Indian Cuisine - Regional Cuisines - Maharashtra

Maharashtra

Maharashtrian cuisine includes a range of dishes from mild to very spicy tastes. Bajri, wheat, rice, jowar, vegetables, lentils, and fruit form important components of the Maharashtrian diet. Popular dishes include puran poli, ukdiche modak, batata wada,masala bhat and wada pav. Shrikhand, a sweet dish made of strained yoghurt, is a main dessert of Maharashtrian cuisine. The cuisine of Maharashtra can be divided into two major sections—the coastal and the interior. The Konkan, on the coast of the Arabian Sea has its own type of cuisine, a homogeneous combination of Malvani, Goud Saraswat Brahmin, and Goan cuisines. In the interior of Maharashtra, the Vidarbha and Marathwada areas have their own distinct cuisines.

Apart from Konkan, the state's cuisine uses ground nuts, jaggery, wheat, jowar, and bajra extensively. A typical meal consists of rice and poli (roti) both along with varan and aamtee—lentils and spiced vegetables. Like other coastal states, there is an enormous variety of vegetables eaten, and fish and coconuts are common. Peanuts and cashews are often served with vegetables. Grated coconuts are used to flavor many types of dishes, but coconut oil is not widely used; peanut oil is preferred. Kokum, most commonly served chilled, in an appetizer-digestive called sol kadhi, is prevalent. During summer, Maharashtrians consume panha, a drink made from raw mango.