Indian cuisine consists of a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to the Indian subcontinent. Given the diversity in soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially and use locally available spices, herbs, vegetables, and fruits.
Roti is a round flatbread native to the Indian subcontinent. It is commonly consumed in many South Asian, Southeast Asian, Caribbean, Trinidad and Southeast African countries.
Pakistani cuisine can be characterized as a blend of regional cooking styles and flavours from across South, Central and Western 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.
Punjabi cuisine is a culinary style originating in the Punjab, a region in the northern part of South Asia, which is now divided in an Indian part to the east and a Pakistani part to the west. This cuisine has a rich tradition of many distinct and local ways of cooking.
Makki ki roti is a flat unleavened bread made from corn meal, primarily eaten in Pakistan, the Jammu region, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand in North India and Gujarat, Maharashtra in Western India and also in Nepal. Like most rotis in the Indian subcontinent, it is baked on a tava.
Saag, also spelled sag or saga, is an Indian subcontinental leafy vegetable dish eaten with bread such as roti or naan, or in some regions with rice. Saag can be made from spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, basella, finely chopped broccoli or other greens, along with added spices and sometimes other ingredients such as chhena.
Rajasthani cuisine is the cuisine of the Rajasthan state in North West India. It was influenced by various factors like the warlike lifestyles of its inhabitants, the availability of ingredients in an arid region and by Hindu temple traditions of sampradayas like Pushtimarg and Ramanandi. Food that could last for several days and could be eaten without heating was preferred. Scarcity of water and fresh green vegetables have all had their effect on the cooking. Signature Rajasthani dishes include Dal Baati Churma, Panchratna Dal, Papad ro Saag, Ker Sangri, Gatte ro Saag. It is also known for its snacks like Bikaneri bhujia, Mirchi bada and Kanda kachauri. Other famous dishes include Dal Baati, malaidar special lassi (lassi) and Lashun ki chutney, Mawa lassi from Jodhpur, Alwar ka mawa, Malpauas from Pushkar and rasgulla from Bikaner, "paniya"and "gheriya" from Mewar. Originating for the Marwar region of the state is the concept Marwari Bhojnalaya, or vegetarian restaurants, today found in many parts of India, which offer vegetarian food of the Marwari people. The history also has its effect on the diet as the Rajputs preferred majorly a non-vegetarian diet while the Brahmins, Jains, Bishnois and others preferred a vegetarian diet. So, the state has a myriad of both types of delicacies.
South Asian cuisine, includes the traditional cuisines from the modern-day South Asian republics of Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, also sometimes including the kingdom of Bhutan and the emirate of Afghanistan. Also sometimes known as Desi cuisine, it has been influenced by and also has influenced other Asian cuisines beyond the Indian subcontinent.
Mattar paneer, also known as matar paneer, muttar paneer, and mutter paneer, is a modern restaurant-style and vegetarian punjabi dish consisting of peas and paneer in a tomato-based sauce, spiced with garam masala.
Indian breads are a wide variety of flatbreads and crêpes which are an integral part of Indian cuisine. Their variation reflects the diversity of Indian culture and food habits.
Bhojpuri cuisine is a style of food preparation common among the Bhojpuri people of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh in India, and also the Terai region of Nepal. Bhojpuri foods are mostly mild and tend to be less hot in terms of spices used. The cuisine consists of both vegetable and meat dishes.
Cuisine of Uttar Pradesh is from the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) located in Northern India. The cuisine of UP has a large variety of dishes. The cuisine consists of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes of different varieties. Being a large state, the cuisine of UP share lot of dishes and recipes with the neighboring states of Delhi, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana. Apart from native cuisine, Mughlai, Awadhi and Bhojpuri are famous subtypes of cuisine of the state.
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.
Bihari cuisine is eaten mainly in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, as well as in the places where people originating from the state of Bihar have settled: Jharkhand, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji, some cities of Pakistan, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Jamaica, and the Caribbean. Bihari cuisine includes Angika cuisine, Bhojpuri cuisine, Maithil cuisine and Magahi 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, Kandhar and Mardan are centers of Pashtun cuisine.
A tandoor is a large vase-shaped oven, usually made of clay. Since antiquity, tandoors have been used to bake unleavened flatbreads, such as roti and naan, as well as to roast meat. The tandoor is predominantly used in Western Asian, Central Asian, South Asian, and Horn of African cuisines.
Muhajir cuisine refers to the food and culinary style of the Muhajir people in Pakistan, the descendants of Muslim migrants from India who migrated to Pakistan following the partition of India. Most Muhajirs have traditionally been based in Karachi, hence the city being known for Muhajir tastes in its cuisine. This cuisine has a rich tradition of many distinct and local ways of cooking. Muhajirs clung to their old established habits and tastes, including a numberless variety of dishes and beverages.
Punjabi tandoori cooking comes from the clay oven known as the tandoor. According to Macveigh [2008] the Punjab tandoor originated in the local region. It is a clay oven and is traditionally used to cook Punjabi cuisine, from the Punjab region in Pakistan and northwestern India. It is traditional to have tandoors in courtyards of homes in the Punjab to make roti, naan and tandoori chicken. In rural Punjab, it is also traditional to have communal tandoors.
Paratha is a flatbread native to the Indian subcontinent, with earliest reference mentioned in early medieval Sanskrit, India; prevalent throughout the modern-day nations of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago where wheat is the traditional staple. It is one of the most popular flatbreads in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. Paratha is an amalgamation of the words parat and atta, which literally means layers of cooked dough. Alternative spellings and names include parantha, parauntha, prontha, parontay, paronthi (Punjabi), porota, paratha, palata, porotha, forota, farata, prata, paratha, buss-up shut, oil roti and roti canai in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Arab Indonesian cuisine is characterized by the mixture of Middle Eastern cuisine with local Indonesian-style. Arab Indonesians brought their legacy of Arab cuisine—originally from Hadhramaut, Hejaz, Sudan and Egypt—and modified some of the dishes with the addition of Indonesian ingredients. The Arabs arrived in the Nusantara archipelago to trade and spread Islam. In Java, since the 18th century AD, most of Arab traders settled on the north coast and diffuse with indigenous, thus affecting the local cuisine culture, especially in the use of goat and mutton meat as well as ghee in cooking.
