The cuisine of India is as diverse as it culture and terrain.
It is basically the interaction and trade with the other neighboring countries in ancient times that lend this variation.
It has been highly influenced by Persia, ancient Greece, Mongols and West Asia.
Each region of India boasts of its own way of cooking and varied dishes.
This mainly depends on its staple food, spices and the particular types of vegetables that are grown in that region.
The Indian cuisine is globally famous for its use of varied spices.
The main spices used are fenugreek seeds, chili pepper, black mustard seeds, coriander seeds, turmeric, ginger, garlic, cumin and asafetida.
Aromatic spices also form an important part of this cuisine.
So there is a wide use of aromatic spices known as garam masala; they include cardamom, cinnamon, and clove.
Aromatic leaves like cassia leaves (tejpata), mint leaves, coriander leaves and curry leaves are also used to provide a zing to the flavor along with aroma.
The staple foods of India are rice, wheat flour and a whole variety of pulses like masoor (red lentil), rad (black gram), mung (green gram), chana(Bengal gram), toor(yellow gram) and many more.
The cooking is done in vegetable oils mostly.
In north and west India you will find foods cooked mainly in peanut oils while in eastern Indian mustard oil finds application.
Coconut oil forms the only medium of cooking in south India.
The rich dishes are mainly prepared in hydrogenated vegetable oils known as vanaspati ghee and even desi ghee (clarified butter).