4 Healthy Ingredients From North East India

Lakadong turmeric may be expensive, but it is worthwhile; a little bit goes a long way.

North East India consists of seven sister states, now eight, with the addition of Sikkim. Therefore, north Eastern food is seen a little around India. However, people are now interested in knowing about the cuisine and other healthy ingredients from the North East. We have always been eating local and eating seasonal, and this practice has come down from our forefathers through the generations and is still practised even today. There are many native ingredients from the Northeast or practices we have been implementing from the past that people all around India and the world see as healthy or sustainable or organic eating or living.

We consume a lot of in-season wild herbs like pennyworth, fish mint, rosella leaves, and allium, to name a few. While it is hard to come across these ingredients outside of the Northeast as they are seasonal and do not travel well, there are North Eastern stores dotted across the country that can supply a few ingredients, if not all; do not fret, as there are other dry ingredients that are available across online platforms which you can buy from. Tanisha Phanbuh, North Eastern Food Connoisseur, uses some ingredients as examples.

1. Black rice or Forbidden rice: Various black rice varieties come from the Northeast and are famous worldwide. One is the Manipuri black rice; even Meghalaya grows a combination of black rice. We also have rough and polished rice, red rice, and sticky rice, all of which have their positives. They work well if you love food but are trying to keep a diet because even a tiny bowlful of this rice will keep you full for extended periods.
2. Turmeric: Lakadong Turmeric is now becoming famous for its highest curcumin percentage, making it more medicinal than the regular turmeric available. Lakadong turmeric may be expensive, but it is worthwhile; a little bit goes a long way. The colour is a lot more golden and rich, and with one pinch of the turmeric, you will truly see the difference in colour, aroma and taste (it's pungent)
3. Smoking is another technique to store meat and other ingredients for extended periods. In most Hill States, the temperatures can get very cold throughout winter; therefore, less produce is available. Mylleim smoked meat from Meghalaya is famous for this.
4. Fermentation is also typical in all states; fermented dry fish and fermented bean paste are common in most states, with slight differences in methods and names, like tungrymbai in Khasi Hills and Axonne in Nagaland.

Most of our food is organic, and many cooking techniques include steaming, boiling or eating raw and, rarely, deep frying anything. The Garo community, for example, always have kitchen gardens within their premises as their forefathers would insist on growing their food (fruits and veggies) so that they may never go hungry. All these products are now found online, adequately packaged and can be sent across India. So you can start trying healthier alternatives from the Northeast by replacing your everyday pantry with turmeric and rice, and you will start experiencing the difference.