List of Indian dishes

List of Indian Dishes

Indian cuisine encompasses a wide variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to India. Given the range of diversity in soil type, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary significantly from each other and use locally available spices, herbs, vegetables, and fruits. Indian food is also heavily influenced by religion, in particular Hinduism, cultural choices and traditions.

North Indian Cuisine

North Indian cuisine is distinguished by the proportionally high use of dairy products; milk, paneer, ghee (clarified butter), and yoghurt (yogurt, yoghourt) are all common ingredients. Gravies are typically dairy-based. Other common ingredients include chilies, saffron, and nuts.

• Butter Chicken: Also known as murgh makhani, butter chicken originates from the Indian subcontinent. It is a dish of chicken in a spiced tomato, butter and cream sauce.

• Rogan Josh: Rogan josh is a staple of Kashmiri cuisine and is one of the main dishes of the Kashmiri multi-course meal (the "Wazwan"). It consists of braised lamb chunks cooked with a gravy based on browned onions or shallots, yogurt, garlic, ginger and aromatic spices (cloves, bay leaves, cardamom, and cinnamon).

South Indian Cuisine

South Indian cuisine includes the cuisines of the five southern states of India—Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana—and the union territories of Lakshadweep, Pondicherry, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

• Dosa: Dosa is a type of pancake from the Indian subcontinent, made from a fermented batter. It is somewhat similar to a crepe in appearance. Its main ingredients are rice and black gram.

• Sambar: Sambar, also spelt sambhar, is a lentil-based vegetable stew or chowder, cooked with a tamarind broth originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is popular in South Indian and Sri Lankan cuisines.

East Indian Cuisine

East Indian cuisine is famous for its desserts, especially sweets such as rasgulla, chumchum, sandesh, rasabali, chhena poda, chhena gaja, and kheeri. Many of the sweet dishes now popular in Northern India initially originated in the Bengal and Orissa regions.

• Rasgulla: Rasgulla is a syrupy dessert popular in the Indian subcontinent and regions with South Asian diaspora. It is made from ball-shaped dumplings of chhena (an Indian cottage cheese) and semolina dough, cooked in light syrup made of sugar.

• Macher Jhol: Macher Jhol or macha jhola is a traditional Bengali and Odia spicy fish stew. It is in the form of a very spicy stew that is served with rice.

West Indian Cuisine

West Indian cuisine includes recipes from the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Rajasthan.

• Dhokla: Dhokla is a vegetarian food item that originates from the Indian state of Gujarat. It is made with a fermented batter derived from rice and split chickpeas.

• Vindaloo: Vindaloo is an Indian curry dish popular in the region of Goa, the surrounding Konkan, and many other parts of India.

This is a non-exhaustive food and drink related list.