44 Vegetarian Indian Recipes for Home Cooks Everywhere To Try

When opting for a vegetarian meal, some turn to plant-based meat products to recreate their go-to recipes. But if you’re looking for more-traditional ways to go meatless, Indian cuisine is awash with historically meat-free dishes that require no substitutions. The food in India is diverse both in flavor and ingredient types, so many of these dishes have tons of variations. This list of vegetarian and vegan dishes includes recipes that are warm, bright and savory — but don't worry, there's plenty sweet to end your meal with too. And if you're trying to hit your protein goals: we've got just the thing. Whether you prefer to ladle on the lentils or punch up your plate with India's answer to cheese, paneer, these recipes don't dare to skimp on the protein to help your hit your goals. All while being absolutely delicious!

You can't talk about Delhi, especially its chaat scene, without talking about one of its most famous chaats - the tikkis. Sometimes also referred to as 'cutlets,' these tikkis, made from a base of potatoes (of course, what else?) and matar, or green peas, are especially popular in the winter months, when green peas are abundant in Delhi. Nidhi Jalan loves to blend some peas into her chutney, too, for a bit of added sweetness — because when it comes to chaat, who said there are rules?

A hearty lentil stew filled with ground spices and brimming with vegetables and well-cooked lentils, sambar presents a unique mix of tang and taste. It definitely looks like soup (or stew!) and can be eaten by the bowl-ful, but traditionally, it's served alongside South Indian tiffin (breakfast/snack) items such as idli, dosa, vada and even upma! This plant-based, protein-packed dish is the perfect thing to dive into in those cold, winter months.

South Indian food is so diverse and vibrant, and amidst the range of beige stews and white rice sits a cornerstone of the cuisine: vegetables! Poriyal is a distinctly South-Indian word and refers to any stir-fried vegetable side dish that graces the table. It could be any vegetable but oftentimes features a vegetable found easily in India — in this case, green beans! In this recipe, Maneet gives green beans the poriyal treatment by sauteing them with roasted chana dal, grated coconut and the signature South Indian tempering, or garnish. There's no better or more satisfying way to eat your veggies, especially your greens, than poriyal.

If you've grown tired of chapathis, want to change it up, or perhaps want an all-inclusive, on-the-go meal or snack, look no further than aloo roti. Similar to the chapathy, this flatbread is soft and supple. Stuffed with a thin layer of seasoned potato filling, this flatbread can be served with gravies like saag or chana masala or, more traditionally, like a paratha, with just an accompaniment of thick curd (yogurt) and a dollop of Indian pickle. It's also a great snack to eat on-the-go as-is and makes for a great afternoon snack.

Some chaat items — like the aforementioned Papdi Chaat — often include a dousing of lightly-spiced yogurt, often seasoned with cumin, to help act as a foil to the other spices on the plate and the way they can really ignite your tastebuds. Dahi Bhalla is one in which yogurt is more than a side actor: it's a star! While popular in Delhi, versions of this dish are popular all over India — and made differently ever. This iteration includes floating, fried lentil fritters called vada or bhalla, bobbing in a tangy yogurt sauce. While the South Indian version is often served spicy, seasoned with tempered curry leaves, mustard seeds, and chilis, this take is more on the 'sweet heat' side, allowing you to enjoy all the tastes (and textures) at play.

If you love rice, you've come to the right place. Rife with plant-based delicacies, South Indian cuisine has an added asset: it's mostly naturally gluten-free! And we have rice to thank for that. While a typical South Indian spread usually features a plain, short-grain rice cooked thoroughly til soft and easily mixable with the many stews, curries, and gravies that accompany it, this rice is a dish unto itself. Referred to as one of the many 'mixed rices' in South Indian cuisine, this lemon-scented delight relies on turmeric for its vibrant mustard color and can be eaten as-is — feel free to pair it with a strong and spicy pickle for a satisfying kick.

These street eats need no introduction, really. If you've been online in the last decade (or so), chances are you've seen influencers mukbanging them in quick-hit reels, horrifying Indians across the globe by dunking them in a vat of butter chicken or chicken tikka masala gravy. But for those uninitiated, these samosas are truly the gateway to the world of Indian street eats.

Originally brought over to India by Middle Eastern traders, this vegetarian, potato-and-pea variant is arguably the most popular iteration today. We love it served with a tamarind-date chutney that packs that sweet-and-sour punch, but they pair equally well with a zingy cilantro-mint chutney, if that's more your style. And honestly? They're just as good as they are.

If you're just getting your feet wet in Indian cooking and looking for an easy curry to throw together and pair with your freshly-made chapathis, parathas, or rotis, this chickpea gravy is for you. A dish with complex layers of flavor, chana masala features chickpeas at their best, and our shortcut recipe tips its hat to some of the trade secrets of a good chana masala, like infusing the gravy with a tea bag full of spices and using canned chickpeas to cut your cooking time and make for a speedy weekday meal.

There's no way we could talk about India's robust, flavorful street food scene without at least mentioning the most fun snack of all: pani puri. Also called 'gol gappe' in Delhi, 'puchka' in Kolkata, and 'Jal Puri' in Bihar, this one-bite-wonder is simply a hollow crunchy wafer, fried until puffy and filled with a potato or spiced black chickpea (or both!) mixture, filled with spiced water, and 'pop' — that's all it takes!

This is a great recipe to impress your guests, but if you need a shortcut, you can often find a 'Pani Puri kit' at your local Indian grocery store (Patel Bros., anyone?) that will come with pre-fried shells and mixes for the sweet and spicy waters, along with additional toppings to use.

No Indian meal is complete without a lassi. At least, that's what the Internet has you believe. While chai and coffee are more predominant daily beverages in Indian homes, lassis are an indulgence of their own, made from thick yogurt packed with probiotics. The best ones are found in Punjabi dhabas, or roadside eateries, and sometimes topped with a dollop of sweetened cream (malai). These sweet lassis feature saffron and cardamom, both signature Indian spices, but chances are if you've ever had a lassi, it's been a mango-flavored one that gets its color and sweetened from in-season, well-ripened pureed mangoes, which you're welcome to add in, if you'd like. There's no better way to cool down your palate after a spicy, intense Indian meal.

A little lesser-known in the world of pakoras is the sweet potato pakora! Not for any reason other than that sweet potatoes are, surprisingly, not a common vegetable found in Indian household: they're not grown across all of India and can be shockingly expensive down South.

Meaning 'to lick' in Hindi, this chaat is particularly lickable, thanks to amalgamation of chutneys, spice powders, and pops of sweetness from the vibrant pomegranate seeds Maneet tops the plate with.

As the only cheese found in Indian cuisine, paneer is perhaps not what anyone expects when they think of cheese: distinctly un-meltable, paneer is nothing more than compressed cubes of cottage cheese and is often devoid of a singular taste, flavor or seasoning spice. That's why it pairs so beautifully with a myriad of gravies, including saag (or palak, spinach). Maneet's recipe is her Grandma's and uses a mixture of green veggies, but if you're having trouble finding the more rare greens like mustard greens and fenugreek leaves, you can use all spinach for this. Pro-tip: Don't skip step 3 — sauteing your paneer. While many North Indian households use fresh paneer for this, pan-fried paneer holds its own in a gravy like this. And after all, who doesn't like fried cubes of cheese?

If you're a pea-lover, or just looking for ways to use up that bag of frozen peas you have sitting in the back of your freezer, doubling as an ice pack for injuries, look no further than Matar Kachori. Another street food delight hailing, this time, from the state of Rajasthan in Northern India, it's a milder snack that honors the delicateness of the pea. You'll find some regional variations across India but the true kachori from up North boasts flaky layers you won't soon forget.

Yes, India loves corn just as much of the rest of us, although you most-often find it alongside the beach, roasted on an open flame and rubbed with chili powder and lime, almost charred to perfection. But this crunchy, fresh and flavor-packed bhutta bhel, a corn-y twist on the street snack, 'bhel,' is hard to stop eating. Cornflakes take the place of puffed rice in this lime-jaggery-tamarind dressed chaat. With a healthy helping of bean sprouts to round it out, it's a great way to snack your way to your 5-a-day.

Whether its chana masala or rajma in your fridge, Indian gravies and curries have a distinct quality about them: pair them with a starchy side, and they come to life. There's truly nothing more satisfying than scooping up a spoonful of a spicy side dish with a fluffy piece of naan. A little charred in places, naan is often cooked in a tandoor — an earthen wood or coal-fired oven. But not to worry: we have a few tips to help you make the perfect naan at home, from using a pizza stone or a cast-iron skillet to finishing it off directly on an open flame. Now, you too can have a restaurant-grade naan any time you want.

Not to be forgotten is everyone's favorite paneer dish: matar paneer. One of the few Indian dishes that features peas as a main ingredient, this side dish shares a base with the more popular butter chicken or, in some cases, a chicken tikka masala. The ubiqutous tomato-onion gravy appeals to almost everyone, and whether you're serving this alongside some steamed rice or golden flatbreads, you're bound to find some takers. This dish is great for first-timers who can't handle a lot of spice and are just dipping their toes into the world of Indian cuisine. Top the finished product with a swirl of thin sour cream, or crema, for a truly indulgent taste.

While spinach and onion pakoras are possibly the most commonly-found in many shops across India, it's not rare for families to welcome guests over with a spread of chai (or coffee) and mixed vegetable pakoras. Called 'bhajjis' down South, these fritters have more of a batter-fry and perhaps slightly less crunch — but they're just as indulgent.

Nidhi uses some unique vegetables like kale and cauliflower, no doubt crisp and satisfying, but we'd recommend exploring even more once you're comfortable with the method — down South, you'll see plantain (vazhaka), red onion rings and eggplant rounds as well!

Every cuisine, be it regional, seasonal or national, has their comfort foods: like mac 'n cheese and chicken noodle soup on a cold winter's night, South Indians have their own version of comfort food. And honestly? It's the simplest thing to make. They pour rasam, a hot and sometimes sweet and sour broth, over steamed rice topped with a ladleful (seriously, don't be shy) of ghee. There's nothing more satisfying, or more simple, and while the broth is nuanced, Chef Deepa Shridhar details a 'beginner's guide to rasam' with this slightly intricate but unique recipe. This broth finds its flavor in a specific spice blend called 'rasam podi' — it's intimidating at first, but it's a great thing to have in your pantry whenever you want to whip up a quick rasam. It's eaten with rice, typically, but feel free to warm up a mug and drink it as a soup — it works great as a hangover cure, too. But you didn't hear that from us!

Ask any North Indian what their favorite dish made by their mom is, and chances are at least half of them will have the same answer: 'rajma chawal.' The Indian version of 'red beans and rice,' this dish has all of the Cajun flair without the fuss. The rajma, or kidney beans, get coated in a thick onion-tomato gravy seaoned with warming cinnamon and garam masala. Sat atop a bowl of steaming basmati rice, this is comfort in a bowl. It's reminiscent of chili — piping hot potfuls of this can feed a crowd, and often do! But despite tasting dishes that are far fancier from around the world, you'll keep coming back to rajma chawal for a bowl that feels like a hug.

Nothing spells comfort for a South Indian more than a vegetable upma. Made with a base of semolina, called rava or sooji, the dish mixes the soft grain with a nutty bite with crunchy nuts and seeds, pungent curry leaves and black mustard seeds while adding in a healthy dose of everyone's '5 a day': vegetables! Naturally gluten- and dairy-free in nature, the dish pairs perfectly with a Southern-style coconut chutney, Indian pickle, or aachar, or plain, tart yogurt. It's also wonderful for breakfast, paired with a little sugar!

If you're a carrot cake lover, this recipe is tailor-made for you. It might not be what other Southeastern countries and cultures call 'carrot cake,' but it's delicious nonetheless — full of shredded carrots, this 'pudding' gets its unique texture from a mix of sweetened condensed milk and paneer cheese while crediting its flavor to the subtle use of specialty ingredients like pistachios and cardamom. This dessert often keeps people in Punjab warm during the cold, frigid winters, and is often served during festival season. You're most likely to find it at a Diwali party, celebrating the Indian Festival of Lights and the triumph of good over evil.

Put out a plate of fried Indian snacks, and pakoras will follow! Fritters made of heaps of vegetables tossed in a seasoned batter made of a mix of rice and chickpea flours, also called besan, these addictive fritters are an essential part of any gathering with the gang. Whether served with an array of cocktails or with your afternoon chai or coffee, no one can ever turn down a piping hot pakora — that's a fact.

Steamed or fried, dumplings are the perfect dinner any day of the week. This version (kofta), floating in a rich and luscious gravy serves as India's answer to dumplings. These specific ones are composed of mashed potatoes enrobed around a soft, succulent paneer-nut-dried fruit filling, a trademark of Kashmiri cuisine. They're then fried, which helps them stay crisp and crunchy in the rich gravy, and they're the perfect size to scoop up with a piece of naan or chapathi. For a lower-lift option, toss some kofta atop a bed of basmati rice — just like meatballs, these stay moist in the creamy gravy that coats every grain of rice for a bowlful of simple comfort.

If you've heard of sambar, chances are, you've probably heard of dosa too. This paper-thin crepe has been gaining quite the reputation after earning a few restaurants its Michelin star this past year, and it seems to be taking America by storm! A mix of rice flour and lentils, the batter is fermented overnight or over the course of multiple nights, creating a delightfully tangy, slightly sour batter, akin to sourdough. It keeps great in the fridge and can be used to make multiple delicacies — but dosa is our favorite! Light, crisp, and crunchy with a soft interior, it's the perfect thing to rip and dip into your bowl of piping hot sambar.

Indian cuisine is loaded with creamy and comforting stews and soup-like dishes, but that's not all that it offers! It does veggies really well too, and in a multitude of ways, from green bean poriyal to the most humble veggie side of them all: Aloo Gobi. A mixture of seasoned potato cubes and cauliflower florets, it's hard not to like aloo gobi. Referred to as a 'dry subzi,' or vegetable side dish, this is the dish that everyone orders at a restaurant. There's always one for the table. It's a great dish for home cooking because it mostly uses ingredients found in every Indian kitchen — master this, and you're set.

Indian food is full of some of the most delicious-tasting breads, from savory, pillowy, fluffy naan to a lesser-known but equally-loved specialty: pooris! You might've seen them on a restaurant menu before — a small, light dough, the poori is a fried delicacy in Indian cooking, and is treated as such. Whether it's paired with an aloo (potato) masala for breakfast, dunked in a chana masala (chickpea gravy) for dinner, or, as Aarti does here, served with a thick, strained yogurt dessert called shrikhand, pooris shine anywhere they go. This recipe is distinctly a dessert course, but you're also welcome to make a batch of pooris — Indian fry bread, so to speak — to pair with any gravy, side dish, or curry you have sitting around! We can promise that it'll taste great.

Adulting is hard: We all get busy sometimes, and the last thing you want to do after a long day at work is stand over the stove for a couple hours to throw together a hodgepodge of a weeknight dinner! As luck would have it, with Indian cuisine, it's often simpler than it sounds — be it chana masala or any other stew-like side dish, the curries become robust with a starchy base. Flatbreads are great, but you can also keep it simple and satisfying with a light and fragrant, long-grain basmati rice. It takes less than a half hour to cook, and once you've defrosted your side dish of choice or unearthed it from your slow cooker, dinner is ready.

Travel up north to the State of Punjab and you'll find the aloo roti's majorly popular cousin: paratha. It's a breakfast staple — one bite and you'll see why! Like a croissant, this breakfast bread gets folded and is layered with ghee to create 'layers' or parat, giving the dish its name. You'll find some great frozen ones at your local Indian grocery store, but nothing beats the homemade version, especially when you want to scoop up cubes of paneer or satisfying heaps of your favorite veggie side.

A welcome drink in many-an Indian household, this milky beverage with warming spices is the perfect, cozy beverage for colder months. But when the sun comes out, it's equally tasty over ice out on your patio!

It's impossible to mention Pani Puri without following it up with it's chaat bestie — papdi chaat! Switching out hollow puffs with flattened crackers that get topped with a mixture of veggies, chickpeas, chutneys and sometimes yogurt sauce (often in a variant called Dahi, or yogurt, Papdi Chaat), papdi chaat can only be described as North India's answer to Nachos. And oh, what an answer it is — plant-based and flavor-blasted, you'll demolish an entire plateful before the first commercial.

No cup of chai (or coffee!) is complete without a savory snack — one, in particular, comes to mind: murukku. This Diwali staple made often in Southern Indian households gets its unique texture from a mix of white urad dal (or lentils), white sesame seeds, and rice flour. Seasoned with a bit of hing, or asafetida — an Indian household's kryptonite — you can't stop with just one.

Dal Makhani is what we like to call 'rajma's creamy cousin.' Studded with whole black lentils and sometimes enhanced with a smattering of kidney beans, this dish, which calls Pakistan its home, entered India during the Independece movement and is a staple item across the state of Punjab. It's often referred to as the 'queen of dals' due to its luscious and rich texture that can be credited to the inclusion of cream as an ingredient (and garnish), a recipe development made popular by a restaurant in New Delhi. It's supremely dunkable and sinfully satisfying — a 24-hour labor of love, this recipe uses the pressure cooker (or Instant Pot) to bring you a quicker version to try out in your own home.

Commonly referrred to as an Indian (veggie) sloppy Joe, pav bhaji is a popular street food that, honestly, doubles as a pretty filling meal. Traditionally made with peas, cauliflower, potatoes and tomatoes, the gravy gets mashed down and spread atop toasted hamburger buns or potato rolls (if you really want the soft, pillowy bite of Indian pav bread). Make sure you butter your buns, and the raw, red onion garnish when serving is essential. Top with a squeeze of lime for the perfect bite.

Hailing from North India, chapathis (or rotis, as they're called in many regions of India) are soft and simple flatbreads that are caramel-colored and oh-so-light. Cooked on a tawa, a flat griddle similar to the Mexican comal, chapathis taste best when slathered with ghee — clarified butter — and are the perfect vehicle to scoop up some sauce or spoonfuls of your favorite side dish. Little children also love pairing chapathis with ghee-sakkar, a sugar-and-ghee combination that makes your chapathy taste like a churro from the State Fair. Akin to a flour tortilla, chapathis can also be used as a pizza base or a shell for a fusion taco — paneer tikka tacos, anyone?

If you're new to the world of chaat — nothing wrong with that! — might we suggest starting out with something a little more...ubiqutous? And what could be a more ubiqutous vegetable than the potato? It shines in this chaat, most popularly found in India's capital city, New Delhi, in the many 'gullies' or alleyways that fill the city with color and charm. Simply sizzle some potato cubes, toss it with a host of standard Indian staples, and serve it with a punchy green chutney that gets its herbaceous notes from a mix of fresh cilantro, mint leaves, garlic and green chillies.

And don't worry if you have too much chutney to go around — Maneet gives you another 10 ways to use this spicy spread (at least)...and if you ask us, it'd taste good on a shoe!

Akin to a Dutch ebelskiver, the round, cylindrical shape is all that the dish shares in common with kuzhi paniyaram. Take a closer look, and you'll notice that this dish by Austin-bred-Tamil chef Deepa Shridhar is made from a naturally-gluten-free batter, stuffed with pungent red onions and fragrant curry leaves, and often served with South Indian coconut and tomato chutneys and podis like gunpowder. (Yes, it is spicy. It is also delicious — thank us later).

If you're one of those people that love cauliflower and wish that the aloo gobi had, well, more of it, then you're in luck: Gobi Manchurian is here to make your day. The flag-bearer of one of India's most beloved cuisines, gobi manchurian is one of the most popular Indo-Chinese dishes, a hallmark of the fusion cuisine that emerged when Hakka people migrated to China and began cooking what they knew with the ingredients available locally. Sitting in an amalgam of crunchy bell pepper and onion cubes, the secret to this dish lies in the sauce, made of ingredients like soy sauce, rice vinegar and ketchup. As air-fryer aficionados, this dish is one of our favorites: the air fryer keeps the cauliflower crunchy and crisp and makes for the perfect happy hour snack.

While gobi manchurian is usually served with Hakka Noodles or a Chinese-style fried rice, many Indian restaurants that are 'pure vegetarian,' or cooking egg-free, often swap the fried rice for the Indian variant: pulao. Not quite the same as biryani, this 'fried' rice is a one pot wonder that's completely customizable. You can use the veggies you like, or stick to a more basic version that only contains peas and cumin seeds that give the rice its fragrance, and while its seasoned to perfection and can be eaten alone, it tastes great alongside a gravy, curry or even a dry side like aloo gobi or gobi manchurian. This recipe makes for great leftovers, too — and while it's often served with papad, or Indian crackers/wafers, we like to scoop up the rice with a classic Lays potato chip: there's nothing better.

No plateful of pulao is complete without a cooling element to round out the dish. Luckily, this raita is just that. A play on a 'salad,' raita often reminds us of tzatziki, just much thinner in consistency and often laced with a smattering of subtle spices like cumin, mint, salt and pepper. There are many varieties and versions of raita, but the most common, you'll find, is a chopped cucumber raita: dicing the cucumber leaches out a bit of water that thins the dip down, and using a fresh cucumber is essential to keeping the vegetable crisp, contrasting beautifully against the smooth yogurt canvas. Pulao is often served with raita, and it often finds its place in any North Indian spread to help cool the mouth down amidst a host of strong Indian spices that are used in the warm curries and gravies on the table. No meal is complete without it.

Every culture has a dessert that they uniquely call their own. From Italian tiramisu to Spanish churros, each dessert is distinctly its own amazing creation, featuring specialized ingredients and flavors that help that culture shine. This dessert is that — a symbol of prosperity and good beginnings, ladoos are often found at every festival or celebration and serve as a staple mithai, or sweet, at people's annual Diwali parties. Made with a base of chickpea (or gram) flour, these ladoos have a roasted, nutty, yet subtle flavor that grows on you with every bite. Rolled into spheres, ladoos are fun for everyone involved — use Surbhi's trick and finish your ladoos with a smattering of edible gold dust or glitter, for a truly festive feel.

While poriyals are usually served with rice and other South Indian dishes, it also makes for a great foil to a traditional North Indian breakfast: besan chilla. Made out of chickpea, or gram, flour, this starchy start to the day contains a complimentary mixture of vegetables and spices. It's often served with chutney or paired with a stew like avial, but we'd be lying if we said we'd never dipped our chilla in ketchup. Don't knock it 'til you try it!

You know the secret to making a dish go from good to great? Adding garlic. No, seriously! If you've ever ordered Indian food, chances are you've always thrown an order of garlic naan into the mix. Why? Well, why not? It's puffy, soft, delightfully-garlicky and goes with, well, anything you are craving! Maneet's unique spin on a classic garlic naan makes it a bit more pizza-esque by tossing some Parmesan cheese into the mix for a garlic 'cheese' naan that'll keep the kids smiling. Feel free to try it without the cheese at first for a more authentic experience — you'll probably love it no matter what.

We talk a lot about the perfect dinner — but what about breakfast? It's the most important meal of the day! And don't we know it. Unlike the Western world, India prefers savory breakfasts — travel to Mumbai, the capital of India's film industry, and you'll find cafes all over serving poha. A flattened rice pilaf, poha is as simple as it gets. It often features a mixture of flattened rice and potatoes and gets its texture from peanuts, sev (crispy noodles) and, in some places, even pomegranate seeds! Laced with tamarind and often served with a bright green mint chutney, this breakfast dish in an all-around champion that brings color to your morning.