Traditional recipes

The everyday Mizo stew of leafy greens, bamboo shoot and other vegetables boiled with a little soda, mild and lightly salted.

Pork smoked over the kitchen fire until dry, then cooked with chillies, ginger and greens.

A simple Mizo dish of boiled pork cooked with mustard greens (antam), ginger and chilli.

A thick, comforting dish of rice cooked with chicken or pork until soft, seasoned with ginger and salt.

Sweet fritters of mashed ripe banana and rice flour, fried until crisp outside and soft inside.

Seasonal vegetables steamed or boiled with little or no oil and eaten with a fiery chilli chutney.

Soybeans boiled and fermented in leaves until sticky and pungent, then cooked with chillies and ginger.

A popular street snack of thin rice porridge topped with fish sauce, crisp fried bits, coriander, spring onion and pepper.

Soft cakes of steamed sticky rice, pounded and shaped by hand, eaten with tea or on festive days.

A fiery pounded chutney of roasted Mizo chillies, ginger, onion and salt that goes with every meal.

River fish simmered with greens, bamboo shoot, ginger and chilli in a light, clear broth.

Tender bamboo shoots stir-fried with garlic, chilli and greens, from Mizoram’s vast bamboo forests.

Chicken boiled with plenty of ginger, chilli and seasonal vegetables in a clear, warming broth.

Chayote squash and its tender shoots boiled or lightly stir-fried, a staple vegetable of Mizo kitchens.

Light black tea with sugar and no milk, offered in every Mizo home, office and church gathering.