India's 5 Most Ancient Dishes; Check If Your Favourite Dish Is On The List!

Indian cuisine has existed for more than 8000 years and has a rich and varied history, consisting of regional and traditional cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Despite the fact that Indian cuisine represents its divergences in culture, religion, and soil, they all combine to form a symphony of amazing tastes.

As a marker of religious and social identity, food has become an important marker of taboos and preferences, which has led groups to innovate heavily on the food sources they consider acceptable.

A lot of different cultures and groups have interacted with the Indian subcontinent over the last 8,000 years, so Indian cuisine has a lot of different flavours. Eventually, Indian cuisine became more diverse after trade with the British and Portuguese.

A major reason why Indian cuisine is so popular is that a number of distinct diaspora and fusion Indian cuisines have developed, including Indian Chinese cuisine, Malaysian Indian cuisine, Indian Singaporean cuisine (based on Tamil cuisine), Anglo-Indian cuisine (developed during the British Raj in India when western dishes were incorporated with Indian ingredients).).

India's 5 Most Ancient Dishes

1. Phare

Although it looks like momos, the Phare dish has a uniquely Indian flavour. It is an old Banarasi dish, and its main ingredients are rice flour and chickpeas. Chickpea flour powder, garlic and chilli are mixed to form a paste. This mixture is then stuffed into small rice flour pooris, which are shaped like a gujiya. Finally, the pooris are steamed until they are cooked.

2. Aloo Ki Tikki

As a famous street food of Uttar Pradesh, Aloo Ki Tikki is one of the oldest chaat dishes in India. It is made with boiled potatoes mashed and mixed with chillies and coriander leaves. In order to prepare this dish, jaggery, green chillies, coriander seeds, cumin and salt are added to it. It is then fried and served with tamarind sauce.

3. Dahi Vada

In the old days, the state of Karnataka was ruled by a ruler named Someshvara the third, who prepared the dish, Dahi Vada, also known as Kshiravata or Dahi Bhalla. It was mentioned in Manasollasa, an encyclopedia written by Someshvara the third in the 12th century. Traditionally, this dish is served on the day of Holi. It is prepared by soaking crispy Bhalla in curd and then adding red-coloured sweet sauce and green-coloured spicy sauce to make the dish tangy in flavour.

4. Phulkari Pulao

In addition to its beautiful appearance, Phulkari Pulao is equally delicious to eat. The dish has been around since the 19th century when it was first prepared. This dish is prepared by mixing equal amounts of 4 different kinds of rice. It originated in Punjab.

5. Khichdi

An early reference to Khichdi may be found in the Indian epic, the Mahabharata, whose events are believed to have occurred between the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. Khichdi is also described in the writings of Afanasiy Nikitin, a Russian adventurer who travelled to the Indian subcontinent in the 15th century. It was during the Mughals that Khichdi gained prominence on the subcontinent.