Indian Cooking- Mainly About Vegetarian Cooking According To Hindu Religion

Running head: INDIAN GASTRONOMY 1
Indian Cooking- Mainly About Vegetarian Cooking According To Hindu Religion
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INDIAN GASTRONOMY 2
Indian Cooking- Mainly About Vegetarian Cooking According To Hindu Religion
Introduction:
Research evidence shows that there are various types of ethnic food based on religions
and cultures. As published in the journal of ethnic foods, multiple communities in the have their
distinct food defined by culture and religion. Therefore, every community have different ways
of preparing meals based on their sociocultural perspectives and dietary cultures. Also, each
community based on taboos and customs have various types of food that they do not partake.
Indians, one of the communities in the world, have their own specific and distinct dietary which
is defined by their culture and geographical locations aspects. To this manner, Indian cuisine is
unique as per their culture, and it is made up of a verity of religious and traditional cuisines of
their native land. The Indian cookery is mostly different from various cultures of the world based
on the type of the soil, occupations and ethnic groups in Indian. As a result, the Indian dietary is
composed purely of vegetables, herbs, spices, and which in are found within their locality. The
content of this paper is, therefore, a research essay that evaluates Indian cuisine concerning their
socio-cultural aspects. To this manner, this essay looks into the history of the Indian cookery, the
type of food they cook, spices that they use, the kind of food they prepare and assess reasons
why their dietary is composed of vegetables.
History of the Indian Vegetable Dietary
The Indian type of cooking cuisine as revealed in various literature date back to 8000
years in the past. The Indians interacted with various tribes and sub-tribes of the world, and for
this reason, Indian cooking is diverse and distinct (Agrawal, Millett, Dhillon, Subramanian &
Ebrahim, 2014). Also, for the same reason, the Indian cuisine is made up of different flavours as

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in the current time. To begin with, the Indians were involved in trading activities with the
Portuguese and the British. This type of interactions had a greater impact on their diet and how
they cook (Fourat, Kapadia, Shah, Zararia & Bricas, 2018).
Deep assessment of the Indian gastronomy, as evident in the various article, was
originally composed of dairy product such as milk, honey, grains, and eggs together with fish. In
the current dietary, the Indians to not partake meat; however, in the early years, the Indian
cooking in rare occasions would be composed on meat. During these early years, Indians had
staple foods such as rice, bājra (pearl millet) as well as dal (lentils (Ambedkar, 2016). Pearl
millet has then been planted in various sub-continents of India from the 6200 BCE to date.
However, as time would pass by, a section of the Indian population adopted vegetarianism which
began during the tine of Śramana movements. During this time, the Indian dietary began to
change, and most Indians became vegetarians. Also, during this period, various Indian
subcontinents experienced favourable climatic conditions which in turn facilitated vegetables,
fruits and grains. Majority of the populations planted vegetables and fruits in large scale, which
later came to define their vegetarian cuisine (Fischler, 1988).
At this point of time as well, Indians came up with Yoga tradition, which resulted in
various categories of food. The system was composed of three categories of food classification
that is tamasic, raajsic and saatvic. Therefore, according to the Yoga traditions, the Indian food
would be classified as either, raajsic, saatvic or raajsic (Santich, 2012). Furthermore, during the
Middle Ages, various dynasties in Indian became more and more popular, and most of the Indian
population would identify with such dynasties. The Gupta dynasty was one of the poplar

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dynasties in Indian which adopted vegetarianism, and this influenced most people who loved to
be identified with the dynasty.
Moreover, many people who travelled to India as a result of trade brought with the
various cooking techniques such as tea cooking which were also adopted by Indians adding to
their cookery. Later, multiple communities from Central Asia, where the dietary culture was
highly influenced by the Buddhist religion and came to India (Kwon & Tamang, 2015). This
resulted in mixed cooking, and the Mughlai cuisine materialized, which was a mixture of the
Indian cuisine and the central Asia cuisine. The Indian Chinese cuisine was also a product of
mobility where the Chinese who escaped the Calcutta war brought their cooking techniques to
India. Moreover, Indian cooking is composed of baking and roasting which are cooking
techniques browed from British. Thus, Indian food diversity is as a result of the invasion and
mobility of people, and food products from all across the world.
Indian Dishes, Ingredients and Staple Foods
Staple foods
Pearl millet, rice, lentils and wheat (atta) remain staple foods in the Indian cuisine.
According to the Indian cooking traditions, lentils can be cooked as whole or split. A wholly
cooked lentil in India is known as dhuli moong, while split lentils are known as dal (Jain &
Bagler, 2018). Apart from rice and lentils, other foods that are also common in India includes the
kidney beans (rajma) and black-eyed peas (lobiya) which is found in various areas within the
country. As mentioned within the introduction, Indian cuisine is majorly vegetable as meat
consumption is considered taboo in most parts of the region. According to the available data,
almost 435 of Indians are Hindus, and the as per the demands of this religion beef and meat-