Learn about the best vegan substitutes in Indian cooking for meat, eggs and dairy products, including paneer, ghee and cream.
Veganizing Indian foods is not difficult, but because Indian cuisine is so diverse, it does need some understanding of appropriate substitutions.
Here are the best substitutes for dairy products and non-vegetarian ingredients, like meat and fish, in vegan Indian recipes.
Yogurt: A number of Indian recipes, including vegetable biryani, use yogurt. Substitution is easy: use unsweetened cultured vegan yogurt, homemade or store-bought, in any recipe that calls for yogurt.
Butter: In recipes like vegan butter chicken, where butter is used for flavoring, use vegan butter.
Ghee: Ghee is not just a cooking medium in Indian food, it adds a nutty flavor to savory and sweet foods. Substitute ghee with neutral oils (not olive oil or coconut oil unless specifically stated) in most Indian recipes. When I substitute ghee in an Indian recipe that calls for it, I add other ingredients to restore any flavor that is lost (see this vegan kaju katli recipe).
Milk: Indian vegan sweets often use milk or a milk reduction named khoya. You can easily replace milk in Indian sweets like vegan kheer and vegan barfi with non-dairy milks and nut milks.
Cream: Cashew cream (or pumpkin seed cream) is the most ideal replacement for cream in Indian recipes, not coconut milk. That's because savory Indian recipes that call for cream are always north Indian, like vegan dal makhani and coconut is not an ingredient often used in north Indian cuisine. I see well-meaning bloggers substituting coconut milk, which has a distinct flavor, for cream in Indian recipes. Keep in mind this will change the flavor of your recipe and it won't taste authentic. And no, the spices won't mute the overwhelming coconut flavor. On the other hand, coconut milk is delicious in foods with a south Indian flair, like this chickpea curry and vegetable korma.
Paneer: Paneer can be easily replaced with high protein tofu or extra firm tofu in recipes like vegan palak paneer and vegan tofu paneer butter masala. See how to marinate and bake tofu with Indian herbs and spices to make it work especially well as a paneer substitute.
Chicken and other meats: Baked tofu or air-fried tofu, which has a chewier texture, can work exceptionally well as a meat substitute too. I also recommend using seitan to replace chicken in dishes like this vegan chickn biryani and seitan curry.
Sausages can be replaced with vegan sausages in recipes like this Goan vegan sausage curry.
Mince meat or keema, used in many Indian Muslim recipes, can be replaced with vegan beef substitutes or brown lentils in recipes like vegan keema biryani and vegan keema masala.
Eggs: Eggs are not as frequently used in Indian cooking, but they do feature in recipes like egg curry, egg biryani and in some Parsi cuisine. Tofu works wonderfully as an egg substitute in recipes like this Indo-Chinese egg biryani and these Parsi tomatoes with tofu eggs.