Multilingual List Of Edible Plants Used In Indian Cuisine
South Asian cuisine encompasses a delectable variety of sub-cuisines and cooking styles that vary very widely, reflecting the diversity of the Indian subcontinent, even though there is a certain centrality to the general ingredients used. While there are a lot of popular cookbooks and websites featuring recipes from these varied Indian and other South Asian sub-cuisines, the terms used in the recipes sometimes tend to be multi-lingual and region-specific, mostly based on the author's specific sub-ethnicity, the popularity of a given vegetable/spice in a given sub-cuisine within South Asia, etc.
Indian cuisine is overwhelmingly vegetarian friendly and employs a variety of different fruits, vegetables, grains, and spices which vary in name from region to region within the country. Most Indian restaurants serve predominantly Punjabi/North Indian cuisine, while a limited few serve a very limited choice of some South Indian dishes like Dosa. But for the connoisseurs, India offers a complex and eclectic array of sub-cuisines to explore, which are equally vegetarian friendly and a delight to the taste buds.
Even for South Asian people, this wide variety of vegetables, fruits, grains and spices used in various Indian sub-cuisines can be mind boggling because of the variety of region-specific names used for identifying the food items. Indian vegetable markets and grocery stores get their wholesale supplies from suppliers belonging to various regions/ethnicities from all over India and elsewhere, and the food suppliers/packagers mostly use sub-ethnic, region-specific item/ingredient names on the respective signs/labels used to identify specific vegetables, fruits, grains and spices based on their respective regions of origin. This further aggravates the confusion in identifying specific items/ingredients, especially for international consumers/expatriates looking to procure vegetables, fruits, grains and spices specific to Indian sub-cuisines.
This article attempts to centralize, compile and tabulate the various vegetables, fruits, grains and spices that are commonly employed in various South Asiansub-cuisines to help reduce this confusion in identifying and procuring various South Asian food ingredients, especially in the cross-regional, international markets/contexts.
The following is a list of common South Asian ingredients, as well as their names in the various local languages spoken.
Read more about Multilingual List Of Edible Plants Used In Indian Cuisine: Pulses, Cereals, Spices, Cucumbers, Gourds, and Squashes, Leaf Vegetables, Root Vegetables, Other Vegetables, Nuts, Legumes, Flour, Fruits
Famous quotes containing the words list, plants, indian and/or cuisine:
“Weigh what loss your honor may sustain
If with too credent ear you list his songs,
Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open
To his unmastered importunity.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The holly and the ivy
Are plants that are well known
Of all the trees that grow in the woods
The holly bears the crown.”
—Unknown. The Holly and the Ivy (l. 1–4)
“Sabra Cravat: I should think you’d be ashamed of yourself. Mooning around with an Indian hired girl.
Cim Cravat: Ruby isn’t an Indian hired girl. She’s the daughter of an Osage chief.
Sabra Cravat: Osage, fiddlesticks.
Cim Cravat: She’s just as important in the Osage nation as, well, as Alice Roosevelt is in Washington.”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)
“Thank God for the passing of the discomforts and vile cuisine of the age of chivalry!”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)