The recipe index
29 recipes, seven culinary regions
Everything here is a household dish first and a restaurant dish second. Filter by where it comes from, what grain it leans on, and how much heat you want.
29 recipes
Rajma Chawal
Kidney beans simmered until the gravy turns silky
Sarson da Saag
Mustard greens slow-cooked with maize flour and white butter
Dal Makhani
Black urad simmered overnight over dying coals
Kashmiri Dum Aloo
Baby potatoes in a yoghurt and fennel gravy, no onion or garlic
Idli with Sambar
Fermented rice cakes and a tamarind lentil stew
Avial
Nine vegetables in coconut, cumin and raw coconut oil
Bisi Bele Bath
Karnataka's 'hot lentil rice' with its own dedicated masala
Chettinad Pepper Chicken
Freshly roasted pepper and stone flower, dry-fried
Ragi Mudde with Saaru
Finger millet balls, swallowed not chewed
Meen Moilee
Fish poached in gentle coconut milk with turmeric
Malabar Prawn Curry
Chemmeen in a kudampuli-soured coconut gravy
Kolambi Bhaat
Konkani prawn rice cooked in one pot with goda masala
Shorshe Ilish
Hilsa steamed in raw mustard paste and mustard oil
Cholar Dal
Bengal gram with coconut, raisins and panch phoron
Aloo Posto
Potatoes in a raw poppy-seed paste
Dalma
Odisha's temple dal cooked with vegetables and no onion
Undhiyu
Surti winter vegetables slow-cooked upside down
Dal Baati Churma
Rajasthan's baked wheat balls drowned in ghee
Misal Pav
Sprouted matki under a fiery kat gravy
Goan Fish Curry
Coconut, Kashmiri chilli and a shot of tamarind
Masor Tenga
Assamese sour fish curry, light as broth
Smoked Pork with Bamboo Shoot
Naga hearth-smoked pork, raja mircha and fermented shoot
Chak-hao Kheer
Manipuri black rice pudding, deep violet
Indori Poha with Jalebi
Flattened rice, fennel-sweet and topped with jeeravan
Bhutte ka Kees
Grated corn cooked down in milk, an Indore street classic
Bajra Khichdi
Pearl millet and moong, the desert's winter bowl
Jowar Bhakri
Hand-patted sorghum flatbread, no rolling pin
Hyderabadi Kacchi Biryani
Raw marinated meat and rice sealed and cooked together on dum
Kadak Masala Chai
Boiled hard with ginger, cardamom and full-fat milk