Curious about India's wild foods? Here's how you can try them out

“Chambu is a prized foraged green, so much so that the women hide it when carrying back to protect it from evil eye,” says Anoop Chugh, who runs Gunehr Sound Museum, where he documents the soundscapes of the village, its people and the surrounding forests. As an extension of his museum experience The Forest Within—an immersive listening session that he launched in 2025 and takes place in a mud house—Chugh takes his guests on foraging walks accompanied by locals, introducing them to wild foods like lingdu (fiddlehead fern), akhre or wild berries and dhuda or wild fig. The walk is often followed with meals cooked by the women, and include the greens, and dishes like siddu (steamed dumpling), babru (deep-fried bread made with fermented dough) and chamode.

MONSOON BOUNTY

The wild and uncultivated food traditions of India are as diverse as the country’s topography, many of them rooted in indigenous cultures. Monsoon is usually when these foods are in abundance, and bringing them to the forefront means working closely with the native communities. A case in point is Rajkot-based OOO Farms, launched by Shailesh Aawate and Shikha Kansagara in the tribal forest regions of Maharashtra. The farmer-led movement has been hosting its annual Wild Food Festival in Mumbai since 2017, to create awareness about the wild vegetables and foods found in the Sahyadri region.

In the rest of the country too, organisations, brands, chefs and individuals are collaborating with local communities and farmers to preserve and promote wild edibles through walks, curated experiences and packaged products.

Goa-based Ayurveda practitioner and agroforestry consultant Maryanne Lobo has been hosting foraging walks in north Goa during the monsoon since 2020, introducing the participants to wild foods that are deeply entwined with the Goan life and tradition. In her walks, she talks about the greens eaten during the seasonal fishing ban, like pumpkin and taro leaves, golchi bhaji or purslane, mangrove fern, brahmi, and almi (a type of mushroom).

For Lobo, eating wild foods is an act of healthcare: “They boost immunity and cleanse the blood, but they must be eaten in small quantities and only once or twice a year. When I take chefs on walks, I tell them you cannot have wild foods on your table throughout the season.”

In Mumbai’s Aarey Forest, where the city’s tribal heartland is home to over 10,000 indigenous people, Waghoba Habitat Foundation has been organising traditional ecological knowledge workshops since 2020. Founder Sanjiv Valsan, photographer and conservationist, collaborates with the Adivasi community to create a 7-hour-long workshop that covers several activities, such as hikes, foraging, tribal art and natural farming knowledge, ending with a meal. These workshops are Valsan’s way to fill the knowledge gap that exists in the formal education system with regard to nature-based solution, ecological problems and climate change.

In Telangana's Zaheerabad, the 40-year-old Deccan Development Society has been hosting the Uncultivated Greens Festival for seven years now, showcasing leafy greens (amaranth, spinach, purslane and jute, among others) that grow wild within the periphery of a traditional farm.

SIMPLE RECIPES

Hosted in August, the festival consists of farm tours, meeting local farmers and a meal comprising millets and greens. The recipes are simple—greens cooked with onion, ginger, garlic and spices, and often include lentils. Those living in and around Zaheerabad can also order their weekly vegetables directly from the farmers and the basket includes seasonal uncultivated greens too.

Subscription-based ventures allow city folks to experience the bounty of the wild in more ways than one. In 2019, Bengaluru-based Spudnik Farms, a network of community-supported farms, launched a weekly subscription of vegetable boxes in the city. Apart from seasonal vegetables, it includes ube or purple yam, koorka or Chinese potato, sham or taro root, and air potato grown in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

The curiosity around tubers prompted founder and CEO Sumeet Kaur to launch the festival Rooting for Tubers in Bengaluru in 2022. “The idea is to bring together farmers, chefs, scientists, academics, and food enthusiasts to explore tubers as climate-resilient, nutritious and culturally significant foods, while creating greater appreciation for their role in our food systems. It is part of a larger initiative that includes chef residencies, cooking workshops, pop-up dinners, online conversations and corporate engagements,” says Kaur.