the region became one of the world's major chilli-growing areas; Guntur hosts one of Asia's largest chilli markets. The Telugu meal follows a set order on the leaf: rice with podi and ghee, pappu (dal), kura (vegetable), pachadi or pickle, pulusu or charu, then curd rice. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were one state from 1956 to 2014 and share some dishes, but Hyderabadi court cooking belongs to Telangana.

Well documented

Geography and influences

Fertile Godavari and Krishna deltas along the Bay of Bengal (rice, seafood, coconut), hot dry Rayalaseema inland (ragi, jowar, groundnut), and the Eastern Ghats in the north.

  • Telugu Brahmin and temple vegetarian traditions
  • Delta rice and fishing communities
  • Vijayanagara and Kakatiya-era agriculture
  • Shared history with Telangana and Hyderabad

Regional variations

Coastal Andhra (Godavari, Krishna)
Seafood, prawn and fish pulusu, sweeter dishes like pootharekulu and Kakinada kaja.
Rayalaseema
Very hot, millet-based: ragi sangati, natu kodi (country chicken) pulusu, karam podi.
Uttarandhra (north coast)
Lighter use of chilli, more jaggery; Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram dishes.

Festive and seasonal food

  • Ugadi (Telugu new year): Ugadi pachadi with neem flowers, raw mango, jaggery, tamarind, chilli and salt for six tastes
  • Sankranti: ariselu, chakkara pongali, bobbatlu
  • Sri Rama Navami: panakam and vadapappu as prasadam
  • Vinayaka Chavithi: kudumulu and undrallu (steamed rice-flour dumplings)
  • Summer: avakaya pickling season when raw mangoes arrive

Signature dishes

Not on the site yet: Pesarattu upma, Gongura mamsam, Chepala pulusu, Pulihora, Ragi sangati with natu kodi pulusu, Gutti vankaya (stuffed brinjal), Kandi podi (gunpowder), Punugulu, Bobbatlu, Ariselu, Pootharekulu (Atreyapuram), Bandar laddu, Kakinada kaja

Andhra recipes