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Indian · regional cuisine

Odia

A 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.

Flavour character: Gentle and subtly spiced: panch phutana tempering, mustard paste with garlic in besara, little chilli, sweetness from jaggery in temple food, and sour notes from tomato, tamarind and curd.

4 recipes
Odia dalma: lentils cooked with pumpkin and vegetables in a clay pot

History

The kitchen of the Jagannath Temple at Puri, one of the largest temple kitchens in the world, cooks Mahaprasad daily in stacked earthen pots over wood fires, offering 56 dishes (chhappan bhog) on festival days; New World ingredients such as chillies, potatoes and tomatoes are traditionally excluded. Pakhala (cooked rice soaked in water, sometimes lightly fermented) is a summer staple. Odia cooks were long employed in Bengali households and temples. Odisha's claim to the rasagola, offered at Puri on the last day of Rath Yatra, is the basis of its 2019 GI tag.

Commonly told; not firmly documented

Geography and influences

The Mahanadi delta and Bay of Bengal coast (rice, fish, crab, prawns, Chilika lagoon), forested hills of the interior with large Adivasi populations, and drier western Odisha.

  • Jagannath Temple cuisine
  • Bengal to the north and Andhra to the south
  • Adivasi forest foods
  • Chilika lagoon fisheries

Regional variations

Coastal and Puri
Temple cuisine, seafood, chhena sweets.
Cuttack
Dahibara-aludam street food, Bengali-influenced dishes.
Western Odisha (Sambalpur)
Drier, more millet and forest produce, distinct sweets.
South and Adivasi Odisha
Telugu influence, curry leaves, forest greens, mushrooms, red-ant chutney (kai) in Mayurbhanj.

Festive and seasonal food

  • Rath Yatra: Jagannath Mahaprasad; rasagola on Niladri Bije
  • Raja Parba (June): podo pitha, a slow-baked rice-and-coconut cake
  • Pana Sankranti (Odia new year, April): bela pana (wood-apple drink)
  • Manabasa Gurubara (Thursdays of Margasira): Lakshmi puja with vegetarian pithas such as manda and kakara
  • Kartika month: habisa, a strict vegetarian regime observed by many women

Signature dishes

Not on the site yet: Pakhala bhata, Santula, Chhena poda, Rasagola, Dahi baigana, Chhena jhili, Khaja (Puri), Chungdi malai, Macha jhola, Ghanta, Kanika, Saga bhaja, Dahibara aludam (Cuttack), Podo pitha, Arisa pitha

Odia recipes