Popular Indian Recipes

Few cuisines of the world offer the lavish assortment of spices and flavors that are the heart of Indian cuisine.   Take a tour through the most popular dishes of this exotic wonderland.

Suggested Recipes:

Indian Keema with Ginger
Gujerati-Style Cabbage with Carrots (Sambhara)
Curried Potatoes with Eggplant (Aloo Baigan Sabji)

Indian cuisine is as varied as its peoples, and with over 120 different languages and over 1,600 different dialects being spoken, you are bound to get a great variety.  In India, what is cooking in local homes depends on the location, local religious influences and the spices particular to the region.   

Various local religions follow dietary prohibitions, resulting in creative dishes that accommodate specific diets.  About one third of the country is vegetarian, thereby making a great number of traditional Indian recipes well suited to a vegetarian lifestyle.  The Hindus and Sikhs consider the cow a sacred animal and do not consume beef. The Muslims do not eat pork. Instead, poultry, lamb and seafood are common protein sources.  With the wide range of customs and food preferences, taking a look at India by region gives a clearer picture of its colorful cuisine map.

The North. The north of India is known for its use cottage cheese, yogurt, and clarified butter in its dishes, in addition to chili and saffron spices.  Tandoori, a coal-fired oven, is typical of northern cuisine.  Staples such as yogurt-seasoned tandoori chicken are extremely popular around the world. Butter chicken, locally known as Murgh makhani, can be found on most Indian restaurant menus.

The South. Southern India boasts a largely non-meat eating culture, influenced by its predominantly Hindu populace.  Rice and vegetables are the main food staples.  Coconut is used profusely; even the traditional cooking oil is made of coconuts.  Tamarind is commonly used to flavor dishes, as its freshly sour taste mixes well with the spice of locally grown chilies.

The East. If you crave exotic desserts, eastern India has plenty to offer.  In fact, the eastern region of India is known the world over for its broad range of delicacies made of ricotta cheese, coconuts, baked cheese and nut cakes, deep-fried semolina cakes and sweet rice puddings.  For foods other than dessert, mustard is an extremely popular spice in the east.

The West.  Western India is has seen the largest degree of integration and fusion of various ethnic cuisines.  Regional dishes are heavily vegetarian, with ample use of sea food, coconut, rice and millet.

While India has soaked up a plethora of cultural influences into its ethnic cuisine, the world in turn has accepted Indian dishes into its cultural framework.  The United Kingdom is one of the best examples.  Chicken tikka masala, a tandoor oven-baked chicken marinated in yogurt sauce, has become as common in England as the national fast food: fish and chips.

Suggested Recipes:

West: Royal Lamb Chops Braised with Nuts and Saffron
Black Beans In Spicy Tamarind Sauce
Masoor Dal - Indian Lentils
Chicken Curry North Indian Style
Adai (Savory Indian Pancakes)
Coconut Rice
Chicken Makhani (Butter Chicken)