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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
6 Min
28/11/2025
Nothing says winter like a steaming bowl of food, and desi kitchens deliver these in spades. From rich, slow-cooked nihari to vegetable-packed undhiyu and fragrant tahari, each bowl converts the season’s best spices, produce, and age-old recipes rooted in tradition into one hearty meal. Perfect for chilly nights or lazy mornings, these one-pot wonders warm the body and soul.
When the mercury drops and the limbs turn leaden, the kitchens turn into hearths of warmth, aroma, and deep nourishment. From the slow-braised nihari in Old Delhi lanes to Gujarat’s upside-down undhiyu bubbling over coals, each bowl tells a story of a region, a season, and community. The dishes below are like poetry, soft, warming, and evoking a sense of comfort that resonates with the body. The best part is that most can be cooked in one pot!.
This is one dish which is truly pan-Indian. Its variations appear across Punjab, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Bihar, Uttarakhand, and more. Rainy season and winters call for this comforting one-pot dish, and during the colder months, people lean into bajra khichdi (made with pearl millet) in arid states because millet is warming, high in fibre, and deeply nourishing. In Gujarat, it’s paired with kadhi; in Bengal, it’s ‘khichuri’, which includes potatoes, peas, and tomato.
Kadhi (a yoghurt-gram flour curry) is particularly beloved in the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat. It’s a winter special for the right reasons, as the yoghurt-based curry is soothing and hearty. The pakoras are crisp and made with gram flour, which are soaked in the spiced curry. The Punjabi versions make their pakoras with onions, potatoes or spinach along with spices like turmeric and chilli powder. It is often eaten with steamed rice and called kadhi chawal.
If using an Instant Pot, dhansak, a popular Parsi dish, can be made into a one-pot meal. While it might not be a winter dish, this hearty lentil (dhan), vegetable (shak) and meat curry (lamb, mutton or chicken) is quite popular in Parsi communities, especially in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The spices used in it make it well-suited for colder weather, providing both protein and making it a comforting meal to chow down. What defines it is its sweet-and-sour profile, which is thanks to the tamarind and jaggery. You also get a topping of caramelised rice and fried onions that adds a pop of flavour.
Tahari (sometimes spelt tehri) is common in North India, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Muslim households. It is essentially a kind of spiced rice-lentil dish and a good try for the colder months, as it can be a warming, filling one-pot meal that can be made in large quantities, which is good for a family setting or in festive or communal settings. Tahari is often dubbed the vegetarian version of biryani, and all the ingredients are cooked in one pot with ground and whole spices. To make it richer for winters, ghee can be used instead of oil.
This dish is a Gujarati winter classic, especially from South Gujarat (Surat, Navsari, Valsad) and is made with seasonal winter vegetables – baby potatoes, purple yam (kand), raw banana, surti papdi, green garlic, brinjals, methi muthia (fenugreek leaves and gram flour dumplings). The name ‘undhiyu’ comes from the Gujarati word undhu, meaning ‘upside-down’ – because traditionally it's cooked in an earthen pot (matlu) buried upside-down, slow-cooked by coals over it. The characteristic green shade comes from its masala, which is a green paste made of coriander, coconut, garlic, sesame seeds, green chillies, and jaggery.
Nihari traces back to Lucknow (Awadhi cuisine) during the Mughal era, and because it’s a slow-cooked meat stew, rich with fat, collagen (bone marrow), and warming spices, it is perfect for winters. It was historically cooked overnight in sealed pots (called shab-degh) so that in the morning, people (especially labourers) could eat a hearty, nourishing meal to fuel them for the day. The meat (mutton/goat/chicken) is quite literally fall-off-the-bone. Some restaurants maintain a ‘taar’ tradition, where a portion of the previous day’s nihari is added to the next day’s pot, touted to boost flavour.
Isthu (also written as stew) is common in Kerala cuisine, particularly in Christian homes. It is basically a stew that is made with vegetables or meat cooked in the local favourite coconut milk. Though not strictly a winter-only dish, in cooler months or rainy season, its warm, gentle coconut-based broth feels deeply soothing. The hallmark of ishtu is its mild but layered flavour – fresh coconut milk, black pepper, cardamom, sometimes cinnamon or cloves, and a bit of ginger. The meat (chicken, mutton, or pork) imparts a distinct taste to the entire dish and makes the stew richer, without being heavy.
A bowl of khichdi, kadhi pakora, or dhansak does more than fill the stomach – it warms the soul. The slower the dish takes to cook, the more satisfaction it delivers, and some of them, like the slow-cooked marrow of nihari, boast a Mughal heritage, while the green-spiced undhiyu hums with Gujarati festivals. With winter, these bowls feel like carving a cosy little hole for oneself to forget the woes of the world, even if it’s for a moment.