North and South Indian Cooking

Over the past few years, I have observed, learnt and experimented with North and South Indian Cooking. While there are several differences, listing below some observations and key basic differences which influence the overall taste and culinary process to a great extent...

	North Indian Cooking	South Indian Cooking
Basic Seasoning	Jeera	Rai
Spice / Chilli	Red chilli powder	Green chilli paste
Sourness	Aamchoor powder	Fresh tamarind paste
Vegetable Cooking	Directly in oil	Parboil & then season in oil
Usage of coconut	Sparingly	Abundantly, especially in curries
Usage of curry leaves	Sparingly	Abundantly
Usage of garam masala	Abundantly	Sparingly
Most commonly used vegetables	Most popular and extensively used - Potato (in almost all dry curries), paneer, gobi, matar	Huge range – from carrots, beans, guards, brinjals…..
Dry Curry	Usually contain jeera, salt, chilli powder, Aamchur powder, Turmeric powder & Garam Masala	Usually contain rai, curry leaf, coconut, turmeric powder, salt
Wet Gravy	Usually contains onion paste, tomato paste, dhania powder, cream, chilli powder, additional masala powder (like garam masala, channa masala, rajma masala, etc.)	Very diverse range of preparation based on the dish
Breakfast	Usually parathas (aloo, gobi, methi, mooli…..)	Wide range – poha, upma, dosas (plain, masala, rava, pesarettu, adi….), rotti (rice, ragi…)….idlis….
Lunch / Dinner – Staple Food	Roti with sabzi and dal	Rice with curry, dal / sambhar, rasam and curd