Vegan Recipes455 family recipes

Vegan Indian cooking is older than the word "vegan" by a few thousand years. Sindhi, Bhatia, South Indian, and a large chunk of Gujarati home cooking have always been built around dal, lentils, beans, coconut, and vegetables — with no dairy beyond ghee, which most of these recipes don't need either.

What that means for the modern vegan home cook is that you don't have to translate Italian or Mediterranean food into something it isn't. You can cook Sindhi kadhi (besan-thickened, no yogurt), South Indian sambar, Bhatia moong khichdi, or a Gujarati undhiyu, and the result is a complete protein-rich meal that descended naturally as vegan.

We've also adapted dishes that traditionally use dairy — paneer becomes tofu or cashew curd, ghee becomes refined oil or coconut oil, cream becomes cashew cream or coconut cream. We tell you upfront which substitutions actually work (cashew curd in a butter masala is excellent; soy milk in a kheer is not) and which to skip.