If your experience of eating Indian food begins and ends with butter chicken and chicken tikka masala, we have news for you. First, you’d be amazed to know that butter chicken was an accidental stroke of genius first made in Delhi in the 1950s from leftovers, and that tikka masala isn’t Indian at all—it’s British.
The term ‘North Indian’ is a bit of a misnomer, being too broad to truly sum up such a vast and diverse region; still, what is sold across the globe as Indian cuisine is primarily food that originated from North India. The loosely defined region spans eight states—namely Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh—with almost 50 percent of North India’s population being vegetarian. (The expansive variety of the region’s cooking, on the other hand, is a result of varying weather conditions and contrasting palates.)
The food cultures of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are influenced by Mughlai and Awadhi cuisines, thanks to the rich mix of communities that call the city their home, while Punjab and Haryana rely heavily on dairy and livestock. Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand have a strong inclination toward staples like wheat and millet, and Ladakh in Jammu & Kashmir has a strong Tibetan influence due to its proximity to the plains of the Himalayas, as well as Persia and central Asia.
But to answer the long-standing question of why butter chicken and naan are so popular around the globe, it’s important to look to the Anglosphere. The Punjabi diaspora was the largest to migrate out of the sub-continent during the partition, and remained one of the most influential provinces of Pakistan after the Indian Independence Act of 1947, with the large influx influencing the Western understanding of Indian food and culture to this day.
Regional dishes from North India, particularly Punjab, may have found immense popularity worldwide, but it would be injudicious to call it the flag bearer of Indian cuisine, with the diversity of cultures across the country making it difficult to categorize everything under one large umbrella. Here, find 16 dishes to help you broaden your horizons—and discover the rich variety of North Indian food.
Garhwali cuisine relies heavily on grains and cereals, and the recipes are often relatively simple, using minimal spices. For the uninitiated, it may look like an offshoot of the popular dal makhani, but Garhwal ka fannah is vastly different. Made with horse gram lentil, ginger-garlic paste, and red chilli—cooked together then finished with coriander for garnish—it is a hearty dish that the locals in Uttarakhand swear by. (You can find it almost anywhere in the region.)
Translating to wild or jungle meat, this rustic dish is almost like an Indian take on Hunter’s Chicken, albeit dialed down several notches. The recipe requires only five basic ingredients: meat, ghee or oil, salt, water, and red chilies. It is the latter that imparts maximum flavor to the dish; the Mathania chilies, which get their name from a village in Rajasthan, were originally used to mask the gamey odor of the meat, which was typically rabbit or wild boar. Today, the protein of choice has changed to mutton, and chilies are used in moderation. For a particularly sublime experience, pair it with either bajra (pearl millet) or makai (corn) ki roti.
Wild-growing stinging nettle may not be on your typical list of ingredients, but cooked with some ghee or mustard oil, cumin seeds, and dry red chili, and you get a deliciously simple vegetarian dish, kandalee ka saag, that is best paired with paratha. A local favorite in Uttarakhand and some shops will also add paneer to the dish to ramp up its nutritional value. (If you’re vegan, you can always swap it for tofu.) This is a good place to start if you’re not feeling too adventurous.
If you love gnocchi, this might look familiar. As wild as that may sound, these small dumplings made of chickpea flour are boiled in rolling water until they float (see the similarity?), then tossed into a luscious onion and yogurt gravy (the yogurt acts as a coolant in Rajasthan’s arid weather) that has the perfect balance of sweet and sour, with asafoetida playing at your tongue and a hit of earthy fenugreek that rounds off the experience. If you ask us, ditch the naan. Chapati is best paired with this culinary delight.
Also known as chana bhatura in some areas, this is an iconic Delhi dish that’s impossible to miss. An obvious choice for breakfast, the dish comprises puffy and fried leavened bread called bhatura, and a spiced chickpea curry called chole. The consistency of the chole may vary—some shops would make it spicier, some tangier, and some a little on the drier side—but the most important thing is to enjoy this at a street-side restaurant. Served with onion slivers, green chilies, and lemon, it hits on a different level when fresh. A generous squeeze of lemon onto the chole is particularly divine. (You can thank us later.)
A district on the outskirts of Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Kakori is famed for its kebabs—think seekh kebabs on steroids. With a fine texture, balanced spice levels, and absolutely no room for chewiness, these make for a formidable appetizer. It is the eclectic mix of spices (cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, black mace) that makes it unique, as well as the addition of raw papaya as a meat tenderizer. Best paired with naan and a couple of beers, they’re perfect for big groups. (The other variant, the Galawati kebab is equally as popular.) Don’t shy away from double dipping in the mint chutney.
A traditional soup from Ladakh in Jammu & Kashmir, Skyu is slow-cooked with meat and root vegetables like potatoes, turnips, and carrots, all of which are grown extensively in the region. The soup is seasoned with black pepper, garam masala, ginger, and spring onions, before dough is kneaded into thumb-size flattened balls and added to the stew for additional nourishment. If you’re feeling under the weather—or just want to eat something cozy as temperatures drop—skyu is the perfect solution, although this highly local dish is mostly found in rural villages, so you might have to look around.
Kadhi means a yogurt-based sauce, while pakora means fritters—making this dish, which feels like a warm hug on a bad day, pretty self-explanatory. Made from a batter of chickpea flour, onions, and spices, the crunchy fritters are added to the tangy yogurt curry made with cumin, coriander, red chili, and ginger powder. It is then finished with a tempering of fenugreek, cumin, dry red chili, and asafoetida. Once you get used to the sour aftertaste, it is all sorts of wonderful; scarf it up with some rice for maximum satisfaction.
What started out as a one-pot meal for shepherds in Himachal Pradesh is now a popular mutton curry that has tourists lining up. Chha gosht’s signature tangy flavor comes from the addition of buttermilk, which is found in abundance in the region. Also known as khatta (meaning sour) gosht, the blend of chickpea flour and aromatic spices like cardamom, cinnamon, and clove give it a yellow hue and add a layer of warmth to the dish, which is best paired with piping hot rice.
A staple in the households of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and parts of Rajasthan, rajma (meaning red kidney beans) chawal (meaning rice) is a popular dish all across Northern India. The base of this curry is very Punjabi: onion, ginger, green chilies, and tomatoes; meanwhile, spices like turmeric, red chili powder, coriander powder, asafoetida, and garam masala add a rustic charm. For best results, the kidney beans are soaked overnight and boiled until tender before adding them to the curry, which is then finished with dried fenugreek leaves and optional fresh cream. Every household has a different recipe.
While rogan josh might appear to be spicy due to its reddish tinge (blame the root of alkanet and Kashmiri chilies), it is surprisingly mild on the palate. This gem of a dish has Persian origins, where the meat—generally goat or lamb—is cooked in a simmering gravy of oil, yogurt, and a melange of spices (namely garlic, ginger, whole black pepper, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, coriander, and red pepper) till it is fork tender. The trick, however, is to slow-cook the meat so that the flavors mingle over time. Get a naan to mop up all that residual goodness.
More often than not, madra, a thick and hearty yogurt-based chickpea curry is served as part of Dhaam, a traditional feast served in Himachal for religious events or family celebrations. That being said, today it can be found in plenty of restaurants on special occasions, too. The dish boasts whole spices like cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, and turmeric powder, and as expected, there are multiple variations. (The popular ones are the rajma madra, aloo channa madra, and dry fruit madra.) These go best with steamed rice and kachumber salad, but you can obviously eat it with some chapati too.
Nihari or nahari is a stew that originated in the royal city of Lucknow, the capital of 18th-century Awadh under the Sultanate in Delhi. Incidentally, it is also the national dish of Pakistan. A slow-cooked mutton or lamb shank stew, Nihari is known for its reddish tinge and deep flavor profile. Traditionally, nihari is slow-cooked overnight and served as breakfast the next day. The amalgamation of spices like cardamom, cinnamon, chilies, bay leaves, and nutmeg gives it a distinctive warmth. The yogurt imparts richness, while rose water lends it a heady aroma and a julienned ginger garnish cuts through the fatty broth. It is best paired with kulcha, and is readily available anywhere in the city.
A steamed bun of sorts, tingmo is a popular delicacy in the Leh region of Jammu & Kashmir and bears a resemblance to Chinese flower rolls. (Ladakh’s cuisine is heavily inspired by Tibet, with this dish serving as a prime example.) Light and airy in texture, tingmo is usually paired with a side of spicy curry and dal. It can be savored during breakfast, lunch, or dinner—however, as the bread loses its airiness overnight, it is often pan-fried for breakfast the next morning.
This Kashmiri specialty is a part of the famous wazwan, or multi-course meal, that comprises over 20 delicacies and is usually served on special occasions. Spicy lamb meatballs are gently cooked in a light but delectable yogurt gravy that is flavored with fennel, dried mint, cardamom, and cinnamon. Usually served towards the end of the course, right before dessert, this dish is best enjoyed with rice. Its spicy counterpart, rista, is also well known. However, you do not require an invitation to a wazwan to try *gustaba—*looking up restaurants in the locality should suffice.
The term chaat (meaning “to lick”) typically refers to a dish’s melange of sweet and savory textures—however, this variant is unlike any in all of Delhi. The airy dessert is made by combining milk, cream, cream of tartar, and unrefined brown sugar and then whipping (but not before resting it overnight) until soft peaks form; the trick to achieving its cloud-like consistency. It is finished with saffron milk, edible silver foil, and crumbled pistachios. Initially, it was only available during winter, however, today it is available in restaurants all year around. In case you do miss out on trying it in Delhi, it goes by various names across the neighboring regions: malaiyo in Varanasi, malai makhan in Kanpur, and nimish in Lucknow.