Lahore is a city with an extremely rich food culture. The city offers a vast variety of options when it comes to food. In recent times, with an addition of foreign flavours and recipes, the style of food in Lahore has gone even more popular. Other cities in Pakistan do have their own food identities and specialties but Lahore, being an open-minded, dynamic and welcoming metropolitan, has brought them all at one place. Being impartial, it would not be a false accusation if we call Lahore the ‘food capital’ of Pakistan.

Keeping in view the dynamics and diversity of the food culture of Lahore, we present you a series of food recipes from the food capital of Pakistan. All the recipes have been taken from Dr Javaid Asgher’s book titled “Three Cuisines: A Tribute of Gastronomy. Hope you enjoy the read!

Daal Ghosht

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Serving 5

Ingredients

Meat/Mutton 500 grams

Onions (medium sized, finely sliced) 3 pieces

Split Chickpeas 1½ cups

Oil 3 tbsp

Ginger-garlic paste 1 tbsp

Green chilli 4 pieces

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder 1 tsp

Turmeric powder ½ tsp

Readymade garam

Masala powder 1 tsp

Mint leaves 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves 1 tbsp

Yogurt (beaten) 1 cup

Coconut powder (dry, roasted) 1 tbsp

Method

Soak chickpeas in water for about 30-60 minutes. Put oil in a pressure cooker and heat it. Add sliced onions and saute them until they become translucent. Slit the green chillies, sautee them, and add ginger-garlic paste to the mix. Add mutton pieces to mixture and roast. Then add salt, red chilli powder, and turmeric powder. Mix well and cook for a few minutes. Add the soaked chickpeas to this mixture, cook for a few minutes. Then add beaten yogurt, cook for a few seconds. Add roasted dry coconut powder, mix well. Cook for 3-5 minutes. Add more water to the pressure cooker to ensure mutton and chickpeas become tender. Reduce the steam and add readymade garam masala powder, mint leaves and coriander leaves.

Cook for a while and switch off stove.

Serve hot with roti or rice.

*Soaking chickpeas is an important step as chickpeas takes a longer time to tenderize compared to others.

Nutrition Information: Energy 474 Kcal, Fat 29 g, Protein 40 g, Carbohydrates 17 g.

Tandoori Lamb Chops

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serving 4

Ingredients

Yogurt 200 grams

Cumin powder 1½ tsp

Readymade garam masala 1½ tsp

Coriander powder 1½ tsp

Turmeric powder 1 tsp

Chilli powder 1½ tsp

Salt to taste

Lemon juice 4 tbsp

Ginger-garlic paste 2 tbsp

Lamb chops (on bone) 12 pieces

Method

Apply salt and ginger-garlic paste to lamb chops and keep aside for 20 min. Take a bowl and make a marinade with the rest of the ingredients. Apply marinade to the chops and leave the bowl covered for another 30-60 min. Arrange lamb chops in the skewers and cook in a pre-heated tandoor or over a charcoal grill till tender. Once chops are cooked and have a nice charred texture on top, remove from tandoor. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves; serve hot with mint chutney and onion rings.

Serve with white rice OR tandoori bread/naan

Nutrition Information: Energy 112 Kcal, Fat 6 g, Protein 13 g, Carbohydrates 1 g.