Cultural Cuisine: Seasonal Eating in India
Seasonal eating in India comes down to an art.
In a country as expansive as India, nearly every season imaginable exists. There are the snow-clad peaks of the Himalayas, the rainforests of Kerala, the massive deserts of Rajasthan, and an expansive ocean coastline.
The best way to understand the food is by looking at the varied climates.
Each season offers particular local produce. The seasons are also connected to the principles of Ayurveda, which offers advice on what foods should be eaten when.
There are also cooking and preservation techniques depending on season and region.
Seasons of India
India officially has 4 seasons:
summer, monsoon, post-monsoon, and winter. According to Ayurveda and the Hindu calendar, there are 6:
India’s six seasons

• Vasanta (spring): mid-March to mid-May

• Grishma (summer): mid-May to mid-July

• Varsha (monsoon): mid-July to mid-September

• Sharad (autumn): mid-September to mid-November

• Hemant (pre-winter): mid-November to mid-January

• Shishir (winter): mid-January to mid-March
  The eating practices in much of India come from the principles of Ayurveda. According to Ayurveda, the human body is a constitution of bioenergy or life forces. These are known as the doshas vata, pitta, and kapha.
  Vata involves the energy of movement, pitta involves digestion or metabolism, and kapha involves lubrication. The digestive fire, known as agni, is how we assimilate our food and our experiences.
  There are also 6 tastes, known as shad rasa, which are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent.
  “The agni is stronger during winter, which increases pitta in the body. This is the time for foods with sweet, sour, and salty taste as they are considered warm; hence wheat, whole grains, dairy, and fatty food is recommended,”
  However, the diet may vary from region to region since winter in southern India is not as harsh as in the north
  What’s in season?
  According to Ayurveda, there’s wisdom in what’s seasonally available.
  “Monsoon is generally the period when people catch colds and coughs. Stone fruits, which are available during the rainy season, are rich in antioxidants and should be eaten during this period,”
  Similarly, to meet the body’s need for hydration, fruits and vegetables like watermelon, cucumber, and various kinds of gourds are available during summer.
  Coconut grows all through the year on the west coast and in southern India due to the warm and humid climate. It’s used extensively in cooking.
  Seasonal sampler
  Summer: Various gourds, okra, jackfruit, pumpkin, brinjal, cucumber, and a bounty of fruits including mango, litchi, melons, Indian blackberry, palm fruit, cashew.
  Monsoon: A few varieties of gourds, okra, colocasia leaves, and fruits like apple, custard apple, stone fruits, etc.
  Winter: Greens like mustard, spinach, fenugreek, amaranth, chenopodium album; different kinds of beans; radish; red and black carrots; spring onion; green garlic; kohlrabi; ash gourd; yam; and fruits like orange, chiku, guava, strawberries, grapes, figs, Indian gooseberry, etc.

Note: This is in no way a comprehensive list of seasonal fruits and vegetables in India, but it gives an idea of what’s eaten when.
There are certain regional specialties, too, like the wild greens in Maharashtra available during monsoon. These include dragon stalk yam and phodshi.
The foraged dried beans and berries of Rajasthan are known as ker sangri, and stinging nettle and fiddlehead fern are most commonly eaten in the Himalayan region.
Wheat is mostly eaten in regions that get less rain, though some parts of north India, central India, and west India enjoy it as well.
Rice is eaten in south India, in the coastal region of Maharashtra, east and north-east India, and even in Kashmir.
Apart from wheat and rice, there are seasonal and regional grains and millets, like corn in the northern plains during winter, sorghum in the western region, and foxtail millet, which is eaten during summer for its cooling nature.

Cooking and preserving
Growing up in the northern plains, summer at home meant making tiny dumplings of mung dal (yellow lentils) and sun-drying them.
These mungodis would then be stored and made into curries or added in pulav. This was one of the many ways to preserve food for rainy days when fresh produce wasn’t bountiful.
Seasons across India are distinct. There are harsh winters in the north, incessant rains on the west coast, and an arid climate in some parts of western India.
Cooking and preservation techniques have developed accordingly. There’s more deep-fried food during monsoon and winter as compared to summer.
“The food in winter should be cooked, while in summer more raw food (like fruits, salads) is suggested,”
Food preservation is also common.
“In Uttarakhand (a state in North India) where barely anything grows in the winter, people sun-dry fresh vegetables in summer to store for the rest of the year,”
In the northeastern states, there’s a tradition of smoking meat. Kitchens in these regions have a dedicated space above their wood-fired stoves where meat is hung to be smoked and stored for winter.
Drying is also common in regions that face extreme heat.Here, summer is harsh and dry, and there isn’t much fresh produce available during this period.
Feasting and fasting
There are certain rules followed in different parts of the country on what not to eat in a specific season.
“Ayurveda doesn’t have a blanket rule for fasting,” “but it doesn’t recommend fasting during monsoon and winter when the agni is stronger.”
followers of Jainism don’t eat green leafy vegetables during monsoon season, as they may carry worms.
“Jainism strongly preaches against killing of any organism,”
In the coastal region of Maharashtra, the fishermen don’t venture into the sea during monsoon season.
To make up for the lack of fresh fish in this period, the Kolis, a native fishing community in Mumbai, dry fish in the summer and stock it up in their monsoon pantry.
A vast country with vast traditions
India is a diverse country with rich food traditions. There are layers of culture and taste to be found when you dig deeper into the traditional foods of this incredible country.

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