Vegan on the Prowl

Nov 16, 2010

What does a vegan eat?

This is an ever growing list of things a vegan can eat off the shelves of a store or at a restaurant in India. Most of them just happen to be accidentally vegan. Of course it might not be all healthy but it's just a list we should all be aware of.

I have this note on Facebook that keeps getting updated by people living all over India. But for those who cannot see it on Facebook, it's pasted below. I will keep updating it from time to time.

I'm not going to include fruit juices, fruits or veggies. Feel free to add restaurants from your respective cities that might have some vegan options in the comments and I will add them to the main article.

Please add stuff you know for sure that is vegan because I may not be aware of all things vegan!

I'm not going to include fruit juices, fruits or veggies. Feel free to add restaurants from your respective cities that might have some vegan options.

Please add stuff you know for sure that is vegan because I may not be aware of all things vegan!

Biscuits and Other Junk:

Hide & Seek by Parle with choc chips, nuts, orange and coffee flavours

Hide & Seek Fab with vanilla chocolate and strawberry cream centers

Parle's Golden Arcs available with Chocolate, Apple, Strawberry and Orange fillings

Pickwick Biscuits - Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla

Parle's Coconut Biscuits

Parle Bourbon Biscuits

Oreo's Cream Biscuits (now made in India)

Sunfeast Snacky

McVities Hobnobs (almost all other McVities biscuits are also vegan ONLY THE IMPORTED ONES the Indian ones are not vegan).

Britannia biscuits that are vegan:

- Pure Magic Praline Creme

- Mango cream

- Pineapple cream

- Good day chocolate chips

- Timepass Nimkee

- 50 - 50

- Brita High count

- Time Pass - Mindless Masala & Topori Tomato variants

Mayonnaise:

Dr Oetkar's Eggless Diet Mayonnaise (please make sure it says 'Eggless' and 'Diet' because they have other varieties which are not vegan

Kissan's Creamy Spreads (all flavours are vegan, but a little sweet)

Haldiram's Bhujiyas and other fried stuff

Haldiram's Soanpapdi

All local fried chips - potato, jackfruit, sweet potato, banana,....

Most Khakras (unless it mentions 'pure ghee')

Kellogs Chocos and some other cereals

Coconut Milk Powders - Beware of the powders because most of them (like Nestle) have milk powder added. Coconut Milk in tetra packs by Dabur and Godrej are good.

Nestle's "Nestum" - Baby Cereal Food

Britannia's "Healthy Start": "Multigrain Porridge", "Tomato Spinach Upma".

Drinks:

Staetta Soy Milk in all flavours

Sofit Soy Milk in all flavours

A few new imported brands of Soy Milk are now availabe at Haiko,Powai and Hypercity outlets in Mumbai

Imported Rice Milk is available in Dolce Vita, Lower Parel, Mumbai

Vegan Shake and Irish Coffee at Cafe Coffee Day

Soyvita - is a soy protein isolate powder available sweetened and one non sweetened for diabetics

Oat Milk and Quinoa Milk is available at Garden Fresh, King Circle, Matunga East

(Im not going to list the sodas because they are way too unhealthy for this list!) :)

Chocolate:

Bournville

Morde's Dark Compound

Amul's Dark Chocolate

Heidi's Dark Chocolate & Hazelnut

Frozen Food:

All stuff by Fry's - Fry's Veggie Burgers, Veggie Polony, Schnitzel, Hot Dogs and Veggie Sausages... (Currently not distributing in India)

Street Junk:

Paani Puri

Bhel Puri

Sev Puri

Ragda Pattice (A growing trend I have noticed is to fry the pattice in ghee, so it might not always be vegan)

Samosa Chole

Chole Bature

Vada Pav

Samosa Pav

Misal pav

Jalebis (Always check if they have added yogurt to the batter and/or fried it in ghee)

Kaju Katli (Again ask if milk or ghee has been added)

Dhoklas (Ask if curd has been added to the batter. Most shops don't do it to increase the shelf life of the dhokla.)

Khandvi is not vegan, contains yogurt.

Restaurants in Bombay with Vegan Stuff:

Ray's Pizzeria, Bandra - Has a vegan menu with a different vegan options.

Swati Snacks, Tardeo - Has some good gujarati snacks most of which are vegan

Bagelwala and Bagelshop both in Bandra west have vegan bagel options

The Green Stove in Mumbai for vegan cakes, cookies, breads, cheesecakes, chocolates and appetizers. Only on order.

Vegn Bites has healthy vegan tiffin service in Mumbai for everyone who wants their lunch delivered to their doorsteps or offices.

Indian cuisine is easily vegan if you know what to avoid - paneer, ghee, butter, cheese, curd.Barbeque Nation always has a vegan mousse in the desserts section and the dal is not always vegan. The complimentary green chutneys at most north indian places has curds and also Naan almost always has eggs.

All Udipi restaurants have vegan options. So this means all Dosas (except the ghee spcials), Idlis, Vadas, Rice Dishes, Sambhar, Coconut Chutney...Madras Cafe in Matunga will also make your dosas oil free.

All Italian Restaurants (Except Mia Cucina, Bandra) will avoid the cheese on your Red Sauce Pastas (or make stuff for you without cheese or butter) which include LittleItaly outlets, Spaghetti Kitchen outlets, Botticino at BKC, Quattro in Lower Parel, Woodside Inn in Colaba, Cafe Mangii in Powai.

South East Asian Vegetarian dishes are vegan, but by popular demand (!) have started adding paneer. So ask them to avoid paneer and the MSG - The Bowl House at Ghatkopar, China One at Dadar, Joss at Fort, 5 Spice outlets, Shiro's at Lower Parel, Flavors of spices (earlier known as Peter Wang) on Ghodbunder Road, Thane has many vegan options and they also customize your dishes if you specify that you want them dairy free.

Mediterranean and Fusion Cuisine - Blue Frog, Lower Parel (even made a non vegetarian dish vegan for me), Cafe Basilico at Bandra, Falafel's outlets, Bistro Grill outlets. It's important to know that in almost all falafel dishes, the tahini has been invaded by mayonnaise, so ask them not to add that. Kajun spice potatoes on most restaurant menus are vegan, but please check always. At Moshe's you get an amazing Balinese curry that is vegan but you must let the table attendant know that tofu is ok because they avoid tofu if you ask for vegan curries. Moshe also has a unique roasted fruit smoothie that is vegan.

Bangalore Brownies and Cakes:-

Bagels and Bakes brand chocolate brownies and chocolate muffins (available at all Namdharis).-

Carnival Bakery has a separate vegan menu filled with delicious cakes, pies, puddings, mousses, breads, donuts and cookies. They're a delivery only bakery.

Bangalore Restaurants (specialty global cuisines):

Bangalore now has a vegan restaurant called Carrots.

Soo Ra Sang on Wind Tunnel Road (off old Airport Road) - Korean - nearly all the vegetarian dishes (including all the little kim chees, veggies, beans, pancakes etc... that they serve on the side) happen to be vegan by default.

Fava at UB City - Mediterranean - a lot of the vegetarian dishes can be veganized. Just make sure you specify many times that you do not have dairy products and cross check the dips (they have a habit of sneaking a yogurt based dip into some foods so ensure that isn't there).

Monsoon at The Park Hotel - all cuisines - call them in advance and they will prepare a special vegan meal just for you, including a deliciously decadent vegan pastry.

Shiro at UB City - Japanese, Balinese, Chinese (the authentic kind) - limited vegetarian and vegan choices but whatever is available is very tasty.

Tasty Tangles-vegetarian dishes on their menu are vegan except for the dessert section.

E-inn near electronic city in Bangalore serves complete vegan from starters to desserts.Call them in advance.

Nov 15, 2010

My Freckled Stir Fry Dinner

This is one was tonight's impromptu dinner stir fried by my brother. I just put together a bunch of ingredients, nothing special, just whatever I found around the kitchen and in the fridge that I thought would go well together.

I was looking for black sesame seeds instead of the white ones but found Nigella Seeds (on left)

instead (Nigella sounds like a person!). These seeds are commonly used in Indian cooking. They are also called Onion seeds or Kalonji. To me they taste like Ajwain (Carom Seeds) but lots of people think otherwise.

Why did I add them? For some colour actually. It adds some nice looking black freckles and some nice flavour too.

I used:

1/2 a pack of Button Mushrooms (about ten of them)

1 Green Pepper (Capsicum) chopped in to chunks

1/2 a pack of tofu (about 100 gms)

2 stalks of Celery

1 Onion sliced in thin strips

Sesame Seeds

Nigella Seeds (Also called Onion seeds or Kalonji in Hindi)

1 tsp Rice Bran Oil

Pepper or a Red Chilli

Heat the oil in a wok. Add the Red Chilli, Sesame and Nigella Seeds. Add the tofu and stir it for a bit till the tofu starts getting light brown. Add in the onions and let them cook a bit (I'm not a big fan of raw onions) After a couple of minutes add the mushrooms, capsicum and celery. I used the entire stalk of celery, with the leaves. Cover it for about 4 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Eat!

How easy was that?!

You can put it on top of some toasted bread, add some cooked noodles or rice to it, or just have it as is. Makes a nice, light and healthy dinner.

Oct 10, 2010

Veggie Burgers

Once in a while I like to eat burgers and this is a result of that craving and also because there were too many veggies at home!

This is my version of a healthy burger. Of course you can go ahead and buy the frozen ones from the store but if you're crazy enough like me you'll like these better.

You need:

Any kind of vegetables. It's better to use a few of the starchy veggies so they all hold together.

Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes

Carrots

Peas

Pumpkins

Beetroot

Beans

Yams

Raw Bananas

Onions (optional)

Garlic (optional)

Oregano

Thyme

Basil

Celery

Coriander

Chilli Flakes / Red Chilli Powder

Salt

Pepper

1/2 cup soy granules if you like

Rice Flour

Oil

Steam all the veggies and mash them up.

Chop up the onion and garlic. Sauté them with the herbs and a little bit of water or oil till the onions are caramelized or dark brown.

Soak the soy granules for 5 minutes in some water. Once the veggies are steamed, you can grate

them up or mash them all together. Drain the soy granules off the excess water and mix them with the vegetables. Add the onions, herbs of your choice, the red chilli, salt and mix it well. It's best to use your hands for this.

Make them into your burger patty shapes and put them in a plate with some rice flour. Cover up them up.

In a flat frying pan, put about 2 teaspoons of oil. Once hot, start putting the patties in.

Cook both sides till dark brown like in the picture on the left.

Have it with some burger bread, salad leaves, diced tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, with some mustard and pepper on top.

I put it on white bread (picture on the right) with vegetables and

grilled it all together.

Yes that is a cucumber, almost the size of the patty! It's an organic cucumber grown on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Oct 5, 2010

Vegan Peanut Pesto

Pesto is a paste/ sauce, made usually with Basil, Pine nuts, Cheese and Olive Oil. Basil is now easily available here and if you're not growing it in your herb garden, you should start now!

Since pine nuts are not grown in India and are pretty expensive, I prefer to use something that is locally available and doesn't affect the taste at all. Actually, pesto can be made with any type of nut (cashews, walnuts, almonds, peanuts)

Here's what I used:

A handful of basil leaves

A handful of roasted peanuts

A teaspoon (may be less than one) of sea salt

A clove of garlic

A teaspoon or two of olive oil

A pinch of black pepper

Blend everything and it's done.

Serve it with some cooked plain pasta, or on top of toasted bread or as a dip for some raw veggies or in your salad dressing or in your tomato based pasta sauce or with some cooked rice. The possibilities are endless.

I just had it with some plain Penne. *Bliss

Vegan More Kozambu (Buttermilk Gravy)

More Kozambu (pronounced More Koyambu) is a typically South Indian gravy that is usually made with More (Buttermilk). It is a spicy, sour mix of buttermilk and red chilli with vegetables.

This one is made with Peanut Buttermilk. It sounds complicated, but its's worth the effort.

So to start off, you need a cup of peanuts. Soak it in water over night. The next morning, drain it and put it in a blender with 2 cups water. Strain this pulp and what you get below is Peanut Milk. You can put the pulp back in with 1/2 cup water, blend it one more time and strain it out.

The Peanut milk now has to be set like you usually would set cow's milk. You could use dairy yogurt as a starter, but strict vegans prefer not to. So I set it with Rejuvelac. I'd suggest you soak the peanuts and the wheat at the same time, so the next morning you can use the rejuvelac to set the milk into curds. You might not get the same consistency as dairy curds the first time around. But if you continue to use this as a starter to set further trials of peanut or soy milk even, the end result will get thicker as time passes.

Since we are going to use it for a buttermilk type preparation, it's okay if the milk sets into a watery state. It takes about 8 hours for the peanut milk to set. I still get some curds that look like it's set on top but when you stir it there's only a watery mess below.

Seems like a lot of work! Anyway, once you have your (somewhat) set curd you can stir it up if you're going to use it as a buttermilk.

The buttermilk can also be made into a vegan Masala Chaas (Buttermilk with Masala)

Just add some Asafoetida, grind curry leaves and some green chillies together, salt and water. Chill it and have it after your meal. It's really really good!

For the More Kozambu, you need:

Any vegetable (carrots, red pumpkin, capsicum, drumstick) I used White Pumpkin which was steamed earlier

2-3 Red chillies

a little Tamarind

1 tsp rice flour

1/2 teaspoon Fenugreek Seeds (Methi)

1/2 Teaspoon oil (optional)

1 cup Peanut Buttermilk (recipe above)