Ahead of World Vegetarian Day, Ambika Shaligram chats up chefs, a food writer and a blogger to find out where non-meat food stands in Indian palate and if experimental veg grub sells

With a plethora of regional cuisines that India boasts of, vegetarians get a ‘paneer’ deal, when they are dining out. And, when it comes to continental platter, they are served a ‘raw’ deal. Literally so! While the world celebrates the Vegetarian Day tomorrow, we dig into the menus and food culture of various Indian communities to find out more about the regional varieties and what appeals to patrons. Here’s what they have to say...

The catch

It can be simple; it can burst with flavours. It is tasty, nutritious and easy to digest. But if you conclude that it’s easy to cook, well, you are wrong. Says Chef Sapan Palit at Tarwade’s Clarks Inn, “In one word, vegetarian cooking is ‘tough’. Unlike meat and fish preparation, where gravies and garnishing can tease your palate, for veg dishes, we have to toil a bit more to bring out their subtle taste.”

Chef Anand Rangari of Hotel Deccan Rendezvous seconds him. “Cooking vegetarian food is tricky. You overcook it and the flavours are lost. You need to get other ingredients to add taste to it. When you cook meat, all the extracts come into the gravy, and it becomes tastier,” says he.

“Correct ingredients and the way the veggies are cut — all this adds to the taste. For instance, drumsticks need to be skinned and then cut in a slanting way to bring out their distinct flavour,” adds Chef Manu Nair of Southindies.

Why just paneer?

Chefs Palit and Rangari unanimously say that the menu is pretty restrictive when it comes to putting together vegetarian dishes in a multi-cuisine restaurant. “See, if we put about 20 veg dishes and an equal number of non-veg dishes on the menu, only four or five dishes of the former sell briskly. Rest of the vegetarian dishes on the menu, don’t ‘move’. When someone’s investing money in a restaurant, they expect profitability. And, serving vegetarian food isn’t profitable,” explains Rangari, who loves eating Masaaledar Bharli Vangi but “can’t serve it at his world cuisine restaurant.”

“If you are eating Suki Batatyachi Bhaji or Bharli Vangi at home, on a regular basis, you surely don’t want to eat it again in a restaurant. There are certain food pairs that are fixed in our mind. Idli, Dosa are breakfast menu. You don’t want to explore more of the South Indian cuisine. If you eat Maharashtrian food, then it has to be a thali. What does that leave you with? Paneer. It becomes a close substitute to meat. Even mushrooms don’t have the reach that paneer has,” he informs.

Chef Palit points out that as far as veggie food is concerned, most restaurants do serve what has come to be known as ‘Punjabi food’. “Unless, we are having curated meals during theme food festivals, vegetarians get to eat mainly Punjabi,” he points out.

“I think you get a greater variety of vegetarian food from home cooks. In restaurant segment, we can offer people from Jain community only dishes without onion and garlic. But when you eat in a Jain home, you will be treated to rich, sumptuous food, garnished with almonds, cashews and raisins. Their food is amazing,” adds Palit.

Agrees nutritionist and food writer, Rita Date. “Marwaris and Gujaratis who are predominantly vegetarians, have the most elaborate menus for their parties and weddings,” says she, adding, “People forget that ‘vegetarian’ means eating vegetables. There are many options other than paneer. Grilled veggies for continental, Stir fried Broccoli/Bok Choy for Chinese, Falafal for Middle Eastern, Pasta and Salad for Italian cuisine. Of course, there are so many choices in Indian food.”

Adds Natasha Diddee, a food blogger and Instagrammer, “I never order paneer whilst eating out. I prefer to order vegetables, chana or dals, if I’m eating Indian food. If I eat Chinese, I order a Veg Manchurian.”

The offering from North, South, East and West

The conundrum of dietary habits also extends to the regional palate. “There’s a lot of meat influence over the Northern Indian cuisine. There are so many variations of Biryani, which is originally from Persia. While Biryani with mutton or chicken ingredients can be cooked all over the country, vegetarian dishes like Aloo-Puri available on roadside stalls in Varanasi cannot be replicated everywhere else. The potatoes grown there have ‘alag swaad’; they are a little sweeter. You can’t find that variety in Maharashtra,” adds Rangari.

Chef Palit, who is a hardcore meat eater, says the Bihari preparation of Litti Chokha is not readily available in other parts of the country. “In West Bengal, where I hail from, everyone is predominantly a fish eater. There are a few veg dishes like Poshto, Patol etc. But ingredients to cook them are not easily found in other states,” he adds.

The food that comes from South is a blessing for vegetarians though. They do not lack in meat and fish preparations either, but the four regions within southern India, offer plenty of veg varieties. Chef Nair says, “Karnataka, Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala offer four cooking styles. Out of which Kerala cuisine is the richest in terms of spread and ingredients. Karantaka leans towards more sweetish cooking, Andhra is the spiciest and Tamil Nadu is the amalgamation of all. The Kerala cooking style originates in Travancore using locally available vegetables like red pumpkin, snake gourd, red beans etc. Andhra cuisine uses spices liberally because their usage in cooking allows the denizens living in hot and humid conditions to sweat and release the body heat. Tamil Nadu’s Chettinad cuisine also makes use of lots of spices. Their vegetarian cooking is defined by what the Iyers eat. All the four regions use coconut oil.”

However, when it comes to serving South Indian food in Pune, the recipes are tweaked a bit. “We can’t be adamant and stick to our original recipes if we have to win over patrons here. So 90 per cent of our recipes are authentic and 10 per cent, tweaked. In Avial, we use locally available vegetables. We also use little less coconut oil. The smell and the oil itself might be a little difficult to digest for people who have not grown eating it,” adds Nair.

In Maharashtra, the thali dining places make a good business. But standalone non-veg places like Kolhapuri, Saoji, Varhadi, Khandeshi are extremely popular. “Veg dishes except for Veg Kolhapuri etc don’t sell much,” reiterates Chef Rangari.

But food lovers do make the most of these regional cuisines, ordered online through home cook groups, or from specialty restaurants. Diddee, a vegetarian by choice, explains, “There is so much variety in Indian vegetarian food. I’d have to take several rebirths just to try every kind of vegetarian food from each state! Plus, the presentation and flavours take the cake! Each vegetable is seen, the colour is visible. You could literally be eating the rainbow!”

The food on your plate

Although vegans and vegetarians are raving about the choices that are now available the world over, Chef Rangari strikes a cautious note. Says he, “The vegetarian trend is still new out there. And, that’s why even your basic ‘vegetarian tomato soup’ includes bacon in it. The same applies to a potato-based dish because some chicken stock will be added to it.”

“In India, when you are trying to accommodate veg recipes, in a multi-cuisine dinner, it becomes difficult to replicate the dishes minus the meat. A Paneer Makhani cannot quite replace Murgh Makhani,” he adds.

Plus, India has a complex social and dietary pattern across various communities. “Some people refrain from eating meat on Mondays and Thursdays. Some communities don’t cook non-veg at home, but that’s the only food they would dig into when they are eating out. There are those who eat eggs, but not meat. You know, there are so many combinations and permutations, being a selective vegetarian on some days and a meat-eater on other days, it isn’t safe business proposition to run a stand-alone vegetarian restaurant,” adds Rangari.