Pakistani cuisine can be characterized as a blend of regional cooking styles and flavours from across South, Central and West Asia. Pakistani cuisine is influenced by Persian, Indian, and Arab cuisine. The cuisine of Pakistan also maintains certain Mughal influences within its recipes and cooking techniques. Pakistan's ethnic and cultural diversity, diverse climates, geographical environments, and availability of different produce lead to diverse regional cuisines.
Pilaf, pilav or pilau is a rice dish, usually sautéed, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some technique for achieving cooked grains that do not adhere to each other.
Biryani is a mixed rice dish, mainly popular in South Asia. It is made with rice, some type of meat and spices. To cater to vegetarians, in some cases, it is prepared by substituting vegetables or paneer for the meat. Sometimes eggs or potatoes are also added.
Kofta is a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes found in South Asian, Central Asian, Balkan, Middle Eastern, North African, and South Caucasian cuisines. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced meat—usually beef, chicken, pork, lamb or mutton, or a mixture—mixed with spices and sometimes other ingredients. The earliest known recipes are found in early Arab cookbooks and call for ground lamb.
Qabeli palaw is a variety of pilaf made in Afghanistan.
Yakhni, yahni (Turkish), or yahniya, jahni (Albanian) is a class of dishes traditionally prepared in a vast area encompassing South Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans.
Awadhi cuisine is a cuisine native to the Awadh region in Northern India and Southern Nepal. The cooking patterns of Lucknow are similar to those of Central Asia, the Middle East, and Northern India and western India with the cuisine comprising both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. The Awadh region has been influenced by Mughal cooking techniques, and the cuisine of Lucknow bears similarities to those of Central Asia, Kashmir, Punjab and Hyderabad. The city is also known for its Nawabi foods.
Sindhi Biryani is a special meat and rice biryani dish originating from the Sindh province of Pakistan. Owing to its popularity, it forms one of the most consumed dishes of Pakistani cuisine and Sindhi cuisine.
Pashtun cuisine refers to the cuisine of the Pashtun people and is covered under both Afghan and Pakistani cuisines. It is largely based on meat dishes including mutton, beef, chicken, and fish as well as rice and some other vegetables. Accompanying these staples are dairy products, various nuts, local vegetables, and fresh and dried fruits. Peshawar, Islamabad, Kabul, Bannu, Quetta, Kandahar and Mardan are centers of Pashtun cuisine.
Dalcha, is an Indian lentil-based stew originating from Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Its origins may lie with a similar middle eastern dish Harees which is more of a gruel with cooked meats. Primary ingredients are lentils, can be chana dal or sometimes tur dal. Vegetables or meats, both chicken or mutton may also be added to the stew, so if mutton is added it will be called a mutton dalcha. Bottle gourd is another key ingredient in a Dalcha. It is traditionally served with the rice dish called bagara khana.
Chicken karahi, or kadai chicken, is a chicken dish from South Asia. It is known as gosht karahi when prepared with goat or lamb meat instead of chicken.
Zarda is a traditional boiled sweet rice dish, native to the Indian subcontinent, made with saffron, milk and sugar, and flavoured with cardamom, raisins, pistachios or almonds. The name 'zarda' comes from Persian word 'zard' زرد meaning 'yellow', because the food coloring added to the rice gives it a yellow color. Zarda is typically served after a meal. In the Indian subcontinent, zarda was and still remains a popular dessert on special occasions such as weddings. It is quite similar to sholezard, a traditional Iranian dessert, and zerde, a traditional Turkish dessert.
Both festivals of Eid celebrated in the Muslim world include cuisines specific to countries and localities.
Pakistani Chinese cuisine comprises the styles and variations of Chinese cuisine that are cooked and consumed in Pakistan. Chinese migrants to Pakistan have developed a distinct Pakistani-style Chinese cuisine.
Khichra or Khichda is a variation of the dish Haleem, popular with Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. Khichra is cooked all year and particularly at the Ashura of Muharram. It is made using goat meat, beef, lentils and spices, slowly cooked to a thick paste. It is the meat-based variant of Khichdi, a rice dish from the Indian subcontinent. In Pakistan, beef Haleem and Khichra is sold as street food in most cities throughout the year.
Aloo gosht is a meat curry, and is a popular dish in North Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi cuisine. It consists of potatoes (aloo) cooked with meat (gosht), usually lamb or mutton or beef, in a stew-like shorba gravy. It may be considered a curry, stew, or shorba depending on the way the dish is prepared, the types of spices used and what country or particular region it was made in. The dish can be served and eaten with plain rice or with bread such as roti, paratha or naan.
Mutton curry is a dish that is prepared from goat meat and vegetables. The dish is found in different variations across all states, countries and regions of the Indian subcontinent and the Caribbean.
Bannu pulao or Bannu beef pulao, also called Banuse pulao, is a traditional mixed rice dish from the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is made with beef, rice, spices, and stock. The beef is cooked with bones and marrow, which gives the dish a rich and flavorful taste. The rice is cooked separately with ghee, salt, and whole spices. The dish is served with a garnish of onions, green chilies, and lemon wedges.
