In India, cooking is considered an art and mothers usually begin to teach their daughters and pass down family recipes by show-and-tell, fairly young in life. As a matter of fact, food is very serious business. In most Indian homes, even in this day and age when most women work outside the home, if one is not cooking or eating a meal, one is planning what to cook next! Meals almost always include several dishes, dessert and a staple or two like rice and Chapatis. Over the course of history, various invaders have passed through India and left their stamp behind on its cuisine. There was Aryan, Persian, Arab, British and Portuguese to name just a few. The result is foods that are so delicious, some of them are legendary!

Now's as good a time as any to get started. Diverse, delicious and not as difficult to cook as you might think, Indian is among the leading cuisines of the world. With every state, city and even every home having its own recipes for thousands of dishes, you can imagine how the variety is absolutely mind-boggling!

Contrary to popular belief, Indian food is not just about curry, chillies and oil! There is probably no other cuisine in the world that includes as many healthy and diverse vegetables and spices. http://indianfood.about.com/od/thebasics/a/nevercooked.htm

How to make Indian vegetable curry; learn more about making traditional Indian food in this free cooking video.

Expert: Mona Sishodia Bio: Mona Sishodia has been cooking traditional North Indian Food since age 16. Filmmaker: Nili Nathan