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6 Min
03/02/2026
Food is deeply symbolic in Odisha, and it is rooted in the state’s religious and cultural traditions, given that it is dotted with ancient temples. Odia cuisine is quite simple, known for its restraint, made using little or no oil and a light hand with spices, which brings out the natural flavour of the vegetables and meat. This mindful approach to cooking reflects Odia values, where food is meant to nourish both body and spirit.
The temple state of Odisha has more to offer than just the famous Mahabhoj at the Puri Jagannath temple. While you do get to sample authentic Odiya food through it, you miss out on classics that are an everyday norm, and occasion-specific dishes that are the heart and soul of the people of Odisha. Staples like dalma and pakhala bhata are household essentials across the state. Other beloved dishes include the light santula and coastal favourites like macha ghanta. Read on to learn what the eastern coastal state has been cooking and relishing for centuries.
Every state has its special dal, and dalma is Odisha’s. It’s part of the main course, cooked with vegetables and owing to its coastal location, has coconut along with cumin and mustard seeds. The dal base is made with roasted yellow moong dal (making it super aromatic) and has no onion or garlic in it. As for the vegtables it ranges from pumpkin, drumsticks, raw papaya, plantain and yam. It’s a healthy, lip-smacking dish perfect with roti or poured over a bed of steamed rice.
Can any coastal cuisine be complete without the beloved fish? Macha (fish) ghanta (mixed curry) is the most famous fish curry, usually made with fish head, although other parts of the fish are also fairly common. The fish is cooked with onions, garlic, turmeric, chilli powder, and coriander powder. Since it’s a mixed curry, the dish also includes vegetables like potatoes, eggplants, pumpkin and sometimes coconut. It’s common to spot macha ghanta during Dussehra, where it tends to be cooked in earthen pots. A veg-friendly version without the fish bits is also prepared.
This dish is Odisha’s approach to using leftover rice on a hot summer day. Excess cooked rice is soaked in water for several hours, usually overnight. The rice ferments overnight. The next day, it is eaten with fried fish, vegetables, curd, and potato mash. Lemon is often squeezed into the rice with one or more whole green chillies, munched with relish. It is said to nourish and rejuvenate the body and supply it with essential vitamins and electrolytes, keeping heat strokes at bay.
This is one street food that locals and visitors cannot get enough of – dahi vada aloo dum. What the rest of the country likes their vadas with a thick to thin pool of curd (dahi), Odiya likes their vadas submerged in thinned curd, tempered with curry leaves and mustard seeds. The dahi water is drained out and served on a leaf bowl with a topping of aloo dum, sometimes ghugni (yellow pea curry) before it, with chopped onions, coriander and sev (bhujiya) as a garnish.
A mixed vegetable curry or stew, santula is known for its light flavours and minimal seasoning. It’s prepared with seasonal vegetables like potatoes, brinjal (eggplant), raw papaya, pumpkin, beans and tomatoes, either boiled (sijha santula) or lightly fried (bhaja santula). It gets a tempering of pancha phutana (or five spices of cumin, mustard, fenugreek, aniseeds and nigella seeds), and other spices like ginger, garlic and green chillies are added to make it a flavourful dish, cooked in little oil. Santula is easy to digest and often served with steamed rice or chapati.
In Odisha, pitha refers to a variety of traditional cereal‑based steamed cakes, usually made from rice or gram batter, enjoyed on festivals and special occasions. There are many variants of this – chakuli pitha (fermented batter pancakes fried on a tawa), poda pitha (slow‑cooked or baked with a slightly burnt crust), sijha manda (rice dumplings), enduri pitha (steamed in turmeric leaves), and sweet fritters like kakara pitha. Odiya pitha can be sweet or savoury, often featuring jaggery, coconut, chhena (cottage cheese) and spices.
The word describes the dish – ‘chenna’, a local cheese and ‘poda’, meaning burnt. Thus, chennapoda, for lack of a better term, is a burnt cheesecake and Odisha’s signature baked sweet. It is made by combining fresh chhena (cottage cheese), sugar, cardamom and sometimes semolina. It’s baked slowly until the top caramelises and turns golden brown. It is traditionally cooked in an earthen oven wrapped with sal leaves, and it has a soft inside with a more leathery and slightly crispy coat.
There was a point of contention for the longest time, but Odias claimed their rasgulla and added their unique touch to the sweet — it tends to be caramelised and softer from the Bengal variant. It’s also called chhena golla or pahala rasagola and is believed to have ancient origins in Odisha. It is said to be the favourite offering to Lord Jagannath; it’s lighter and less sweet than some other regional variants. You will find the Odiya rasagola present in many celebrations, festivals and rituals, especially around Puri and Bhubaneswar, where sweet shops around Pahala are renowned for this speciality.
From the sacred kitchens of Jagannath Temple to home hearths across villages, Odia cuisine proves that the best flavours often come from the simplest ingredients. Whether it's the cooling pakhala on a sweltering afternoon, the wholesome comfort of dalma, or the sweetness of chennapoda’s caramelised crust, each dish tells a story of tradition, sustainability, and soul-nourishing goodness.
