The atlas · A cuisine · Punjab — northern India and eastern Pakistan
Punjabi
Wheat, 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.
Where it comes from
Punjab means 'five rivers', and its fertile plains grow wheat — so bread, not rice, is the staple, much of it baked on the walls of a clay tandoor. Dairy runs through everything: ghee, butter, paneer, yoghurt and lassi.
After Partition in 1947, Punjabi refugees rebuilt their lives in Delhi, and some opened restaurants. Moti Mahal, founded by Kundan Lal Gujral, is credited with popularising tandoori chicken and inventing butter chicken — dishes that went on to define Indian restaurants around the world.
Where in it
- AmritsarThe holy city of the Sikhs, whose Golden Temple langar feeds tens of thousands a day for free — and a city of dhabas famous for kulcha, fried fish and lassi.Amritsari kulchaAmritsari fish
- LahoreThe great city of Pakistani Punjab, and a famously greedy one: chargha, nihari, paye and halwa puri breakfasts, and late-night food streets in the old city.Chargha
- Ludhiana and the farmlandThe wheat and mustard country of the Indian Punjab, where the village kitchen lives on: sarson ka saag with makki di roti in winter, parathas and white butter at breakfast.Sarson ka saagAloo paratha
- DelhiWhere Punjabis displaced by Partition rebuilt their lives in 1947, and where their cooking found its restaurants: tandoori chicken, butter chicken, dal makhani, chole bhature.Butter chickenDal makhaniTandoori chickenChole bhature
How it cooks
- Tadka
- Whole spices sizzled in hot ghee and poured over a dish at the end — the final layer of flavour.
- Bhuna
- Frying the onion-tomato masala until the oil separates and it darkens — patience is the whole trick.
- Tandoor
- A clay oven hot enough to char naan against its walls and cook marinated meat in minutes.
- Slow dal
- Black lentils simmered for hours, sometimes overnight, until they turn creamy.
Always in the kitchen
Cook from it
Tonight, with what's good in October
Its classics
PunjabiButter chickenTandoori chicken simmered in a mild, silky sauce of tomato, butter and cream, scented with dried fenugreek.No one here has made it yet
PunjabiDal makhaniWhole black lentils and kidney beans, simmered for hours with butter, tomato and cream until thick and velvety.No one here has made it yet
PunjabiSarson ka saagMustard greens, cooked long with spinach and a little maize flour, then churned smooth and finished with ghee — the Punjabi winter dish.No one here has made it yet
PunjabiChole bhatureChickpeas cooked dark, sharp and spicy, with bhature — big, puffed breads of soured dough, deep-fried.No one here has made it yet
PunjabiAloo parathaWholewheat flatbread stuffed with spiced potato, rolled thin and cooked on a tawa with ghee, eaten with white butter, yoghurt and pickle.No one here has made it yet
PunjabiTandoori chickenChicken on the bone, marinated in yoghurt, lemon and spice, then roasted fast in the fierce heat of a clay tandoor.No one here has made it yetPunjabiGajar ka halwaGrated red carrots cooked slowly in milk until it's gone, then fried in ghee with sugar, cardamom and nuts.No one here has made it yetPunjabiAmritsari kulchaA leavened flatbread stuffed with spiced potato, pressed with coriander seed, slapped onto the wall of a tandoor and served dripping with butter beside chole.No one here has made it yetPunjabiAmritsari fishWhite fish in a gram-flour batter sharp with ajwain, chilli and lemon, deep-fried crisp and eaten hot with chaat masala and chutney.No one here has made it yetPunjabiCharghaA whole chicken slashed and marinated in yoghurt, lemon and spice, steamed until tender, then deep-fried until the outside is crisp.No one here has made it yetHow it got here
1947 · from Lahore and west Punjab to DelhiThe tandoorAfter Partition, Punjabi refugees rebuilt their lives in Delhi, and some opened restaurants. Moti Mahal is credited with popularising tandoori chicken — and with inventing butter chicken.Butter chicken →
Cooked here
No one here has cooked Punjabi yet.