In the earlier months of our transition to plant based diet, I felt a bit confused, like many other new vegans, about the options and recipes that were basically vegan versions of meat and cheese. I was brought up mostly vegetarian. Our everyday meals were beans, grains, vegetables. So fortunately, what we would eat for lunch or dinner never became a stressful question during the early transition days. Over the months I also realized that the Vegan movement is quite different than the Indian Vegetarian thing, Vegetarian-ism (in India) is usually somewhat religious or something you are born into and just happen to be because of family or community, and not really thinking of vegetarian-izing other dishes. With Veganism, there is usually a conscious reason to choose the Vegan diet, ethics, health, environment etc. Hence, t

here are several ways to do a plant based diet, with meat subs or without, with or without cheese subs, raw, cooked, mixed, smoothies, different cuisines, and on and on, depending on where(food wise) you come from.





Think of it this way. If most of the country(India) of more than a Billion people eats vegetarian everyday with the major portion of the meals being pulses, beans, grains and veggies,

That too without an epidemic of protein, vitamin or other deficiencies, T

here have to be some good number of options for all those people right. And there are. There is no one Indian cuisine of the country. Each of the 29 states have their own cuisine and some regions within the states also have their own cuisines. Imagine all those plant foods based options!



This week for Veg Week, here is another creamy North-Indian style curry with bold flavors to add to that repertoire of Vegan Indian food. This sauce has some specific spices and ingredients, which give it the texture and flavor. You can omit the ingredients you do not have on hand. The sauce is usually served with Paneer cheese or meats. I used a This week for Veg Week, here is another creamy North-Indian style curry with bold flavors to add to that repertoire of Vegan Indian food. This sauce has some specific spices and ingredients, which give it the texture and flavor. You can omit the ingredients you do not have on hand. The sauce is usually served with Paneer cheese or meats. I used a Hemp-Tofu block (Tofu made of Hemp seeds, yup, no Soy!). Each 8 oz pack has 30 gms of protein! This curry is loaded. Or use chickpea-tofu from my book to make soy-free.



Like the pasanda sauce, there are many such complex flavor sauces that are generally served over meat or paneer, but hey, all the flavor is in the sauce! So use it with anything, veggies, beans, tofu, tempeh. It is difficult to name most of these sauces/curries. Most of them end up being called creamy 🙂 But believe you me, they taste and feel very different.