Uttarakhand · Famous Food of Uttarakhand

Famous Food of Uttarakhand: 12 Dishes from Kafuli to Bal Mithai

By Beauty of Bharat · Published 11 November 2026

By Beauty of Bharat — India travel guide, every place, every flavour.

Guides covering all 36 States and UTs, researched from official sources and checked at publish time. Corrections welcome — see About Beauty of Bharat.

The most famous sweet in Uttarakhand looks exactly like chocolate fudge — dark brown, soft, and dusted with little white sugar balls — yet it contains no chocolate at all. Bal mithai gets its colour from khoya, milk solids roasted slowly until they turn the colour of cocoa, and that small surprise sums up this mountain kitchen. The famous food of Uttarakhand is kafuli, the spinach-and-fenugreek curry often called the state food, followed by aloo ke gutke, phanu, chainsoo and bhatt ki churkani — and the table ends with bal mithai and singori. Here are the 12.

What is the most famous food of Uttarakhand?

Kafuli leads the table. Ask around in Dehradun or Nainital and the green curry comes up first. But the answer is two kitchens, not one dish. Uttarakhand’s food splits between Garhwal in the west and Kumaon in the east: the two share lentils, millets and mountain greens, but Garhwal leans harder on leafy greens (kafuli, phanu, chainsoo) while Kumaon claims aloo ke gutke, bhatt ki churkani, bal mithai and singori. Much of it is still cooked over a wood fire in an iron kadhai, and the menu changes with the season — gahat dal and bhatt dubuk with mandua rotis in winter, kafuli and chainsoo with raita in summer. See our Uttarakhand state guide.

12 famous dishes of Uttarakhand

1. Kafuli — the state food

Kafuli is what most people mean by Uttarakhand food. Spinach and fenugreek leaves — sometimes mustard or amaranth leaves too — are slow-cooked into a thick green gravy, thickened with rice paste or gram flour and finished with curd, then tempered with jakhiya seeds. A winter staple, rich in iron, it is usually eaten with steamed rice. Read our kafuli guide.

2. Bhatt ki churkani — the black soybean curry

Bhatt is the black soybean of the Kumaon hills; churkani is what it becomes after a long, slow simmer — a dark, earthy curry and one of the region’s most loved everyday dishes. Cooked with minimal spices so the nutty flavour of the bean leads, it is served with steamed rice.

3. Chainsoo — the roasted black gram dal

Chainsoo starts with black gram (urad dal) roasted and ground to a paste, then cooked slowly with spices into a thick, protein-rich dal — also called chaunsa in parts of the state. A Garhwali classic with steamed rice or mandua roti: one lentil, a few spices, hours of patience.

4. Phaanu — Garhwal’s comfort stew

Phaanu is Garhwal’s comfort stew. Mixed mountain lentils — gahat is often in the mix — are soaked, ground and slow-cooked into a thick, warming dal, served with rice and a glass of chaas (buttermilk). Garhwali families make it when the weather turns cold. Read our phaanu guide.

5. Aloo ke gutke — the spiced potatoes

If kafuli is the state food, aloo ke gutke is the snack everyone eats. Boiled potatoes are tossed in mustard oil with jakhiya seeds in Garhwal (cumin in Kumaon), dry red chillies, turmeric and coriander, until crisp at the edges and fragrant. Served with puris or rotis and bhang ki chutney on the side, it turns up at tea time, at festivals and on every hill-town menu. Read our aloo ke gutke guide.

6. Dubuk — the thick winter soup

Dubuk is a thick, warming soup of ground lentils — usually bhatt or gahat — cooked down almost to a porridge. Winter food, eaten with mandua rotis, from the Kumaoni side of the table. On a cold evening in the hills, a bowl of dubuk is dinner.

7. Gahat ki dal — the horse gram dal

Gahat, or horse gram, is the hardy pulse of the high hills, and its dal is a traditional winter dish. It is cooked simply — sometimes with a stuffing of gahat paste inside mandua rotis — and valued as much for warmth as for flavour. In winter, this is the dal the homestays serve.

8. Kumaoni raita — the cooling counterpoint

Kumaoni raita is the cool counterpoint: cucumber and curd, whisked with mustard and a pinch of local spice. Served alongside the heavier dals and rotis, it makes a heavy summer meal feel light.

Bonus: bhang ki chutney — the condiment that goes with everything

Bhang ki chutney is Uttarakhand’s most famous condiment, and its name causes the most confusion on this list. It is made from roasted hemp seeds, ground with green chillies, garlic, lemon and salt — and it has no psychoactive properties. Tangy, nutty and fiercely local, it goes with aloo ke gutke and almost every pahadi meal. Read our bhang ki chutney guide.

Which dish is the most popular sweet in Uttarakhand?

Bal mithai, with singori a close second. Almora, the old Kumaoni hill town, is home to both — try them in its sweet shops.

9. Jhangora ki kheer — the millet pudding

Jhangora is barnyard millet from the high terraces, and its kheer — slow-cooked in milk with sugar and dry fruits — is the festive dessert of the hills. Lighter than a rice kheer, it turns up at weddings and festivals across Garhwal and Kumaon.

10. Bal mithai — the chocolate fudge with no chocolate

Here it is: bal mithai, the chocolate fudge with no chocolate in it. Khoya is cooked slowly, over a low flame, until it turns from pale cream to a deep caramel brown — the colour and the flavour both come from that long roasting, not from cocoa — then set as fudge and coated with tiny white sugar balls. Local legend credits a 19th-century Almora halwai with inventing it, and the town’s sweet shops still make it the same way. Read our bal mithai guide.

11. Singori — the leaf-wrapped sweet

Singori is bal mithai’s quieter cousin — to many Kumaonis, the better sweet. Khoya, sugar and coconut — cardamom in some versions — are wrapped in a maalu leaf, and the leaf is the point: it gives the sweet a gentle, green aroma no other wrapping can. Like bal mithai it comes from Almora. Read our singori guide.

12. Arsa and singal — the wedding sweets

Arsa is the sweet of Uttarakhand weddings. Rice is pounded and ground into a paste, kneaded with jaggery syrup and fried — a simple, keeping sweet made in bulk for marriages and given as a return gift when a daughter goes to her in-laws’ home. Singal, its partner on the festive table, is a coiled, deep-fried sweet for the same occasions.

Where to try Uttarakhand food

Start in Almora for bal mithai and singori — its sweet shops are the benchmark. In Nainital, Rishikesh and Mussoorie, dhabas and small restaurants serve kafuli, aloo ke gutke and phanu alongside the usual north Indian menus, and the best versions are often in village homestays, where the food is cooked over wood fires. On the Chardham route, roadside dhabas serve the same dishes, though availability changes from town to town and with the season — ask for the local thali, not a fixed menu. Our Uttarakhand state guide and the Chopta guide point to the places. Across the border, our Himachal Pradesh guide covers the neighbouring hill kitchens, and the famous food of Uttar Pradesh shows how differently the Awadhi kitchens next door cook.

Watch & Feel the Place: Uttarakhand Food on Film

▶

▶

Videos are by their respective creators.

Famous Food of Uttarakhand FAQs

Uttarakhand’s food is what the mountains taste like: terrace greens, high-field millets, khoya roasted until it looks like chocolate, and a hemp-seed chutney that surprises everyone. Eat it in the hills and it tastes twice as good. Next, read our famous food of Uttar Pradesh — very different cooking next door — or start planning with our state-by-state guide to India and the best places to visit in India.