At its core, chole bhature is a combination of two dishes: chole - a spicy chickpea curry, and bhature - a type of fried bread made with maida flour. Popular throughout North India, the dish was invented in Delhi in the 1940s.

It is commonly accompanied by onions, pickles, mint chutney, and chilled lassi. Chole bhature can be found at most street carts in North India, but it can also be easily prepared at home. Although it can be eaten any time of the day, chole bhature is especially popular in the morning, when bhature are filled with potatoes or cottage cheese, making it a heavy, nutritious breakfast.

Aloo tikki is a flavorful snack that is popular in North India and Pakistan. It consists of potatoes (aloo) and onions made into croquettes (tikki), which are then flavored with various spices and deep-fried. The croquettes are a staple of every chaat stall in Mumbai and North India.

Aloo tikki is often garnished with onion, chutney, coriander, or hot chiles, and it is usually served with yogurt or chickpeas. In Mumbai, the snack is often topped with spicy curries. Although aloo tikki is mostly consumed in North India and Pakistan, it is also gaining popularity in the United Kingdom, especially in the East Midlands area.

Nihari is a popular meat-based dish originating from Old Delhi. When Pakistan gained independence in 1947, numerous immigrants from Delhi settled in Karachi, where they established their own restaurants, so nihar is also associated with Pakistani cuisine.

The dish consists of slowly cooked meat such as beef shanks, mutton, or chicken. The meat is cooked together with stock and numerous spices such as cumin, cloves, garam masala, and cardamom in big vessels which are sealed with dough. It takes anywhere from six to eight hours for nihari to be cooked properly, and it is traditionally consumed for breakfast, since the name of the dish is derived from the Arabic word nahar, meaning morning. 

Pakora is a savory, deep-fried Indian snack made with pieces of vegetables such as cauliflower and eggplant. Although it is a quintessential Indian snack that can be easily found on numerous street corners, it can also be made at home. Traditionally, pakoras are at their most popular during spring, when the locals enjoy fried foods to celebrate the monsoon season.

The snack comes in many varieties but is usually made from two main ingredients - potato, and another vegetable or meat of choice, which is then dipped in flour and deep-fried in ghee. Pakoras are usually seasoned with turmeric, salt, chili, or other spices. 

Although it originated in Punjab, dal makhani has become one of the most popular Indian lentil dishes, both in the country and outside of its borders. It consists of red kidney beans and whole black lentils, which also go under the name urad.

The dish is prepared with hefty amounts of ghee and various seasonings such as ginger-garlic paste and chili, and it is slowly cooked in a rich, tomato-based sauce. The name makhani, meaning butter, stems from the last addition, a drizzle of melted ghee or butter that provides the typical velvety flavor of this classic. 

Probably the best known of all Indian dishes, murgh makhani, internationally referred to as butter chicken, is a staple dish at most Indian restaurants. The dish originated in Delhi during the 1950s, when a man named Kundan Lal Gujral opened his restaurant called Moti Mahal.

The restaurant's cooks combined leftover marinade juices with tomatoes and butter, and then stewed the tandoor-cooked chicken in it, without even knowing that they have accidentally stumbled upon one of the most loved dishes ever and a future international delicacy. 

Rajma is one of the most popular vegetarian dishes of North India. It consists of red kidney beans which are stewed in a rich gravy combined with numerous spices. The dish is usually prepared for festivities and special occasions, when it is typically served alongside rice and breads such as roti.

Although closely associated with North India, where it is a staple food, red kidney bean was actually brought to the country from central Mexico and Guatemala, but the Mexican version of the dish is much different than the Indian one. Hearty and nutritious, rajma remains one of the most loved vegetarian curries in Punjab and North India.

This simple Indian dish consists of red beans (rajma) and cooked rice (chawal). Rajma is traditionally made with onions and tomato purée which acts as a gravy for the red beans. This dish makes for a complete vegetarian meal that is suitable for lunch or dinner.

If desired, rajma chawal can be flavored with a variety of spices such as chili peppers, cinnamon, bay leaves, ginger, garlic, coriander, and cumin. Although the dish is quite simple to prepare, it takes some time because the beans are typically soaked overnight before the preparation.

Korma is a creamy meat stew (although it could also be made in a vegetarian version) with a mild flavor, made with saffron, yogurt, and various spices such as coriander, ginger, cumin seeds, chiles, and turmeric. It is believed that it originated in the royal kitchen of Akbar during the mid-1500s as a fusion of Persian and Indian cuisine.

The dish got its name after one of the tribes of the Rajputs, a warrior clan of western India. It is recommended to serve kormas with flatbreads such as chapati, paratha, or naan. There are three main bases of korma: North Indian korma with almonds, cashews and yogurt (there are two subgroups of this korma: Mughalai (with reduced milk) and Shahi (with cream)), korma Kashmir with almonds, cashews, yogurt, milk, and dried fruits, and South Indian korma with coconut, coconut milk, almonds, cayenne peppers, and fennel seeds.