The atlas · 7 regional kitchens

Indian cooking

Also Bharat, the subcontinent

Not one cuisine but many: wheat and dairy in the north, rice and coconut in the south, desert thrift in the west and river fish in the east, tied together by spice sizzled in hot fat.

Its kitchens, side by side

  1. Punjabihot and saltyWheat, dairy and the tandoor: rich, generous cooking from the land of five rivers, and the source of much of what the world calls Indian food.Butter chicken · Dal makhani · Sarson ka saag
  2. Kashmiririch and sourLamb, saffron and fennel in a high valley ringed by mountains: meat slow-cooked in yoghurt or red with Kashmiri chilli, greens from the lake, and kahwa against the cold.Rogan josh · Kashmiri yakhni · Gushtaba
  3. Rajasthanirich and hotDesert cooking: millet, lentils and gram flour, ghee in generous measure, dried beans and berries that keep, fiery red meat from the Rajput courts and sweets made for festivals.Dal baati churma · Laal maas · Gatte ki sabzi
  4. Gujaratisour and hotSweet, sour and gently hot: a largely vegetarian kitchen of gram flour, jaggery and buttermilk, of steamed and fried snacks, and a thali with a little of everything.Dhokla · Undhiyu · Thepla
  5. Goanhot and richCoconut, chilli and vinegar: a coastal kitchen where Konkani fish curry and rice meet pork, bread and sweets from four and a half centuries of Portuguese rule.Vindaloo · Xacuti · Cafreal
  6. South Indianhot and saltyRice, lentils, coconut and tamarind: fermented batters, sour broths and a sizzle of mustard seed and curry leaves, from the tiffin that starts the day to the feast on a banana leaf.Masala dosa · Idli · Sambar
  7. Bengalirich and hotFish, rice and mustard: a delta kitchen of sharp mustard oil and freshwater fish, eaten in courses from bitter to sweet, and ending with some of India's most famous sweets.Macher jhol · Shorshe ilish · Kosha mangsho

How its regions came to cook differently

India's regional kitchens start with the land. The wheat plains of the north bake bread; the wet south and east grow rice; the Thar makes do with millet, lentils and what dries well; and the long coasts cook with coconut and fish. Each kitchen is also many kitchens, split by community, caste and faith as much as by map.

Faith shapes the plate. Hindu, Jain and Buddhist ideas made vegetarian cooking central across much of the country, and some communities leave out onion and garlic too; Muslim, Christian and many Hindu communities eat meat, each in their own way. Sultans and then the Mughals brought Persian and Central Asian court cooking — pilaf, kebabs, rich gravies — which settled most deeply in the north and in cities like Lucknow and Hyderabad.

Trade and empire did the rest. The spice coasts traded pepper and cardamom with Arab, Chinese and later European merchants, and chillies, tomatoes and potatoes are usually said to have arrived with the Portuguese, from the Americas, before becoming inseparable from Indian cooking. Under British rule, and after Partition, cooks moved, and restaurant food from a few regions came to stand for the whole country abroad.

What ties it together

Tempering
Whole spices — cumin, mustard seed, curry leaves, dried chilli — sizzled in hot ghee or oil and poured over at the start or the end. It goes by tadka, chhonk, baghar or thalippu, but everywhere it's the same move.
Dal and grain
Lentils or beans with rice or bread at nearly every meal, from Punjab's black dal to the south's sambar and Bengal's thin, sweetish dals.
Vegetarian cooking of real depth
Whole traditions — Gujarati, Jain, Marwari, Udupi — cook without meat, and many without onion or garlic, and lose nothing for it.
The spice box
The masala dabba of whole and ground spices on every counter, and blends ground fresh at home rather than bought as 'curry powder'.
Something sour
Tamarind, kokum, dried mango, yoghurt, lime or tomato — every region has its souring agent, and a dish without one is rare.