CHENNAI: You have a wide range of recipes from Indian cuisine that are vegan in nature, so you’re still eating beautiful, wholesome classics like a Sindhi bhee (lotus root) kebab or Maharastrain kothambir vadi,” says Sonal Ved, and we could not agree more. Flipping through the pages of her latest offering The Indian Vegan, a cookbook that delves into vegan dishes from cuisines across India, I realise how many of our dishes are vegan without proclaiming to be so. Concurring, Sonal tells me that South Indian cuisines indeed have more vegan dishes.
“They use a whole lot of alternative coconut milk not only to the curries but also to add body and texture to gravy pastes that would otherwise use yoghurt. It’s relatively more vegan friendly,” she says. Besides presenting a curated list of vegan dishes, Sonal also offers alternatives to substitutes like soya, jackfruit or tofu giving readers newer inspirations.
From Manipur to Maharashtra, Kashmir to Kanniyakumari, Sonal does a deepdive into the variety of cuisines India has to offer. And it is this kind of research that she enjoys. “It’s incredible to get a year or two to dive deep into one subject and understand its history, its geographical playout, to research the length and breadth of this country and discover new recipes.
I find this research purposeful and muchneeded,” she shares. After publishing two books in 2023, Sonal is set to spend 2024 researching for the next topic. “It will be spent on eating some more, discovering new micro cuisines and recipes. All I can promise is that there will definitely be more cookbooks,” she adds.
Excerpts follow:
Tell us about your journey into veganism
For a year before I landed this cookbook deal, I was tremendously inspired to follow a vegan diet on a whim. I read umpteen articles and studies, and watched documentaries that convinced me that in order to feel better, think clearer, be fitter, I had to add more whole foods, grains and plants in my meals. Being born in a Gujarati family, I have been a vegetarian all my life, but veganism was a new beast, even for me. My journey began with cutting the cord with yoghurt, an ingredient I had been obsessed with all my life. I ate a yoghurt bowl for breakfast, drank chaas after lunch, and had raita at dinner. Yet somehow, I didn’t know it wasn’t working for my body type, not until I tried a vegan diet. Today, I practice a diet that is 80% plant-based, filled with whole grains, fresh vegetables, ample fruits, alternative milks, less gluten and more millets. This is what makes sense to my body type and I urge people to experiment until they find a diet plan that works well for theirs, rather than following non-nutritionist - based suggestions.
What kind of research went into curating the recipes?
For a country with a 39 per cent vegetarian population, this wasn’t too hard. Personally for me, not only did I follow a predominantly plant-based diet, I had also written two Indian food books — Tiffin: 500 Authentic Recipes Celebrating India’s Regional Cuisine and Whose Samosa Is It Anyway? — which broadened my understanding of the nuances of Indian regional cooking. Through these books, I realised that from the Malvani cuisine that originates on the banks of the Arabian Sea on the west coast of India, Bengali food in the east, to Rajasthani food, Indians have been savouring plantbased textures in place of meat for over several decades.
Take for instance a di s h called kele ki machli, which literally translates to ‘fish of raw bananas’. This is a Kayasth preparation from the northern region of India, and comes from the kitchens of a cultural sector that originally mingled with the Muslim Mughals and therefore needed to cook and eat food that resembled the diet of the court rulers. Similarly, the Bengali dhoka’r dalna is an intrinsic part of their niramish, no onion, or garlic repertoire. The word ‘dhoka’ here means ‘betrayal’, signifying fooling the family into eating a vegetarian meal and tricking them into believing that the lentil cakes are in fact chunks of meat. These are just two examples of how beautifully Indian cooking incorporates vegan food. It took me about two years toput this project together.
You mention that curating desserts was a challenge. Where did the challenge start to blur?
The toughest but the most gratifying chapter of this book is the dessert section, which took me months to perfect — after all, what is Indian meetha without milk, ghee and mawa? But lots of experiments and trials led me to a dozen drinks and desserts that will satisfy that sweet craving without making you miss dairy. I’m an absolute sweet tooth, so it was very essential that my own cookbook has dreamy desserts that don’t taste like sawdust. My favourites are elaneer payasam which is anyway made with coconut milk and cashew milk phirni.
While coconut milk works well in Indian dishes, what about the other kinds?
Are our dishes well suited to the other milk variants? Yes, whether it’s oat milk that will work wonderfully to dilute any thick tomato or spinach gravies and give the dish a heavy body, or it’s almond milk that delivers a nutty flavour plus creaminess, alternative milks work wonderfully with Indian cuisine. I urge the readers to make their own milks at home and avoid tetra packed milks.
What would your suggestion be for a simple vegan thali for lunch with the recipes mentioned in your book?
This is so hard for me, because I champion each recipe in this cookbook. But if I absolutely had to, it’d serve a pudina panki, lilwa kachori, bajra rotla pockets as a side on the plate. For the main course one bowl will have my jackfruit kosha mangsho, Parsi pumpkin patio, Garhwali kafuli, Bengali “plastic” chutney, gluten-free besan roti and cashew phirni for dessert.
Book: The Indian Vegan
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publishers India
Pages: 143
Price: Rs 999
Mini Papad and Potato-Avo Canapes
Ingredients
Method
Manipuri Kelli Chana
Ingredients
Method
Elaneer Payasam
Ingredients
Method
Excerpted with permission from ‘The Indian Vegan’ by Sonal Ved.