Kumauni cuisine is the food of the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand state of India. Just like its impressive culture and rich tradition, Kumaon offers various mouth-watering dishes ranging from snacks to main course to dessert. Their style of preparing dishes is delicious and appetizing.
Nature of Kumauni Cuisine
Kumauni cuisine is very simple, subtle and nutritious as well as suits the hard environment of the Himalayas. Kumaoni cuisine uses very little spices. Lentil, bhatt (a variety of soya bean is black in colour), gahat (rust brown lentil) are some of the traditional typical ingredients of Kumaon cuisine used to make the dishes nutritious. The dishes are generally cooked in mustard oil or pure ghee.
Common Pulses of Kumaon Cuisines:
Rice is an essential part of every meal in the Kumauni households. Wide range of pulses like urad (black lentil), chana (black gram), gahat (horse gram) and bhatt (black and white Soyabean) are used to prepare mouth-watering recipes which are usually relished with rice.
Pulses like gehet are also used in the preparations of ras-bhaat, chains, faanda and thatwaani. A curry seasoned with curd is the other common item. Churkani and jola are items made from bhatt pulses. Cereals like mandua are also popular. Meat is prepared in the way as it is prepared in most of North India.
Common Cuisines of Kumaon:
Some of the common preparations of the Kumaon region are Bal Mithai, Dukka, Chains, Faanda, Kaap, Jhoi, Churkani, Gaderi ka saag, aaloo Gutuk, Raita, Rote and sei.
Bal Mithai is made with roasted khoya, coated with white sugar balls. Dubka is a dish made from various lentils. A curry like dish is prepared from the grounded lentils and made with few local spices. Chains is a dish made of urad dal which are first roasted then hardened into a soup. Faanda is a preparation made of gehet pulses. Ras is a preparation made of gehet pulse and it is eaten with rice. Kaap is a dish made from spinach leaves. Jhoi is a curry seasoned with curd. Churkani is a soup preparation which is eaten with rice. Aaloo gutuk and Pinalu Gutuk are potatoes or colocassia fried and seasoned with spices. Rote is a dish prepared from a mixture of wheat flour and jaggery. Sei is a dessert made with flour, curd and jaggery.
Thus, to taste these nutritious authentic Kumaon cuisines one will have to visit Kumaon. Along with the scenic beauty of this mountainous region, people will be able to explore their rich food culture.
