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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
6 Min
06/03/2026
Manipuri cuisine, at its core, puts rice, freshwater fish, and a huge variety of leafy greens and vegetables first. Most often grown in home gardens or sourced fresh from local markets, these local ingredients make meals highly seasonal and organic. The cuisine emphasises simple cooking techniques like boiling, steaming, and slow simmering, with minimal use of oil and heavy masalas, which lets the natural taste and nutrients of the ingredients used blossom.
There is a firm reason why Manipur is often called the Jewel of India. Put the usual dal makhani and butter chicken to rest as Manipuri cuisine embraces wholesomeness, which nourishes both the body and soul. It doesn't drown things in ghee or layer on ten spices. What it does is use fermentation, fresh herbs, and seasonal produce to build flavours that are earthy, pungent, and surprisingly complex.
The state’s food habits are shaped by its geography, its agrarian roots, and primarily the Meitei culture that dominates the state. The base and essence of Manipuri cooking is ngari, which is a fermented fish that adds depth and umami to everything it touches. Alongside ngari, the kitchen relies on fresh maroi (aromatic herbs), the fiery Naga king chilli (umorok), bamboo shoots, and lotus stem. Cooking methods lean heavily toward boiling and steaming, and oil is used sparingly.
Festivals like Lai Haraoba and Yaoshang bring the community together over elaborate meals, and these occasions are not just about the food but about honouring traditions and reinforcing cultural ties. So, here are some beloved Manipuri dishes that are loved in the state.
Chamthong, also called kangshoi, is the everyday stew of Manipur. It's made by simmering seasonal vegetables (usually beans, brinjal, yams, and leafy greens) with coarsely chopped onions or spring onions, ginger, maroi herbs, ngari, and water and topped off with dried or fried fish pieces, for a comforting soupy dish. It's not a heavy dish and the broth stays clear and light, but the ngari and fresh herbs give it a savoury tinge that makes a plain bowl of rice feel complete.
One of the famed vegetarian Manipuri dishes is made with vegetables that are boiled or steamed with bamboo shoots, red chillies or umorok (king chilli) and ngari, then mashed and garnished with fresh herbs like maroi nakuppi, phakpai, coriander, and others. The texture lands somewhere between a thick chutney and a mash, which is coarser than a paste but not quite a curry. What makes it special is how the smoky heat of the chilli and the umami depth of the fermented fish intermingle and yield a unique flavour.
This Manipuri dish is a salad, but calling it just a salad undersells it considerably. It's a piquant mix of julienned raw vegetables (cabbage, lotus stem, banana flower, tree beans) tossed with coarsely chopped herbs like Houttuynia cordata (toningkhok), sweet pea shoots, and coriander. The dressing is built around roasted ngari, perilla seed powder, roasted chickpea powder, and chilli. The dish is nutty, spicy, and tangy all at once and made fresh. What goes into singju changes with the seasons based on what's available, so it never tastes the same twice.
The northeast is known for its chutneys, and among the many Manipuri dishes, morok metpa takes its rightful place as a beloved chutney. It consists primarily of steamed green chillies and the favourite ngarim that is mashed together. It is a chutney or side dish that is almost always present alongside steamed rice and other side dishes. It is seasoned with salt and sometimes has onion or leafy greens like kotnaba. A variation with fermented soybeans called hawaichar akangba metpa is also loved in the state.
This delicious rice pudding is made with the region’s prized aromatic black rice called chak-hao. This rice is black in colour and glutinous, which turns a striking deep purple when cooked due to its rich anthocyanin pigments. The rice is simmered in milk with sugar (or jaggery) with the addition of cardamom and garnished with nuts like cashews and raisins. Like the typical kheer or payasam, chak-hao kheer too is a creamy, nutty, and fragrant dessert that’s both visually stunning and nutritious.
Nga-thongba is a staple among the non-vegetarian Manipuri dishes, coming from the state’s rivers and lakes. It's a restorative creamy curry made with freshwater fish and a blend of spices, herbs, and vegetables, typically prepared in a clay pot and served with steaming rice. The fish is shallow-fried first, then simmered in a thin broth of potatoes, tomatoes, green chillies, ginger, turmeric, and local herbs. Fermented fish (ngari) is added to this dish for a light, umami-packed and comforting dish.
There is always one particular snack or dish that is unheard of outside a state’s borders, and for Manipur, it’s paaknam. It's a pancake or cake made with besan (gram flour), finely chopped vegetables like onions, spinach, and coriander, seasoned with salt, turmeric, and chilli powder, then steamed inside banana leaves. The banana leaf might be a wrapping, but it adds a faint, grassy aroma to the batter as it steams. The inside is soft and packed with herbs, and some versions include ngari for more flavour.
These Manipuri dishes are one of the most underrepresented foods in India, which is a genuine loss for anyone who hasn't tried them. It's built on restraint with minimal oil, careful fermentation, and seasonal ingredients, but the flavour payoff is significant. Whether it's the mash of eromba, the nutty purple creaminess of chak-hao kheer, or the herb-heavy crunch of singju, every dish on this list reflects a kitchen culture that knows exactly what it's doing.