Taste India
भारत
A subcontinent of cuisines that should never be collapsed into one curry. Spice is a method of cooking, not a heat setting.
Punjab's tandoor and dairy, Bengal's mustard and fish, Kerala's coconut and curry leaves, Tamil Nadu's rice and tamarind, Hyderabad's dum cooking, Gujarati thalis: many kitchens sharing some spices and almost no single definition of dinner. Butter chicken is a Delhi restaurant gravy of tomato, butter and leftover tandoori, not a stand-in for the country. Masala dosa is a fermented rice-and-lentil crepe from the south, crisp, with potato masala. Lamb biryani is a dum-cooked rice, not a stir-through. Aloo gobi is a dryish North Indian pan of potato and cauliflower. Kerala fish curry wants coconut and kokum or tamarind, and a clay pot if you have one. Tadka — spices bloomed in fat — is how a lot of this food actually starts.
25 recipes · 2 cuisines
Essential dishes
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More dishes
Further India listings, including shorter editorial recipes and imported methods.
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Regional cuisines
Think you know India food?
23 quiz dishes. Optional — Passport stamps still come from cooking.
Take the India food quizFood history
Vedic, Buddhist, Mughal, Portuguese, Persian and British histories all left techniques and ingredients. Chilli, potato and tomato are New World. Butter chicken (murgh makhani) was developed in mid-twentieth-century Delhi by cooks working with leftover tandoori chicken and tomato-butter gravy — a restaurant classic with a known origin, not an ancient royal secret. Vegetarian fasting kitchens, meat-eating court kitchens and coastal fish kitchens still refuse to be one menu.