9 traditional Kashmiri non-vegetarian dishes to try this winter season

Kashmiri cuisine is known for its rich and slow-cooked non-vegetarian dishes that reflect centuries of tradition, climate, and cultural refinement. As per experts, these non-veg dishes keep people warm in extreme cold. Iconic dishes such as Rogan Josh, Rista, Gushtaba, Aab Gosht, Yakhni, and Hareesa showcase the signature use of fennel powder, dry ginger, and whole spices, creating deep flavours without onions, tomatoes, or excessive chilli. The use of these spices help keep the body warm during extreme cold and have other medicinal properties too. Here we have listed nine traditional Kashmiri non-vegetarian dishes that are best enjoyed during the winter season.

It refers to a curry dish made with lamb and kohlrabi and greens. The dish also uses shallots, garlic, salt, cumin, cardamom, turmeric, and fennel powder in its preparation.

It is a classic mutton curry and is made without onions, tomatoes, or red chilli, and uses ingredients like whisked yogurt, fennel powder (saunf), dry ginger (sonth), and whole spices like bay leaf, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon. In this dish, curd is tempered and added gradually to prevent curdling, resulting in a smooth, velvety gravy with a gentle tang. Unlike many Indian curries, Kashmiri yakhni is white or pale in colour and is served wit steamed rice.

(Image: Instagram/nks58)

Here, aab means water and gosht means meat, and refers to a non veg dish where bone-in mutton is cooked with milk, ginger powder, fennel powder, ghee, and salt. It is best enjoyed with steamed rice. (Image: Instagram/

As the name suggests, it's a lamb korma dish, which uses lamb as the key ingredients along with curd, tomatoes, shallots, garlic, oil, coriander, cumin, cardamom, cassia and cloves as supporting ingredients.

This is a Kashmiri pulao that also uses lamb in its preparation. As big rice eaters, they love making this pulao, which is best enjoyed with chutney. To make this, you need rice, lamb, peas, shallots, oil or ghee, cumin, green cardamom, black pepper and cloves.

This refers to lamb meatballs in a tomato sauce. To make this kofta curry you need minced lamb, garlic, ginger, coriander, shallots, black cardamom, cumin, coriander seeds, pepper corn, tomatoes, cinnamon and oil.

It is a traditional slow-cooked meat and grain dish from Kashmir, which has a porridge-like texture and goes well with breads. To make this dish, you need mutton or lamb, rice, milk, water, ghee, salt, and mild spices.

It is the most iconic meat dish of Kashmir, where slow-cooked mutton or lamb is infused with curd, mustard oil, whole spices, and Kashmiri spices. It is enjoyed with bread and rice too.

It is a part of Wazwan, where minced mutton meatballs are cooked in spices like ratan jot, fennel, cloves, and cardamom.

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