Origins of North Indian foods

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Many of the food items that define modern North Indian and Pakistani cooking have origins inside the subcontinent. At the same time, many foods that are now commonplace are based on fruits and vegetables that originated outside the subcontinent. These ingredients are used in Mughlai, Punjabi, Kashmiri and Frontier cooking.

[edit] Vegetable Origins

Vegetable	Hindi-Urdu Name	Origin	Likely time of introduction	Notes
Okra	Bhindi	Highlands of Ethiopia	100-500 CE
Tomato	Tamatar	Latin America (Mexico to Peru)	1600 CE	Likely introduced via Portugal
Potato	Aaloo	South America (Peru/Bolivia)	1600 CE	Likely introduced via Portugal
Taro	Arbi	Unknown (India, Polynesia or SE Asia)	Unknown
Bitter Melon	Karela	Unknown	Unknown
Garlic	Lehsan	Unknown (possibly North Africa)	Unknown
Onion	Pyaaz	Unknown (Central Asia suspected)	Unknown
Cauliflower	Phool Gobhi	Cyprus or Turkey	1500 CE
Cabbage	Band/Patta Gobhi	Mediterranean Region		Derived from Wild Mustard
Eggplant	Baingan	Native to the Subcontinent
Turnip	Shalgham	West Asia or Eastern Europe	1500 BC	Very early presence in the subcontinent
Yam	Shakarqandi	Africa or Asia	Unknown (possibly 1000 BC)	Unknown
Calabash	Lauki	Unknown
Fenugreek	Methi	Middle East (possibly Iraq)	Unknown
Coriander	Dhania	North Africa or Southwest Asia	Unknown

[edit] Fruit Origins

Vegetable	Hindi-Urdu Name	Origin	Likely time of introduction	Notes
Mango	Aam	India or SE Asia	Unknown
Mulberry	Shehtoot/Toot	Temperate regions worldwide	Unknown
Apple	Seb	Central Asia (Kazakhstan)	Unknown
Plum	Aloo Bokhara	Unknown (Armenia suspected)	Unknown
Orange	Malta/Narangi	Unknown (India, SE Asia or China)	Unknown
Tangerine	Santara	Unknown (North Africa)	Unknown

[edit] References

This article or section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (August 2007)

• "Domestication of plants in the Old World," Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, Oxford University Press, 2000.
• "History of Food," Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, Blackwell Publishing, 1994.
• "Culture and Cuisine: A Journey Through the History of Food," Jean François Revel, Doubleday, 1982.
• "The Agrarian History of England and Wales," Edward John T. Collins, Stuart Piggott, Joan Thirsk, Cambridge University Press, 1981.