South Asian

These date balls, which I make each year for Diwali, are nutty and fudgy—without any chocolate. In years when the celebrations for Diwali and Thanksgiving are close together, I like to make a double batch to add to our Thanksgiving spread. They fit right in. 

This dish of tender spiced goat layered with saffron rice, cashews, and golden raisins is a celebratory meal ideal for birthdays and holidays of all kinds.

This aromatic rice pudding is flavored with cinnamon and cardamom, and gets a topping of pistachios and edible flowers.

Packed full of a rainbow of colors, flavors, and textures, from spiced paneer, chickpeas, and tomatoes to roasted beets, sweet potatoes, and a citrusy coconut and cilantro sauce this is a vegetable dish for special occasions.

This creamy, frozen Indian dessert gets its flavor from finely ground pistachios and a pinch of floral, earthy saffron.

These milky little doughnuts are a burnished bronze on the outside, white and cakey inside, and soaked to the core with delicately flavored rose syrup.

These pistachio- and almond-studded sweets are made with semolina and ghee. Eat the halva hot and soft out of the frying pan, or press it into a cake tin and cut it into squares.

You'll find these round chickpea flour and spiced potato fritters wherever Indian snack sellers congregate. Serve them with whatever chutney you like for dipping.

These crispy fritters are made with grated carrots, onions, and ginger, plus garam masala and chile. The dipping sauce has a hefty pour of bourbon, which adds warming depth.

This vegetable fritter recipe calls for onions, cabbage, potato, and carrot, but you can use any combination of vegetables you have.

When I was growing up in India, the arrival of the red carrots in winter was always the food highlight for my family. This is not a quick dessert, but it is exceptionally delicious.

Pakistani haleem is a warmly spiced, satisfyingly thick stew made from long-simmered lentils, barley, and bone-in chunks of lamb or goat.

In essence, this is a sweetened cake made from cheese. I sometimes equate this dessert to the Indian version of Mexican flan because of its caramelized topping.

Paneer is a fresh farmhouse-style cheese that has a slightly tangy, subtly salty flavor with a texture similar to tofu. It’s a breeze to make at home using only three ingredients: milk, lemon juice, and salt. 

This vibrantly colored mango curry is authentically Keralan, and one we’d typically pair with a fish curry and accompany with rice.

This dish of seared paneer channels flavors traditionally found in matar paneer—coriander, cumin, chile, and ginger—by incorporating them into a quick-cooking cherry tomato sauce.

These crispy zucchini fritters take inspiration from the Bengali onion snack piyaju. Soaked and blended red lentils make up the batter, which is spiked with turmeric and chile powder.

Onions are the base—the very foundation—of Indian cooking, and yet here, they are used to add a crispy topping, as a finishing flourish to a dish.

While it is not uncommon to find ginger blended into limeades, lemonades, and fresh sugarcane juice in India, it also pairs nicely with tamarind. Serve cold and give it a good stir before drinking.    This recipe is made with tamarind pulp, which contains large seeds that you will need to remove. Avoid the temptation to use concentrates. They’re more convenient because they don’t have seeds, but they don’t taste nearly as fresh.

Bisibelabath is kitcheree’s spicier cousin. The name means “hot lentil rice,” so consider yourself warned—this is a spicy dish of vegetables, rice, and lentils straight out of South India. I like to serve it with raita to cool things off.

Quick pickled vegetables are welcomed any time of the year. Use fresh produce like cauliflower, carrots, radish, radish pods, or raw turmeric for this preparation.

This mango achaar is of our favorite ways to eat tart mangoes in the summer. This sweet-spicy preparation traditionally pairs with seasoned or stuffed rotis and parathas.

As with any fermented food, timing will depend on the ambient temperature (the hotter it is, the faster it will go). Indoor temperatures were about 68°F—72°F when we developed this recipe and that’s what our time range reflects, so use it just as a guideline. If possible, 82°F is ideal. Most important though will be checking for signs that indicate the batter is ready (bubbly, airy, and sour).

This one-pot dish, called khichdi in some regions, is made from rice, yellow lentils called moong dal, which are split mung beans without skin, and black pepper and cumin seeds fried in ghee or butter. The lentils and rice cook together, making a creamy, rich dish resembling risotto.