Indian cuisine
In an 1840 autobiography, the Scot Robert Lindsay set down a small domestic moment. A Sylheti man named Saeed Ullah cooked a curry for Lindsay's family. This may be the oldest record of Indian cooking in the United Kingdom.
The scene is short, but it opens onto something enormous. Indian cuisine is not a single tradition. It is a set of regional and traditional cuisines native to the Indian subcontinent, shaped by soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups and occupations. Cooks in each place work with whatever grows nearby.
The story behind that curry stretches across roughly 8,000 years of groups and cultures meeting on the subcontinent. Which crops were grown there first? Which ingredients that now feel essential turned out to be latecomers? How do faith and caste draw lines around a plate? And how did food from one subcontinent end up shaping kitchens on nearly every inhabited continent?
Around 7000 BCE, wheat and barley were first grown in the Indus Valley, after farming spread outward from the Fertile Crescent. Local farming communities added their own domesticates, including sesame and humped cattle. Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites in South Asia with evidence of farming and herding.
By 3000 BCE, turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and mustard were being harvested in India. Pearl millet, called bājra, had been cultivated on the subcontinent even earlier, since about 6200 BCE.
These crops did not stay home. From around 2350 BCE, goods from the Indus turn up at Ur in Mesopotamia. Akkadian Empire records describe timber, carnelian and ivory arriving on Meluhhan ships. Meluhha is generally considered the Mesopotamian name for the Indus Valley Civilisation. At Terqa, a site from the 2nd millennium BC, archaeologists found clove heads thought to come from the Moluccas in Maritime Southeast Asia.
Written sources add small glimpses of the table. The Mahabharata mentions rice and vegetables cooked together. Ancient Sanskrit works such as the Yājñavalkya Smṛti use the word pulao for such a dish. The Upanishads name barley, mustard and figs, while the Ramayana mentions honey. The Shatapatha Brahmana describes rice cakes, and the Sushruta Samhita mentions grape wine and turmeric.
South India has its own record. The Sangam literature lists fish, crab, forest cattle, pork, monitor lizard and poultry, eaten alongside millets, sago, sugarcane, dairy, honey and rice. Alongside these texts, Ayurveda treated food, meditation and yoga as parts of one approach to wellness.
Many ancient recipes have been lost. Scattered lines like these are what remain of how people ate before the written cookbook.
The Gupta dynasty was one of several powers that dominated India during the Middle Ages. Travel in that period brought new cooking methods and products to the region, including tea.
The Columbian exchange then carried foods across the Atlantic. Potatoes, tomatoes, chillies, peanuts and guava all reached India from the New World. They have since become staples in many regions. The chilli, known as mirch, was introduced by the Portuguese from Mexico in the 16th century.
Saffron marks another arrival. Tribes from Central Asian cultures invaded India, and the blend of local and Central Asian cooking that followed became Mughlai cuisine. Saffron is among its hallmark seasonings.
Food also steered world politics. The spice trade, in which Europe bought spices from India and traded them around Europe and Asia, was the primary catalyst for Europe's Age of Discovery.
Under Portuguese and British rule, baking arrived as a cooking technique. So did more foods from Europe and the New World, including maize, squash and sweet potatoes. The British introduced cauliflower in 1822.
Lentils are the backbone of the Indian pantry. Masoor is most often red lentils, tuer is pigeon peas, urad is black gram, and moong is mung beans. They may be used whole, dehusked or split, and split lentils, known as dal, are used extensively. In the north, chickpeas, kidney beans and black-eyed peas are especially common. Chickpeas and moong are also ground into a flour called besan.
Cooking oil depends on geography. Peanut oil is popular in northern and western India, and mustard oil in the east. Coconut oil dominates the western coast, especially Kerala and parts of southern Tamil Nadu. In the south, gingelly oil, from sesame, is common for its fragrant, nutty aroma. Sunflower, safflower, cottonseed and soybean oils have spread in recent decades. Butter-based deshi ghee remains in common use, and so does hydrogenated Vanaspati ghee.
Chicken and mutton are the most commonly eaten meats. Fish and beef are prevalent only in some parts of India, mostly the coastal areas and the north east.
Seven dried spices in a particular ratio make up a typical garam masala. They include black cardamom, cinnamon, clove, cumin, black peppercorns, coriander seeds and anise star. Every culinary region has its own blend, and individual chefs may keep their own.
A technique called bhuna turns whole spices into a base. They are freshly ground, then fried in hot oil or ghee to form a paste. The same name is also given to a type of curry.
Other blends belong to particular places. Panch phoron is popular in eastern India, and goda masala, a sweet mix, in Maharashtra. Curry leaves and roots are typical of Gujarati and South Indian cooking. Sweet dishes are often scented with cardamom, saffron, nutmeg and rose petal essences.
Those sweets, known as mithai, are often fried and made with sugar, milk or condensed milk. In eastern India, most are based on milk products. Cooks decorate them with nuts, or with gold or silver leaf. Rasogolla, gulab jamun, jalebi, laddu and peda are among the favourites.
A Yoga tradition sorted every food into one of three classes: satvic, rajasic or tamasic. The Bhagavad Gita addresses dietary practices in chapter 17, verses 8-10.
In Hindu worship, a material offering to a deity is called naivedya. Once the deity has tasted it, it becomes bhoga. The food is then returned as a gift and shared among devotees as prasāda, and people often use these terms interchangeably. Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva offerings are typically vegetarian. Some Śākta practices include non-vegetarian offerings, involving animal sacrifices.
The Hindu calendar is crowded with festivals, and each has its dishes. Kheer and halwa are popular desserts for Diwali. Puran poli and gujia are prepared for Holi in different parts of India. Thandai, a cold drink of almonds, fennel seeds, watermelon kernels, rose petals, pepper, poppy seeds, cardamom, saffron, milk and sugar, is often associated with Maha Shivaratri and Holi.
Fasting follows its own calendar. Ekadashi honours Vishnu or his avatars, Chaturthi honours Ganesha, and Pradosha honours Shiva and Parvati. Each day of the week has devotees too. Monday is for Shiva, Saturday for Hanuman or Shani, and Friday for goddesses such as Durga and Lakshmi.
Only certain foods are permitted during a fast. They include milk and curd, fruit, sago, potatoes, purple-red sweet potatoes, amaranth seeds, nuts and shama millet. Most of the New World vegetables brought by colonial traders are allowed, along with sago made from cassava. Popular fasting dishes are farari chevdo, sabudana khichadi and peanut soup.
Those rules last a day. Other rules shape how whole communities eat for life.
Beef is taboo among many Hindus, because cows are considered sacred in Hinduism. Hindus in India generally avoid it, except in Kerala, parts of southern Tamil Nadu and the north-east. Cow slaughter is banned in many states, with exceptions in the North-Eastern states, West Bengal and Kerala. Buffalo meat is available in some of these states for other religious communities.
The taboo is openly defied by marginalised Hindu castes in the Dalit fold, in their literature and at their food festivals. Dalit communities were restricted to living outside the village, on mostly barren land with few resources for growing food. Discarded cows became an essential traditional food. Dalit cuisine included dishes made with coagulated beef blood, preserved meat and intestines. During and after the independence era, imposing beef restrictions on Dalit communities was part of efforts to bring them under a unified nationalist identity.
Followers of Vaishnavism are generally strict lacto-vegetarians because of an emphasis on Ahimsa. They also avoid garlic and onions.
Jains follow an even stricter lacto-vegetarianism. It excludes all root vegetables, such as carrots and potatoes. The reasoning is that pulling up a root also kills the organisms living around it.
Muslims do not eat pork or pork products, but they do eat buffalo and beef. In certain North-Eastern regions, dog meat is part of culinary heritage. Only some communities eat it, and it is neither universal nor widely consumed. Even so, it has been a constant source of stereotype and racial discrimination against people from the region.
Dietary habits are also tied to caste discrimination, which is rooted in notions of pollution and filth. Dalit and tribal accounts describe casteist and racist treatment of their cooking and eating. Their food is sometimes policed on the grounds of public nuisance. Brahmanical food practices decide which food counts as clean or unclean, based on sensory experience.
The World Wildlife Fund's 2024 Living Planet Report singled out India's food consumption pattern as the most sustainable among the G20 economies.
Harnarains, one of the oldest pickle-making companies in India, started in Old Delhi in the 1860s. Its pickles suit a typical North Indian breakfast of roti, parathas and a vegetable dish with curd. People in Gujarat prefer dhokla and milk. South Indians eat idli and dosa with sambhar or sagu and chutneys.
Lunch centres on rice in the south and east and on whole-wheat rotis in the north, usually with two or three kinds of vegetables. Paan, a folded betel leaf stuffed with spices, is often eaten after lunch and dinner to aid digestion. Families gather for an evening snack time with tea. Dinner is the main meal, and many households in north and central India finish it with sweets.
Traditionally, people sit on the floor, on very low stools or on a mattress, and eat with their hands. In the wheat-producing north, a piece of roti is torn off with the thumb and middle finger while the index finger holds the rest down. In the south, the middle finger presses down on dosai, adai or uththappam, and the forefinger and thumb pull off a bite. Cleaned banana leaves serve as disposable plates in South India. Hot food on the leaf picks up distinctive aromas and taste.
India is one of the largest tea producers in the world, with Assam, Darjeeling and Nilgiri among the best-known varieties. The leaves are boiled in water, milk and spices such as cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and ginger. Coffee is more popular in the south. Lassi is a yogurt-based drink, and salted lassi is more common in villages of Punjab and in Porbandar, Gujarat.
In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, sharbats mixed with carbonated water are the most popular soft drinks. Kerala people call them kulukki sarbaths.
Alcohol has local forms too. Fenny, a Goan liquor made from coconut or the juice of the cashew apple, carries a geographical indicator registered by Goa. Hadia is a rice beer made by fermenting herbs with boiled rice for about a week. In Sikkim and the Darjeeling hill region, people drink chhaang, often served hot in cold weather.
The Hindoostanee Coffee House opened in 1810 as the first Indian restaurant in the United Kingdom. By 2003, as many as 10,000 restaurants in England and Wales served Indian food. Britain's Food Standards Agency valued the industry at 3.2 billion pounds that year. It accounted for two-thirds of all eating out and served about 2.5 million customers every week. In 2001, Robin Cook called chicken tikka masala "a true British national dish".
British colonial rule also produced Anglo-Indian cuisine, born of officials working with their Indian cooks. Chutneys, kedgeree and mulligatawny soup are among its best-known dishes.
In Calcutta, Hakka Chinese immigrants from Canton, fleeing the Opium Wars and political instability, began cooking with Indian spices in the 19th century. After 1947, Cantonese immigrants opened restaurants there. Elsewhere in India, Indian Chinese dishes bear little resemblance to their Chinese counterparts. They are flavoured with cumin, coriander seeds and turmeric.
In the Philippines, one account traces kare-kare to the British occupation of Manila from 1762 to 1764. The occupying force included Indian sepoys, who improvised curry with few spices at hand. The Thai monk Buddhadasa Bhikku wrote that Thais learned many ways of using spices from Indians. In Singapore, fish head curry is a local creation.
Other countries tell similar stories. Ireland's first Indian restaurant, the Indian Restaurant and Tea Rooms, opened in 1908 on Sackville Street in Dublin, now O'Connell Street. A 2007 survey by The Washington Post found that more than 1,200 Indian food products had been introduced in the United States since 2000. A survey taken between 2013 and 2018 found that 51% of Australians liked Indian cuisine. Hong Kong has more than 50 Indian restaurants, mostly in Tsim Sha Tsui, and some date from the 1980s.
The tandoor, an oven carried through centuries of trade, now shapes cooking across the Middle East.
Up next
Continue browsing
Updated
Common questions
Is Indian cuisine one single cuisine?
No. It is a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to the Indian subcontinent. They differ with soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups and occupations, and they rely on locally available ingredients.
When did chillies reach India?
Chilli peppers were introduced by the Portuguese from Mexico in the 16th century, as part of the wider exchange of foods with the New World.
What is garam masala?
Garam masala is a spice powder that typically includes seven dried spices in a particular ratio, such as black cardamom, cinnamon, clove, cumin, black peppercorns, coriander seeds and anise star. Each region, and sometimes each chef, has a distinct blend.
What is the difference between naivedya, bhoga and prasada?
Naivedya is a material offering to a deity. Once the deity has tasted it, it becomes bhoga. It is then returned as a gift and shared among devotees as prasada.
What is Indian Chinese cuisine?
It is a fusion that began in the 19th century among the Chinese community of Calcutta. Hakka Chinese immigrants incorporated Indian spices and techniques into their cooking, and later restaurants in Calcutta and elsewhere in India developed it further.
Why do Jains avoid root vegetables?
Jains follow a strict form of lacto-vegetarianism. Pulling up a root also kills the organisms that live around it, so root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes are excluded.
All sources
109 references cited across the entry
- 1Flavors of the Indian FoodGaurav Kumar Pant — 2024
- 2BookThe StewardDias — Orient Blackswan — 1996
- 3BookIndia: Cross-cultural Business Behavior: for Business People, Expatriates and ScholarsRichard R. Gesteland et al. — Copenhagen Business School Press — 2010
- 4BookThe Indian CuisineKrishna Gopal Dubey — PHI Learning — 2011
- 5BookThe Story of Our FoodK. T. Achaya — Universities Press — 2003
- 6BookGuns, Germs And SteelJared Diamond — Random House — 2013
- 10MagazineWhere Did Curry Come From?Andrew Lawler — January 29, 2013
- 11BookThe Indus-Mesopotamia relationship reconsidered (Gs Elisabeth During Caspers)Julian E. Reade — Archaeopress — 2008
- 12BookThe Ancient Indus Valley: New PerspectivesJane McIntosh — ABC-CLIO — 2008
- 13JournalA new approach to tracking connections between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia: initial results of strontium isotope analyses from Harappa and UrJames H. Burton et al. — January 2013
- 14BookEarly Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange within and beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South AsiaJason Neelis — Brill — 2011
- 15BookThe Philippine cookbookReynaldo Alejandro — Penguin — 1985
- 17BookCuisine and Culture: A History of Food and PeopleLinda Civitello — John Wiley & Sons — 29 March 2011
- 18BookVegetable CropsT. R. Gopalakrishnan — New India Publishing — 2007
- 19NewsDown the Surma - Origins of the DiasporaSyed Zain Al-Mahmood — 19 December 2008
- 20BookLives of the Lindsays, or, A memoir of the House of Crawford and BalcarresRobert Lindsay — C. S. Simms
- 21BookThe Staple Food Economies of Western Tropical AfricaBruce F. Johnston — Stanford University Press — 1958
- 22BookThe Cooking of IndiaMatthew Locricchio et al. — Marshall Cavendish — 2004
- 23The Cuisine of South IndiaPetrina Verma Sarkar — 8 May 2020
- 24BookFunctional Foods of the EastJohn Shi — CRC Press — 2010
- 25BookGreen Technologies for Sustainable AgricultureArvind Kumar et al. — Daya Publishing House — 2006
- 26BookAcademic Biology IXJ. P. Sharma — Laxmi Publications — 2008
- 27BookThe Indian EncyclopaediaSubodh Kapoor — Cosmo Publications — 2002
- 28BookFlavorful India: Treasured Recipes from a Gujarati FamilyPriti Chitnis Gress — Hippocrene Books — 2008
- 29BookNaturally Speaking: Indian: Recipes and Home RemediesDevagi Sanmugam — Marshall Cavendish — 2007
- 30NewsChennai street food
- 31Where to find the most fantastic street food in India9 August 2017
- 32NewsIn Search of Mumbai Vada PavRamya Sarma — 21 July 2012
- 33Where to find the best idlis in ChennaiAshwin Rajagopalan — 28 August 2018
- 34BookCurried Cultures: Globalization, Food, and South AsiaKrishnendu Ray et al. — University of California Press — 2012
- 37BookDesserts around the worldL. Engfer — Lerner Publications — 2004
- 38BookGastronomy : the anthropology of food and food habitsMargaret L. Arnott — Mouton — 1975
- 39BookFood on the move : proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1996, held in September 1996 at Saint Antony's College, OxfordProspect Books — 1997
- 40BookAmaranth: Modern Prospects for an Ancient CropNational Academies — 1984
- 41Farali ChevdoBhavna — 28 September 2017
- 42NewsCurryLizzie Collingham — 1 February 2006
- 43Tandoori Village Restaurant BrisbaneAsiaRooms.com
- 44BookCulinary Fictions: Food in South Asian Diasporic CultureAnita Mannur — Temple University Press — 2004
- 45BookGhetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong KongGordon Mathews — University of Chicago Press — 2011
- 46BookCalcutta Mosaic: Essays and Interviews on the Minority Communities of CalcuttaHimadri Banerjee — Anthem Press — 2009
- 47NewsFare for the Desi DragonShubada Deshpande — 25 October 1999
- 48Nasi, Kari, Biryani & MeeVeg Voyages
- 49Indian food gains popularity during Chinese New Year20 February 2007
- 50Go India: Curry, my love?Viviane Then
- 52BookEthnic Foods of Hawai'iAnn Kondo Corum — Bess Press — 2000
- 53About Food in MalaysiaTravellers Worldwide
- 55News5 Rekomendasi Lontong Kari Enak di Bandung, Cocok Pisan buat Sarapan!31 January 2020
- 56BookCustoms and Culture of the PhilippinesG. Zabilka — Tuttle Publishing — 2007
- 58A Brief History Of The Humble Indian Pickletheculturetrip.com — July 20, 2016
- 60JournalSome Like It Hot: Class, Gender and Empire in the Making of Mulligatawny SoupModhumita Roy — 7 August 2010
- 62NewsCurry house founder is honoured29 September 2005
- 63Curry FactfileFood Standards Agency
- 64Food on the Move: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery, 1996Harlan Walker — 1997
- 65From balti to bhuna: the ultimate guide to curryBBC Radio 4
- 67NewsTikka in No TimeMonica Bhide — 24 January 2007
- 68BookFrommer's Toronto 2010Hilary Davidson — John Wiley & Sons — 21 December 2009
- 69BookFrommer's Vancouver and Victoria 2010Donald Olson — John Wiley & Sons — 2009
- 70Chinese cuisine most popular, but Aussies still love McDonald'sRoy Morgan — 15 February 2019
- 71NewsFood:'Where's the Taj Mahal?': Indian restaurants in Dublin since 1908Michael Kennedy — 5 March 2013
- 72NewsNon-Chinese Asians are the fastest growing ethnic group in Ireland – CSOPaul Hyland — 19 October 2012
- 74BookThe Romance of Indian Coffee
- 75BookThe Healthy Indian DietAnuja Balasubramanian et al. — Raj Patel — 2011
- 76BookRajasthan, Delhi and AgraLindsay Brown et al. — Lonely Planet — 2008
- 77BookDevelopment and Manufacture of Yogurt and Other Functional Dairy ProductsFatih Yildiz — CRC Press — 2010
- 78BookThe New Food Lover's CompanionSharon Tyler Herbst et al. — Barron's snippet — 2007
- 79NewsThis sharbat is coolBaishali Adak — 7 June 2012
- 81NewsGerman froth Bitburger to debut in IndiaRavi Menon — 21 June 2010
- 82BookBeer Is Proof God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and BrewingCharles W. Bamforth — FT Press — 2010
- 83NewsGoan fenny, Assam tea, Lucknow chikan to get GI registry soon21 September 2008
- 84JournalSome interesting indigenous beverages among the tribals of Central IndiaJanuary 2007
- 85BookAll-Asia guideFar Eastern Economic Review — 1978
- 87BookAchaar Aur ParatheTarla Dalal — Sanjay & Co — 2001
- 88BookFrommer's IndiaPippa De Bruyn et al. — John Wiley & Sons — 2010
- 89News10 types of samosa enjoyed across the country15 March 2025
- 90BookFood and CulturePamela Goyan Kittler et al. — Cengage Learning — 2011
- 91NewsCowed down by the ban
- 92JournalSymbol and Sustenance: Cattle in South Asian CultureDeryck O. Lodrick — 2005
- 93JournalCultural identity and beef festivals: toward a 'multiculturalism against caste'Balmurli Natrajan — 2018-07-03
- 94Anthropocene Ecologies of FoodSamuel Moses Srinivas Kuntam — Routledge — 2022
- 95JournalMeat-eating in India: Whose food, whose politics, and whose rights?C. Sathyamala — 2019
- 96BookAn Introduction to Swaminarayan HinduismRaymond Brady Williams — Cambridge University Press — 2001
- 97BookJainism: The World of ConquerorsNatubhai Shah — Sussex Academic Press — 1998
- 98Religion and foodNeha Sahgal — 29 June 2021
- 99NewsMore Indians eating beef, buffalo meatSamarth Bansal — 29 October 2016
- 100News'Do You Eat Dog Meat?': Why Asking a Naga This Question Misses the PointRongsenzulu Jamir — 30 June 2025
- 101JournalFrom the heart to the plate. Debates about dog meat in DimapurDolly Kikon — 2017
- 102JournalDirty food: racism and casteism in IndiaDolly Kikon — 2022-01-25
- 104BookIndian Food: A Historical CompanionK. T. Achaya — Oxford University Press — 1998
- 105BookCurry: A tale of cooks and conquerorsLizzie Collingham — Oxford University Press — 2007
- 106BookFaraal Foods for fasting daysTarla Dalal — Sanjay and Co — 2010
- 107BookThe Oxford Companion to FoodAlan Davidson — Oxford University Press — 2014
- 108Andrea Marion PinkneyBrill Publishers — 2018
- 109BookFeasts and Fasts: A History of Food in IndiaColleen Taylor Sen — Speaking Tiger Books — 2016