When searching for the most vegan and vegetarian-friendly destinations for travelers, India (the country with the world’s largest population) consistently ranks at the top and it’s easy to see why. With a majority of citizens practicing Hinduism, in which cows are sacred, you won’t find beef in excess (though folks will still eat it) but an abundance of milk products. In Punjab, food has traditionally been plant-based/vegetarian because their population is predominantly farmers: they ate what they could grow. Amritsar also has a vegetarian-only McDonald’s. You’re not likely to find more vegetarian restaurants anywhere else with plenty of vegan restaurants as well. India is incredibly vegetarian-friendly. But that begs the question: is India vegan-friendly? Yes and no. Let’s get into it.
According to Statista, approximately a quarter of all Indians are vegetarians; in 2021, 25% of Indian survey respondents reported following a strict vegetarian diet. In the same year, 11% of respondents reported following a vegan diet. Many others may not subscribe to a vegetarian diet but limit meat consumption (i.e., only eating meat on certain days, etc.). For a rough comparison, an article from Yahoo! Finance late last year stated that approximately 5% of Americans follow a vegetarian diet and 4% follow a vegan diet. With the rapid advancement of factory non-meats, alternative milk, and more in the US, shouldn’t those percentages be higher? Perhaps not. The accessibility of authentic, delicious plant-based food in countries like India without the reliance of fake meats might be the key.
Unfortunately, while vegetarian food is common in India, vegan food is less so. You will see dozens of articles touting how vegan-friendly India is. A lot of vegetarian dishes are inherently vegan (without cream, milk or other forms of it) but the key culprit here is ghee (or clarified butter). Ghee is used in pretty much everything, whether it’s spread on top of warm naan, or used to fry samosas or saute onion, garlic and other spices as part of the tadka for dishes. It’s almost impossible to avoid. I didn’t realize how inherent it was in Punjabi cooking until I could no longer eat my mother’s food when I went vegan. Thankfully, my mom is as wonderful as she is and made the switch to olive oil or vegan butter.
When I traveled to India this year (for the first time in 15 years and the first time since I switched to a plant-based diet), I had mixed emotions about returning. I was attending two weddings and I knew the food would be a challenge. Wedding food is worse than regular food with the amount of fried food, and the pools of ghee and oil, but I still managed (and my parents advocated for me everywhere we went so that I could eat). So navigating India as a vegan isn’t easy but more than doable.
If you’re traveling to India as a vegan, here are some of my top tips:
Ask for ghee to be substituted with olive or coconut oil.
Opt for a bread like puri (which may already be vegan) over naan or roti, or ask for it to be brushed with oil instead.
Stick to dishes and snacks that are typically vegan like samosas and pakoras, chana masala, most daals (check on the tadka), dosas and sambar, biryani, rajma chawal, bhel puri, aloo gobi, saag aloo, baigan bharta, gajjar matter sabzi, chole bhature, most parathas (that aren’t brushed in butter), idli vada, upma, poha, most chaats (without dahi), soya chaap and a lot more.
Indo-Chinese is also common and vegan-friendly (look for dishes like hakka noodles and gobi manchurian). My all-time favorite dishes are aloo puri and rajma chawal, which are usually vegan as is, and as a snack, I love papri chaat (I’ll use non-dairy Greek yogurt or Kite Hill sour cream as a sub for the raita).
Use the Happy Cow app to find vegetarian and vegan-friendly restaurants.
Do you have any other tips for vegans in India? Let me know below.
Looking for things to avoid eating or drinking in India? Read this post.
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