Punjabi Recipes

What defines Punjabi cooking?

Punjab sits in the wheat belt of northern India, so bread, dairy and robust, savoury sauces define the table. Home cooking is simpler than restaurant menus suggest: a handful of whole and ground spices, plenty of onion, and tomatoes cooked until the fat separates. Dishes are generous with butter, ghee and yogurt, and finished with a pinch of garam masala or crushed kasuri methi. A few dishes made across North India, like rice kheer, sit here too.

Which techniques matter most?

The first is bhuna: browning sliced onions slowly, then cooking ginger, garlic, tomatoes and ground spices until oil shows at the edges of the pan. Our curry base guide walks through each stage with timings. The second is the yogurt marinade, used for tikka, which tenderises and carries spice into the food before high heat. The third is rolling and cooking whole wheat flatbreads on a hot tawa, as in anda paratha, where spiced egg is cooked straight onto the bread.

How do I start?

Begin with Punjabi chicken curry, dhaba style, which teaches the bhuna in one pot with bone-in thighs. If you prefer a vegetarian starter, oven paneer tikka needs just a 30 minute marinade and a hot oven. For a quick, light meal, make besan chilla, savoury gram flour pancakes ready in under half an hour. Finish a meal with rice kheer or cool down with mango lassi.

Stock the basics first. Our Indian pantry guide lists the 25 ingredients that cover most of these recipes, and the spices guide explains what each spice does and when to add it. Weigh ingredients where grams are given: onion and tomato quantities decide how a masala behaves, and cups vary from kitchen to kitchen.

A final tip applies to nearly every dish here. Give the onions the time the recipe asks for and do not rush the oil-separation stage. Most flat or raw-tasting curries come from cutting that step short, and patience costs nothing but a few more minutes at the stove.