🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Gujaratis

Gujaratis are the people of the Indian state of Gujarat. In a cuisine where many families are vegetarian, milk and dairy products are an important source of protein: dahi (home-made yogurt), ghee and chaas — thinned buttermilk with spices, drunk in hot weather — are everyday staples.

Gujaratis, like Marathis, regard shrikhand as their own traditional dessert. To make it, dahi is hung in cloth until the whey drains away; the thick mass left behind (chakka) is whipped with sugar, saffron and cardamom. Shrikhand is often served at festive meals with puri, deep-fried flatbreads.

Gujarat is also known for its modern dairy cooperative movement: cooperatives of small producers, founded in the mid-20th century, became one of the foundations of the growth of India’s dairy sector. Milk here comes mainly from cows and buffalo.