Cuisine
Indian
Not one cuisine but dozens: regional food traditions shaped by climate, crops, religion, caste and community, held together by a shared grammar of spices tempered in fat, pulses, grains and dairy.
Flavour character: Layered rather than simply hot: whole spices bloomed in ghee or oil, aromatics fried down, ground spices cooked out, and a sour element (tamarind, tomato, yoghurt, kokum, amchur, lime) balancing sweetness from onions, jaggery or coconut. Heat varies enormously by region.
Regional cuisines
- PunjabiThe farmhouse food of the 'land of five rivers': wheat breads, slow-cooked pulses, mustard greens, generous dairy and the tandoor, much of which became India's restaurant food after 1947.
- KashmiriA rice-eating valley cuisine with two distinct traditions, Kashmiri Pandit and Kashmiri Muslim, famous for slow-cooked mutton, the wazwan feast, Kashmiri chilli, fennel, dried ginger and saffron.
- RajasthaniA desert cuisine built for scarce water and fresh produce: gram flour, dried beans and berries, millet, ghee and buttermilk, alongside the fiery game and mutton cooking of the Rajput courts.
- GujaratiA mostly vegetarian cuisine known for its sweet-sour-salty balance, steamed and fried farsan snacks, and the thali, with very different styles in Kathiawad, Surat, Kutch and the north.
- MaharashtrianMillet bhakri and peanut-and-sesame chutneys on the Deccan plateau, coconut, kokum and fish on the Konkan coast, Kolhapur's fiery mutton, and Mumbai's street food.
- GoanKonkan coconut-and-fish cooking meeting four and a half centuries of Portuguese rule: vinegar-sharp pork curries and cakes in Catholic homes, kokum-soured fish curries in Hindu Saraswat homes.
- KeralaThe spice coast: coconut, coconut oil, curry leaves, black pepper and rice, cooked very differently by Hindu, Syrian Christian and Mappila Muslim communities.
- Tamil (including Chettinad)Rice with sambar, rasam, kuzhambu and poriyal, fermented idli and dosa batters, temple food, and the intensely spiced merchant cooking of Chettinad.
- AndhraFamously 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.
- Telangana and HyderabadiTwo traditions in one state: the Deccani court cooking of Hyderabad (kacchi biryani, haleem, salans, double ka meetha) and the millet-and-tamarind village food of rural Telangana.
- Karnataka (including Udupi, Mangalorean and Coorg)Ragi and jowar on the plateau, the temple vegetarian food of Udupi, coconut-and-seafood cooking of Mangalore, and the pork and kachampuli of Kodagu (Coorg), all under one state.
- Bengali (West Bengal)Rice and fish, mustard in oil and paste, panch phoron, poppy seed and a meal served in deliberate courses from bitter to sweet, ending with mishti and doi.
- AssameseA Brahmaputra valley cuisine of rice, fish and duck with few spices: the meal opens with alkaline khar and closes with sour tenga, with pitika mashes and fiery bhut jolokia in between.
- OdiaA rice-and-fish cuisine closely tied to the Jagannath Temple at Puri, with dalma, pakhala, mustard-based besara, panch phutana and chhena sweets such as chhena poda and rasagola.
- Bihari (with Jharkhand)Plain-spoken Gangetic farm food: sattu, litti chokha, mustard oil, thekua and the sealed-pot Champaran mutton, with Mithila's fish and makhana and Jharkhand's Adivasi cooking alongside.
- Awadhi (Lucknow) and Uttar PradeshThe refined court cooking of the Nawabs of Awadh (dum pukht, melting kebabs, delicate kormas and biryani) alongside the vegetarian and sweet traditions of Banaras, Mathura and the rest of Uttar Pradesh.
- Naga (Nagaland)Smoked pork, fermented bamboo shoot and soybean (axone), boiled greens and the king chilli: simple, oil-light cooking with big, sour and smoky flavours that varies by tribe.
- ManipuriMeitei valley cooking built on rice, fish from Loktak Lake, ngari (fermented fish) and abundant fresh herbs, with chak-hao black rice and the hill-tribe foods of the surrounding districts.
- Meghalayan (Khasi, Jaintia and Garo)Khasi and Jaintia pork-and-rice cooking (jadoh, dohneiiong with black sesame, doh khlieh) and Garo dried-fish and bamboo-shoot dishes from the wettest hills in India.
- Mizo (Mizoram)Gentle, broth-based cooking with almost no oil or spice: bai (boiled greens with pork or bamboo shoot), smoked pork, fermented soybean and rice.
- SikkimeseA Himalayan mix of Lepcha, Bhutia and Nepali cooking: fermented greens (gundruk, sinki), kinema, chhurpi cheese, momos and noodle soups, and dalle khursani chilli.
History
Archaeological finds from Harappan (Indus Valley) sites show wheat, barley, pulses, sesame and domesticated animals by the third millennium BCE, and ginger and turmeric residues have been reported in cooking pots there. Black pepper from the Malabar coast was traded to the Roman world and later through Arab merchants. Persianate court cooking arrived with the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals (from 1526), bringing pilafs, kebabs, dum cooking and nut-and-cream sauces. After Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498, the Portuguese introduced American crops (chilli, potato, tomato, cashew, papaya, pineapple), and chilli replaced black and long pepper as the main source of heat within roughly two centuries. British rule spread tea drinking, bakery breads and the idea of commercial curry powder. Vegetarianism (Jain, Brahmin and Vaishnava traditions), Muslim halal practice and widespread avoidance of beef among Hindus still shape what is cooked where.
Well documented
Geography and influences
From the Himalaya through the wheat-growing Indo-Gangetic plain, the arid Thar desert in the west, the millet- and pulse-growing Deccan plateau, to two long tropical coastlines where rice, coconut and fish dominate. Monsoon rainfall decides the crops: wheat in the dry north-west, rice in the wet east and south.
- Harappan and Vedic agriculture (wheat, barley, rice, pulses, sesame, dairy)
- Jain, Buddhist and Hindu vegetarian and ritual-purity traditions
- Arab and Persian traders on the coasts
- Delhi Sultanate and Mughal court cooking
- Portuguese introduction of New World crops (chilli, potato, tomato, cashew)
- British colonial tea, bakeries and curry powder
- Chinese (Hakka) community in Kolkata (Indo-Chinese food)
Regional variations
- North-West (Punjab, Haryana, Delhi)
- Wheat breads, dairy, rajma and chole, tandoor cooking; Delhi adds Old Delhi Mughlai food and chaat.
- South (Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana)
- Rice, fermented batters, tamarind, coconut, curry leaves and mustard-seed tempering; each state is distinct.
- East (Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam)
- Rice and freshwater fish, mustard oil and paste, panch phoron, chhena-based sweets.
- West (Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Rajasthan)
- Sweet-sour vegetarian Gujarati food, Maharashtrian millet breads and goda masala, Goan Catholic vinegar cooking, desert Rajasthani food built on pulses and gram flour.
- Central (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh)
- Wheat and rice meet; Indore's poha-jalebi and bhutte ka kees, Bhopal's Muslim cooking, Chhattisgarhi rice dishes such as chila and fara.
- Himalayan (Uttarakhand, Himachal, Ladakh)
- Kumaoni and Garhwali dals and greens (kafuli, bhatt ki churkani), Himachali dham feasts, Ladakhi barley, butter tea and thukpa.
- Northeast
- Fermented bamboo shoot, fermented fish and soybean, smoked pork, very little oil and very hot chillies; differs from state to state and tribe to tribe.
- Community cuisines
- Parsi, Anglo-Indian, Syrian Christian, Mappila, Bohra, Sindhi, Chettiar, Kodava and Indo-Chinese cooking cut across state lines.
Festive and seasonal food
- Diwali: mithai (ladoo, barfi), and regional fried snacks such as chakli, murukku and mathri
- Holi: gujiya, thandai, dahi vada and malpua in the north
- Eid: sheer khurma or sewaiyan, biryani and kebabs
- Harvest festivals in mid-January (Pongal, Makar Sankranti, Lohri, Bhogali Bihu): new rice, sesame and jaggery sweets
- Navratri and other fasts: vrat food made with buckwheat, water-chestnut flour, sago and potatoes instead of grains
Signature dishes
- Dal tadka with red lentils
- Chicken biryani
- Masala chai
- Phulka (puffed roti)
- Vegetable pulao
- Moong dal khichdi
- Rice kheer
- Chicken korma
- Chana chaat
- Kachumber
- Besan ladoo
- Nimbu pani
Not on the site yet: Samosa, Jalebi, Gulab jamun, Pani puri / golgappa, Pakora, Kulfi
Indian · 40 min · 85 kcal · 
Pakistani · 1 h · 495 kcal
