FOOD AND TRAVEL

The Unforgettable Flavors of Northern India

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Northern Indian food, spices, and scenery

Chef Raghavan Iyer shares uniquely healthy recipes from his homeland in Northern India.

By Raghavan Iyer, Cookbook author and culinary educator,
EatingWell January/February 2008

Healthy Indian Recipes

My childhood days in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) were filled with the tastes of a traditional south Indian kitchen—roasted chiles, popped mustard seeds, fresh coconut, lacy-crisp crepes and pillow-soft rice-lentil cakes. So when at the age of eight I was taken to a north Indian restaurant in Mumbai I was confused by the flavors. Foods like aloo gobhi (potatoes and cauliflower), palak paneer (spinach and homemade cheese) and subzi biryani (layered vegetable-rice casserole) were brought to the table flavored with assertive ginger, onion and garlic, and spiced with subtle cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, peppercorns, bay leaves and cumin. My confusion gave way to curiosity and eventually approval as the saucy offerings and stir-fries kindled an awakening in me unlike any other food.

Ten years later I found myself on a journey across north India with my sister Lalitha, a physician, to the Taj Mahal. I was excited to visit the incomparable historical monument, but I was equally thrilled about visiting the land whose flavors were so unforgettable to me.

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