South Asian

Chef Preeti Mistry’s dahi puri, filled with black chickpeas and potato hunks and drizzled with spiced yogurt and chutneys, are perfect party snacks.

This one-pot meal is cozier than your favorite bathrobe, with fragrant basmati rice, tender chicken, warm spices, and coconut milk.

Chaat masala adds salty-tangy flavor to this pan-fried fish, and balances the sweet and herby tamarind sauce and cilantro chutney.

This sweet-sour Indian pantry staple makes everything better.

I grew up thinking my feminism was a reaction to my kitchen-bound mom. Only later did I realize she cooked so I could be free.

This satisfying vegetarian stew is recipe developer Rachel Gurjar’s riff on North Indian-style lobia masala. Black-eyed peas soak up the flavors of an onion- and tomato-based gravy along with kale or any greens you’d like.

If the words tender, buttery, milky, and rich appeal to you, then you'll love mawa.

You probably already have the essential ingredients for this South Asian confection.

The ideal weeknight meal from Maneet Chauhan’s new cookbook Chaat. 

Bharta is a Bangladeshi style of seasoned meat or mashed vegetables usually served at room temperature alongside hot steamed rice.

Flaky, nutty, buttery paratha you can prep ahead.

Ginger and orange juice give this raita a holiday feel. Treat it like cranberry sauce–it goes with everything.

This five-ingredient sweet is Priya Krishna’s all-time favorite, and it’s as good for a Wednesday-afternoon snack (keep some in your freezer!) as it is for a Diwali celebration.

Anything you can do with butter, you can probably do better with ghee.

A classic yakhni pulao is meticulously prepared by simmering basmati rice in an aromatic chicken, lamb, or goat broth. In this version, chicken thighs are simmered in a spiced tomato base along with rice and whole spices like cinnamon and bay leaf. 

My mom was right—pulao just takes practice.

If making bread has long intimidated you, start here. Parathas come in many shapes, textures, and flavors across Asia—they are perfect for dipping into dals and stews or eating alongside assorted condiments. This take, which Priya Krishna learned from her aunt Rachna, is really simple: a basic wheat-based dough stuffed with silky spiced potatoes.

Chitra Agrawal took flavor inspiration for this simple dish from her mother’s home state of Karnataka in South India, where thuppa means “ghee” and anna means “rice” in Kannada, the local language.

When no one is looking I just…

Poha is the flattened rice that cooks up fast.

These Bangladeshi sweet fritters are fluffy and tender on the inside, crispy and craggy on the outside.

In my family, this smoky, crispy, North Indian–style okra is an iconic, clamored-after dish. The key is to cook the okra for a long time, with a lot of whole spices. It’s a foolproof and quick way to get the most flavor out of the summer vegetable, while avoiding any slimy texture. 

You can't have it all, but your chitranna can.