Food and sweets
Sweets, and where they belong
A sweet in India is an offering, a greeting and a way of marking that something has happened. Twenty-four of them and one saffron tea, with their places, their festivals and the six tastes of a traditional meal.
A meal with six tastes
Traditional Indian thinking about food, in the Ayurvedic tradition, names six tastes, the shad rasa, and holds that a balanced meal includes all of them. A classic thali is arranged to do exactly that: a little of each on one plate. The same idea is set into a single dish at Ugadi, when the Telugu and Kannada new year is greeted with a pachadi that carries all six.
Twenty-four sweets and a saffron tea, and where they belong
In India a sweet is not a dessert. It is an offering, a greeting and a way of marking that something has happened: a birth, an exam passed, a festival begun. Many are tied to one town, and a few to a dispute between two. Where a story of origin is told below it is marked as tradition, and where a place holds a Geographical Indication, the law's way of saying that a name belongs to a region, it is stated.
25 of 25
Jalebi
North India · Breakfast and every festival
Spirals of fermented batter, fried and dipped in syrup, eaten hot, often with milk or rabri. It is a cousin of the zulabiya of the Persian-speaking world, and it has been thoroughly adopted: in many towns it is a morning ritual.
Gulab jamun
North India, then everywhere · Weddings and festivals
Balls of milk solids fried until dark and soaked in a syrup of rose and cardamom. It is often traced to Persian-influenced kitchens, and it is now the sweet most often offered to a guest.
Pinni
Punjab · Winter
Whole-wheat flour roasted slowly in ghee, then bound with sugar or jaggery, nuts and sometimes edible gum. It is made for the cold months and, traditionally, for new mothers.
Petha
Agra, Uttar Pradesh · Any time
A translucent candy of ash gourd cooked in sugar syrup, plain or flavoured with rose, saffron or paan. It is the sweet a traveller carries home from Agra.
Peda
Mathura, Uttar Pradesh · Janmashtami, and as a temple offering
Milk simmered until it thickens, then shaped with sugar and cardamom. The peda of Mathura is offered at temples around the city, most of all at Krishna’s birthday.
Malaiyo
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh · Winter mornings
A saffron-scented foam of milk that forms in the cold night air and is gathered at dawn. Lucknow calls it nimish and Delhi daulat ki chaat: one winter sweet under three names.
Gajar ka halwa
North India · Winter
Grated carrots cooked slowly in milk with sugar and ghee until dense and glossy, and finished with cardamom and nuts. It arrives with the first red carrots of the cold season.
Ghevar
Rajasthan · Teej and Raksha Bandhan
A disc of fried batter with a honeycomb lattice, soaked in syrup and often topped with rabri. It belongs to the monsoon festivals of Rajasthan.
Mohanthal
Gujarat · Diwali and Janmashtami
A fudge of gram flour, ghee and sugar, set in a tray and cut into squares with cardamom and pistachio. It is a staple of festivals and weddings.
Shrikhand
Gujarat and Maharashtra · Festivals and hot days
Yoghurt hung until thick, then whisked with sugar, saffron and cardamom and served chilled, often with hot puris.
Puran poli
Maharashtra; holige in Karnataka, bobbatlu in Andhra Pradesh · Ugadi, Gudi Padwa and Holi
A soft flatbread stuffed with sweet chana dal and jaggery, eaten with ghee. One dish, three languages, and a festival table in each.
Modak
Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka · Ganesh Chaturthi
A steamed dumpling of rice flour filled with fresh coconut and jaggery. It is Ganesha’s favourite, offered by the twenty-one at some households.
Bebinca
Goa · Christmas
A pudding of coconut milk, egg yolk and sugar, cooked layer by layer under a hot lid, so that patience is the main ingredient. It is the queen of Goan Christmas tables.
Mysore pak
Karnataka · Diwali and every occasion
Gram flour, ghee and sugar, cooked to a melting fudge. The story goes that it was invented in the kitchens of the Mysore palace; like many origin stories, it is a tradition more than a record.
Payasam
Kerala and Tamil Nadu · Onam and temple offerings
A pudding of milk or coconut milk and jaggery with rice, vermicelli or lentils. Several kinds, such as ada pradhaman, may appear on one Onam sadya, each in its turn.
Tirupati laddu
Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh · Temple offering
The laddu given as prasad at the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple. It received a Geographical Indication in 2009, which means that only the temple’s own laddu may bear its name.
Sakkarai pongal
Tamil Nadu · Pongal
Rice and moong dal cooked with jaggery, ghee, cashews and cardamom. It is the dish that gives the harvest festival its name.
Rosogolla
West Bengal and Odisha · Durga Puja and Rath Yatra
Soft balls of fresh chhena in light syrup. West Bengal and Odisha each argued a claim to the sweet, and each holds a Geographical Indication: Banglar Rosogolla (2017) and Odisha Rasagola (2019).
Sandesh
Bengal · Puja and weddings
Fresh chhena worked with sugar, pressed in moulds and shaped into shells, fish and flowers. In its simplest form it is barely sweet.
Mishti doi
Bengal · Any celebration
Yoghurt sweetened with caramelised sugar and set in an earthen pot, which gives it its colour and its faint smoky flavour.
Chhena poda
Nayagarh, Odisha · Rath Yatra and all year
Fresh chhena and sugar, baked slowly until the outside browns and the inside stays soft. Its name means burnt cheese.
Thekua
Bihar and Jharkhand · Chhath
A firm cookie of wheat flour, jaggery and ghee, pressed with a wooden mould. It is offered to the sun at Chhath.
Pitha
Assam · Bihu
Parcels and pancakes of rice flour filled with coconut, sesame or jaggery, steamed, fried or roasted. Every household has its own favourite.
Chak-hao kheer
Manipur · Feasts
A pudding of black rice that turns deep purple as it cooks, thickened with milk and sugar.
Kahwa
Kashmir · Winter afternoons
Green tea brewed with saffron, cardamom and cinnamon, poured over almonds and often sweetened with sugar or honey. A warm drink rather than a sweet, on this list because it is how Kashmir sweetens a winter afternoon.
What is eaten at which festival
A few pairings, to read alongside the festivals page.
| Festival | What is served |
|---|---|
| Diwali | kaju katli, laddu, karanji, mohanthal |
| Holi | gujiya, puran poli, thandai |
| Ganesh Chaturthi | modak |
| Onam | payasam on the banana leaf |
| Pongal | sakkarai pongal |
| Makar Sankranti | sweets of sesame and jaggery |
| Bihu | pitha, laru |
| Chhath | thekua |
| Durga Puja | sandesh and rosogolla |
| Eid al-Fitr | sheer khurma, seviyan |
| Christmas | plum cake, bebinca |
Tea, saffron and spice
Much of what makes Indian cooking distinctive grows in particular places: saffron in Kashmir, black pepper on the Malabar coast, cardamom in the hills of Kerala and Karnataka, tea in Assam and the Darjeeling hills. Darjeeling tea was among the first Indian products to receive a Geographical Indication, in the early 2000s. In a household the spices are also a kind of memory: a tin with a dozen small compartments, and a hand that knows the pinch of each.
Sources
- Geographical Indication in context of the Rasgulla controversy (IIPRD) — Banglar Rosogolla (2017) and Odisha Rasagola (2019)
- Tirupati laddu — Geographical Indication granted in 2009
- Ugadi — the six-taste pachadi
- Indian cuisine — the regional cuisines, and the six tastes in traditional thought
Keep exploring
A year of festivals
The six seasons of the Indian year and what is celebrated in each, across faiths and regions.
Everyday traditions
Greeting, floor art, textiles and the small customs of a household, with a rangoli you can make.
Languages
The twenty-two scheduled languages in their own scripts, and how many more the Census found.
The India map
Every state and Union Territory, with its people, heritage sites, dance and a festival or taste to start from.