Weekdays Run on Dal, Not Drama
In most North Indian homes, weekday cooking is not about presentation.
It’s about timing, habit, and getting everyone fed without losing your sanity.
Between office hours, school schedules, and tired evenings, nobody is assembling gourmet plates. What actually lands on the dining table is food that has been cooked this way for decades — quietly efficient, deeply nourishing, and completely unbothered by trends.
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| My Kitchen Story - Chane, Kulche, Raita |
This is the real story of North Indian weekday meals.
Dal–Sabzi–Roti: The Backbone of North Indian Weekday Meals
If there is one meal that defines everyday life in North Indian kitchens, this is it.
What’s usually cooked:
Arhar, masoor, or moong dal
One simple seasonal sabzi
Fresh rotis and/or leftover rice
This combination works because:
Dal cooks fast, often in a pressure cooker
Sabzi depends on what’s already at home
Rotis are made on autopilot, no recipe needed
It’s balanced, filling, and familiar — the kind of food that keeps households running.
Pressure Cooker Meals: The North Indian Kitchen’s Best Ally
In North Indian homes, the pressure cooker does most of the heavy lifting.
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| Stuffed Parantha with home made White Butter! Aha yummy! |
Common weekday cooker meals include:
Dal–chawal
Khichdi with vegetables (optional) and ghee for exhausting days.
Rajma or chole prepared in advance.
Vegetable pulao when rotis feel like too much work
The goal is simple: minimum effort, maximum comfort.
Leftovers Are Not an Afterthought — They’re a System
North Indian weekday cooking respects yesterday’s food.
Leftover dal becomes dal fry
Sabzi turns into paratha stuffing.
Extra rice becomes curd rice or fried rice.
Rotis get repurposed into rolls, chaat papdi or roti pizza too!
This isn’t compromise cooking.
It’s smart, economical, and deeply ingrained.
One Vegetable, Many Meals
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| Roti Roll - My favourite reuse! |
Weekday meals don’t chase variety — they chase efficiency.
One vegetable often appears across multiple meals:
As dry sabzi one day
Mixed into the dal for another day
Stuffed into parathas later
Seasonal vegetables are stretched thoughtfully, saving time and money without feeling repetitive.
Rice Nights: When Simplicity Wins
Some evenings, a simple, boring vegetable with chapati is made interesting with bread pakodas or bread rolls, or chat papdi.
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| Repurposed boiled rice and leftover veggies! |
Typical North Indian rice dinners include:
Dal–chawal
Kadhi–chawal
Jeera rice with leftover sabzi, green chutney and curd
Plain rice with curd or made curd rice with tempering of kadi patta and allied accompaniments.
Rice meals signal rest.
They’re lighter on effort and heavy on comfort.
Quick Fix Weekday Dinners (No Judgment Here)
There are days when energy runs out before the gas stove warms up.
That’s what dinners look like:
Bread omelette
Vegetable poha
Upma
Simple toast with chai
Not elaborate.
Just enough.
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| The drama food, which makes the food interesting! Ragda patties! |
Why This Everyday North Indian Food Still Matters
Because it:
Fits into real schedules
Uses simple ingredients
Keeps nutrition steady
Respects the cook’s time
This food may never trend online, but it has sustained families for generations.
Instagram food performs. The homemade foods provide.
Weekday meals in North Indian homes aren’t trying to impress anyone.
They exist to nourish, ground, and bring people together at the end of long days.
And honestly — that’s more than enough.
All photos are from my mobile gallery, showing my #kitchenstories
Neerja Bhatnagar
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