Being such a big country with different ethnic groups and a variety of cultures, India boasts of a rich cuisine with every region having its own distinctive way of cooking and flavours. From the finger licking good tandoori chicken and truly refreshing lassi of North India to the dosa and everyone's favourite biryani of south India, the country has something for everyone. As you explore the country, you'll find amazing food that's rich with flavour, spices, and aroma has a distinctive but wonderful taste anywhere you go. So, here's a list of most popular Indian dishes you must try!
1) Chole Bhature
A perfect combination of spicy white chickpeas and fried Indian flatbread, Chole Bhature is another delicacy coming from the state of Punjab. The Chole are made by cooking chickpeas with a lot of spices, onions, tomatoes and chana masala. The bhature are fluffy deep-fried bread having a soft and chewy texture made by deep frying in vegetable oil. The bhature truly compliment the rich taste of the chole and are served together with pickles, salad and lassi.
2) Tunde Ke Kabab
A flavourful blend of more than 160 spices and minced meat, Tunde ke Kebab are a part of Awadhi cuisine and are greatly popular in Lucknow, India. The delicacy is prepared by finely minced buffalo meat, plain yogurt, and grated ginger, crushed garlic, Ghee and a lot of indigenous spices. The dish is tender and succulent and packs a great smoky taste due to the dum style of cooking in clarified butter, that instantly melts in your mouth and pleases your taste buds. The kababs are not only tasty but also pocket friendly as they're much cheaper than chicken or mutton kababs.
3) Makki ki Roti & Sarson ka Saag
Made from mustard greens and a perfect blend of spices, Sarson ka Saag is a traditional Punjabi delicacy that is mostly eaten in winters topped with makkhan (unprocessed butter) or more traditionally with ghee. The gravy is sometimes added with spinach, bathua, Onion, and tomatoes to enhance the flavour and colour of the saag. The Saag is perfectly complimented by Makke ki roti that is an Indian flatbread made from cornmeal, often topped with makkhan and accompanied by a glass of traditional lassi.
4) Rajma
Thick red creamy gravy with dried up kidney beans, Rajma is another delicacy coming from the Punjabi cuisine that is enjoyed all over the Indian subcontinent. Rajma with rice is the most favourite dish of north Indians and Nepalis. The traditional way of cooking rajma is by soaking the kidney beans overnight, boiling them using a pressure cooker and adding bhuna masala which is made by sautéed onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and a blend of Indian spices. The dish is garnished with some butter or coriander leaves and served with rice or some Indian flatbread accompanied by a glass of Lassi.
5) Pakora
Perfectly spiced and crispy Indian appetizer and snack, Pakora is a classic Indian fried dish sold all over the Indian subcontinent in stalls and restaurants, and even overseas. The pakora is an all-time favourite and made by dipping vegetables like onion, potato, cauliflower and sometimes other ingredients like paneer, chicken, bread, and fish in a batter of gram flour. The batter-dipped ingredients are then deep fried in vegetable oil. The pakora is crispy from the outside and medium soft inside and is served with chutney, raita or masala chai.
6) Kulfi
Loved by people all over the Indian subcontinent, Kulfi is a popular Indian frozen dairy desert much like your regular ice cream but a lot denser and creamier. The desert is one of the staples in India and one can find it everywhere, from street vendors to lavish hotels. The desert is traditionally prepared by slow cooking flavoured and sweetened milk which increases its density. The milk is then stored in kulhads (a type of mold) and submerged in ice with salt in a Matka as to insulate it. It is believed that refrigerating the kulfi ruins its taste so it's till date made with traditional techniques. The kulfi has a distinctive taste and comes in a variety of flavours including malai, rose, mango, saffron and many more.
7) Dhokla
A very popular snack from the Gujarati cuisine that is healthy, nutritious and low in calories, Dhokla is a steamed delicacy having a sweet-tangy taste and a soft and fluffy texture that makes it melt in your mouth. It is made by fermenting batter derived from rice and split chickpeas overnight, then seasoning it with chili peppers, ginger, baking soda and, coriander. The batter is then steamed and cut into cubes and again seasoned with hot oil with mustard seeds and chopped green chilies. The dish is then garnished with coriander leaves and served with deep-fried chilies and chutney.
8) Daal Makhani with Naan
An authentic North India recipe originating from Punjab and now considered as a quintessential Indian dish, Daal Makhani is made of lentils in a thick creamy gravy with butter and ghee that gives it a particularly rich taste. The dish has a perfect blend of spices including the bhuna masala, a variety of lentils like kidney beans and urad daal. The creamy texture of the daal is perfectly complemented by 'naan' that is an oven-baked flatbread of Indian origin, having a soft and slightly chewy texture that melts in your mouth. The naan can be of many types like the stuffed naan that has a rich filling, the garlic butter naan that is an all-time favourite and even cheese naan, with each of them complimenting the daal in their own way.
9) Stuffed Paratha
The comfort food of every Indian household that is loved by everyone across the subcontinent, stuffed paratha is an Indian flatbread made by cooking whole wheat dough stuffed with a filling on a tava and finishing off with shallow frying in ghee. The different layers of ghee on the paratha give it a more prominent taste than the roti and can be eaten as breakfast or a snack served with dahi, chutney, pickle and a chunk of butter or ghee. There are a variety of fillings for the stuffed paratha like spicy mashed potatoes, lentils, leafy vegetables, paneer, and even chicken.
10) Rogan Josh
A flavourful aromatic curry stewed in ghee with a blend of spices that is a traditional main course dish of the 'wazwan' the Kashmiri multi-course meal, Rogan Josh is made up of pieces of lamb or goat in a rich gravy consisting of aromatic spices like cloves and bay leaves, after initial braising the dish is finished by cooking it with the 'dampohktak' a slow cooking technique that gives the curry a distinct flavour. The Kashmiri red chilies and dried flowers or root of an indigenous plant give the Rogan Josh it's characteristic red colour.
11) Lassi
The all-time favourite drink of North Indians, lassi is a traditional dahi (yogurt) based drink that is served chilled and goes amazingly with every North Indian food. The thirst-quenching drink has a unique taste usually a sweet-savoury one but one can also find other varieties of lassi that are equally wonderful. There are a variety of laasi enjoyed in India like the sweet lassi that is made by mixing dahi, water, sugar and fruit juices, the salty lassi that has dahi, water, salt and kala namak and even bhang lassi that is a cannabis-infused drink usually sold around Holi that certainly packs a kick to it.
12) Samosa
A fried or baked triangular cone filled with tasty savoury filling that makes up for a delicious but inexpensive snack, samosa is a staple snack all over the food stalls in the Indian subcontinent and enjoyed by all age groups. The dish is made up of all-purpose flour stuffed with some fillings usually mashed potatoes, other vegetables and sometimes dry fruits and fried in vegetable oil or ghee to a crisp golden-brown colour, and served hot with fresh green chutney that consists of mint, tamarind and coriander and red chutney. If you're a meat lover you can try the meat filled samosas of Hyderabad regionally referred to as 'Lukhmi'.
13) Dosa
A typical part of the South Indian and Tamil Sri Lankan cuisine and a dish loved all over India, dosa is a delicious blend of rice and black gram grounded together in a smooth batter with a dash of salt and made into a crepe or pancake which pleases your taste buds. The delicacy is served hot along with aromatic sambhar, a spicy potato stuffing and a variety of chutneys that really compliment the unique taste of the dosa. The dosa can be of various types as different cities have their own variations from masala dosa with spicy potato filling that is most popular to watermelon dosa that rarely someone hears about, every dosa is delicious in its own way.
14) Hyderabadi Biryani
Originated from the kitchens of the Nizam of Hyderabad, Hyderabadi Biryani is a blend of Mughali and Iranian cuisine of historic Hyderabad and is one of the tastiest dishes of India. The dish is prepared from basmati rice using the dum method of cooking which requires meticulous attention to prevent over or under cooking and gives the rice a special taste. Biryani is made of basmati rice usually red meat and sometimes chicken, rich spices, lemons and is served with dahi, mirchi ka salan and salad. The biryani has two variants, kaccha biryani in which the meat is cooked with the rice and pakka biryani in which the meat is cooked beforehand each having their distinct wonderful flavours.
15) Hilsa Fish Curry (Ilish Maccher Jhol)
Hilsa curry regionally known as Ilish Macher Jhol/Jhaal is a Bengali delicacy and is an important part of Bengali cuisine. If one loves fish, they will absolutely love this Bengali Hilsa curry that is also prepared during the Durga Puja. The Hilsa fish is first sliced into pieces and marinated with salt and turmeric and then shallow fried with some blend of spices, water and some other spices are added to make the curry more enjoyable. The fish is traditionally eaten with steamed rice and is great combination of maach-bhaat as the Bengali people say it. Try this recipe to truly experience the taste of Bengali cuisine and cheer up your taste buds.
16) Indian Chaat
An all-time favourites stall food of all age groups in India, Chaat is a simple yet tasty plate full of yogurt, a variety of chutneys and tangy-sweet spices. Firstly, originated in Uttar Pradesh the dish is now famous all over India with every place having its own variety of chaat. The dish is prepared usually by Bihari vendors and commonly consists of dahi, chaat masala, Kala namak, and fried dough, potato crisps seasoned with a variety of sweet and tangy chutneys (sauces) that give the chaat its distinct flavour. The dish is commonly served on a metal plate or a dried banana leaf made into a bowl.
17) Tandoori Chicken
An iconic dish served as a starter or main course, Tandoori chicken is a staple in every Indian restaurant and is famous all over the world for its smoky and delicious flavour. The dish coming from Punjab is prepared by marinating the raw chicken in a blend of yogurt and tandoori masala that is a mixture of special spices and later seasoned with Kashmiri red chili powder that gives it the iconic red colour, turmeric, and cayenne pepper. The chicken is then threaded onto skewers and roasted in a tandoor over charcoal or wood which gives it its smoky flavour.
18) Khichdi
Inspired from the Anglo-Indian dish Kedgree, Khichdi is a salty porridge. It’s a dish from the Indian subcontinent made from rice and lentils. Recently, Khichdi was declared as ‘National Dish’ unofficially by Indian media and Government of India globally promote it as ‘queen of all the foods’. Khichdi is always considered as healthiest, nutritious. In Indian Culture, it’s a first solid food that is given to babies to eat. Irrespective of class, it is eaten by both rich and poor alike. This dish is widely prepared in several stated such as Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat etc. Serving it with pickle and buttermilk adds on its taste.
19) Payasam
After our meal we all look for desert, one such is Payasam which in some regions known as meetha bhaat, kheer, phirni and payasa. All over the Subcontinent, Payasam is also prepared and eaten at special occasions and also at Hindu and Muslim festivals. In Hindus, deities are offered it as bhog or prasadam. Payasam, basically is a rice pudding, made of ingredients such as rice, milk, broken wheat, tapioca, vermicelli, sweet corn, etc. Cardamom, raisins, saffron, cashew, almonds, pistachios or other dry fruits are also added for flavour.
20) Appam with Stew
A type of a pancake, Appam is a dish of fermented rice batter and coconut milk. It is a dish that comes from Sri Lanka but origin still remains disputed. It is breakfast and dinner for Tamils and Malayalis. Appam also has regional names as Hoppers, Appa, kallappaam, vellappam, palappam. It is mostly served with mutton or vegetable stew, kadala curry or egg roast. The stew served with this, is a lightly spiced mix of vegetables, coconut milk and a perfect blend of spices having a signature aroma and a delicate texture. It is made by tempering and cooking several vegetables and adding coconut milk with light spices.
