page_title: Cuisine of Karnataka
section_title: South Karnataka
hierarchical_section_title: Cuisine of Karnataka / South Karnataka
caption_attribution_description: English: The staple diet of the farmer households in the southern districts of Karnataka. The diet includes millets, lentils, vegetables and spices. Highly nutritious, very low on fat and interestingly tasty - a wholesome meal.
context_page_description: The cuisine of Karnataka includes the cuisines of the different regions and communities of Karnataka, namely, North Karnataka cuisine, South Karnataka cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Saraswat cuisine, Coorg cuisine, Mangalorean Catholic cuisine and Navayath cuisine.
  Karnataka cuisine includes both vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Ragi, which is a staple in Kannadiga cuisine is mentioned in the works of the poet Adikavi Pampa and in the ancient Sanskrit medical text Sushruta Samhita.
  Following are some of the different cuisines from Karnataka
  Uttara Karnataka Cuisine
  Karwar cuisine
  Udupi Cuisine
  Mangaluru cuisine
  Kodagu or coorg cuisine
  Mysuru - Mandya cuisine
  Dakshina Kannada cuisines
  Malnad cuisine: further this could be divide as North, South and central Malnad regions
  Ballari - Raichur cuisine
  Davangere cuisine
context_section_description: The staples of South Karnataka food is rice and ragi (finger millet). Since rice is relatively expensive compared to ragi, ragi is the primary food for those living in rural areas. This cuisine uses some of the same dishes as Udupi cuisine: including kosambri and spiced rice. A typical meal consists of ragi mudde along with some sort of saaru. Bassaru is a spicy, lentil-based vegetable stew, while uppusaaru is a milder soup typically eaten with uppankai (pickle). The most popular saaru in the area is koli saaru, chicken sambar, but mutton is also consumed, especially during festivals. Other significant dishes are avarekalu, beans consumed during the winter, and bisi bele bath, a way of cooking rice along with vegetables, essentially combining sambar and rice in a single dish. The rava idli was invented in the 1940s, during a rice shortage, in MTR, Bengaluru. Other important dishes include upma (called upittu in the region).
  Kodava cuisine has some significant differences from typical South Karnataka cuisine, the most important being the prevalence of pork dishes.
caption: Ragi mudde with bassaru
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