A collection of 45 easy vegan Indian recipes that anyone can make, whether you are a beginner or a seasoned cook. These include popular Indian restaurant-style recipes as well as lesser known but equally delicious and plant-based condiments, salads, breakfasts, dinners and desserts gleaned from the country’s diverse cuisines.
Indian food, with layers of complex flavor and a heady aroma, is some of the best in the world. But it is not an easy cuisine to master immediately because you need a basic understanding of spices to balance out recipes, especially when you veganize them.
That’s why I’ve collected for you a few diverse and easy Indian vegan recipes that need just a few simple ingredients. Not only are they delicious, but they will give you a strong foundation to build upon when you tackle slightly more complex dishes like my vegan butter chicken, chickpea curry or vegan malai kofta.
I haven’t included Indian bread recipes here because with these there is a learning curve. But if you want to try your hand at making them, you can dive in here for all of our Indian bread recipes, including vegan naan and roti.
Also read this comprehensive post to learn more about how to substitute vegan products in Indian recipes.
Table of Contents
Breakfast
We Indians love a hot breakfast. Most homemade breakfasts are wholesome, with lots of whole grains and legumes as well as healthful spices to start the day right! Here are some of our favorite–and easy–vegan breakfast dishes.
Besan Chilla, a savory, delicious and eggless Indian omelet, is loaded with healthy protein from chickpea flour and tons of nutrition from veggies. It makes the perfect breakfast, brunch or lunch.
This delicious vegan Carrot Almond Breakfast Pudding is sweetened with dates, and is healthy to boot. It has the intoxicating scent of cardamom, and it is a great way to begin your day.
This is not a dish you will find on any Indian restaurant menu, but in many parts of India kande pohe, or a similar dish made with flattened rice, is eaten for breakfast every week. It’s studded with peanuts and potatoes and is delicious beyond description. But it’s also easy to make.
There is no soaking, blending or waiting needed for this three-ingredient, instant Masala Dosa. Serve this crispy south Indian style crepe with a savory stuffing of potatoes at breakfast or for any meal.
Banana Dosa is a small, south Indian pancake flavored with cardamom and studded with cashew nuts. My version is healthier, and the batter comes together in a blender, making this the perfect indulgent breakfast in a hurry.
Salad-style dishes
Most Indian salads tend to be simple, with few ingredients and seasonings. Serve raw salads, like raita and kachumber, with spicy curries, and cooked salads with dal.
Try this refreshingly different Indian-style Potato Salad with Turmeric and Green Peas, for my vibrant take on a traditional favorite. The dressing sparkles on your tastebuds and is made of ginger, turmeric, mustard seeds, and coconut milk.
A kachumber is a versatile Indian-style salsa. Tomatoes and onions are tossed together with a simple dressing of lemon or vinegar, salt and spicy chili peppers. You can add more vegetables, like cucumbers or zucchini or bell peppers or avocados.
A fresh, authentic, green vegan Cucumber Raita made with vegan yogurt and soy-free. This is the perfect accompaniment for spicy Indian dishes like biryanis and parathas.
This Smashed Potato Salad with a Turmeric and Curry Leaf Dressing is bright, lemony and vibrant, and it is infused with good health. It’s the perfect side dish for a picnic or for a dinner at home.
A Sundal, a south Indian chickpea stir-fry, is so easy to put together and so delicious. The chana or chickpeas are tossed with curry leaves, mustard seeds, chili peppers, fresh coconut and cilantro for amazing flavor!
Condiments
Serve condiments like pickles, chutneys and poppadums with dal and rice to add more zing and flavor to the meal!
This superb south Indian style Tomato Chutney, seasoned with mustard seeds and curry leaves, is a simple recipe you can rustle up in a hurry. It is great with any Indian meal but particularly with dal and rice.
If you are a fan of probiotic foods, you will love this spicy Indian lime pickle or nimbu achaar. It is filled with good-for-your-gut bacteria and tastes amazing served with a simple Indian meal of dal and rice.
A freshly ground, brilliantly green coconut chutney makes just about any south Indian snack — from idli to dosa to vada to upma — way more delicious. Learn how to make the creamiest and best coconut chutney you’ll ever eat, and it’s so easy!
These Indian style carrot pickles (gajar ka achar) are probiotic and they taste so vibrant with salty, spicy and tangy flavor notes. Serve the pickle alongside dal and rice for a delicious and nutritious dinner.
Curries
Indian curries are loaded with vibrant flavor and are usually extremely healthy, with lots of veggies and sometimes coconut milk or nuts. The curries in this selection are reader-tested and so easy to make!
This simple, tasty and easy Vegetable Curry with chickpeas and coconut milk is a weeknight, one-pot favorite that cooks up in under 30 minutes. Chickpeas are simmered with potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots, and flavored with cardamom and curry powder.
A quick and easy Tofu Curry with a delicious tomato-onion sauce that comes together in a blender. The curry is creamy and perfectly spiced and it soaks nicely into the tofu cubes, transforming them. Serve with rice or naan and take the rest of the day off from cooking!
Chana masala (also called chole masala) is a spicy north Indian dish of chickpeas in a tomato onion gravy that is best eaten with a naan, roti or rice. This delicious, restaurant-style recipe comes together in under 30 minutes.
A six-ingredient Mushroom Spinach Curry that goes from stovetop to table in less than 15 minutes. The creamy coconut sauce flavored with curry powder is out of the world. It’s best served with rice.
This easy and healthy Indian curry is a breeze to make. It’s spicy and one-pot and it’s packed with veggies and good protein from vegan meat mince of “keema” (you can sub with lentils). Serve it with rice, naan or roti.
Dals
Dals, made with a variety of legumes, including lentils and beans, are at the center of the Indian dinner plate. These simple dal recipes will get you started on a delicious journey of exploration of countless Indian dal recipes. Serve dal with rice and/or roti, a sabzi (see sabzi recipes below) as well as a condiment like a pickle or chutney.
Learn how to make a simple but spectacular basic Indian dal recipe with under 10 ingredients. This dish makes a delicious weeknight meal, is loaded with good nutrition. Serve with rice or roti.
A simple but delicious and spicy urad dal or black lentil dahl is the perfect dish to spice up a weeknight or weekend dinner. Serve with brown rice or white rice and a simple vegetable stir-fry for a nutritious Indian meal.
An easy, garlicky Indian style Moong Dal with mustard seeds sputtered in coconut oil and spiced with green chile peppers and ginger. This is is super easy to make with just seven ingredients. Perfect for a weeknight meal with rice and sabzi!
This tomato dal is as easy and quick as it gets but it’s also utterly delicious. This one is simply seasoned with curry leaves and sambar powder. Serve with rice or roti for a quick meal.
A one-pot garlicky spinach dal that comes together really fast, with or without a pressure cooker, and makes a very healthy and delicious weeknight meal.
Vegetable sabzi
Most Indian meals include a cooked vegetable dish, called a sabzi in Hindi or a curry in south India. While you can make complicated sabzis like baingan bharta and bhindi masala, the simple sabzis below are great for weeknights or for a beginner.
A simple and tasty cabbage curry where shreds of cabbage are sauteed with mustard seeds, turmeric, green chili peppers and ginger-garlic paste. The simple ingredients and their flavors combine to create a nourishing side that’s delicious with roti/chapathi or with dal and rice.
These easy, tasty Bombay Potatoes are simply spiced with curry powder and pan-fried with tomatoes until they develop a delicious, golden-brown crust. They pack a wallop of flavor and they are a great side to any Indian dish, especially dal and rice.
Indian style sauteed okra, or Bhindi ki Sabzi, is made by sauteing onions and okra (ladies’ fingers) in oil with a few simple spices. This easy vegetable side dish also cooks up quickly and is guaranteed to be slime-free.
In this simple and delicious gobi sabzi, cauliflower florets simmer in a bath of pureed tomatoes spiced with garam masala, turmeric and kasoori methi.
Aloo Posto is a Bengali dish of potatoes stir-fried with a vibrant mix of panch phoron — a five-spice mix — then doused in a creamy poppy seed sauce. It’s as delicious as it is simple and it makes the perfect side for dal and rice or roti.
Rice dishes
Rice is eaten every day across India, particularly in the southern and eastern states. While plain rice, like the basmati rice below, is served most often in homes, you can spice things up a bit by serving a pilaf-style rice or biryani.
A complete guide to cooking perfect basmati rice, the long-grain and aromatic Indian rice. Learn how to cook basmati in a saucepan, in the Instant Pot and in the microwave, and the exact rice to water ratios that will yield fluffy, aromatic, slender grains of rice.
A recipe for the perfect Jeera Rice or Indian Cumin Rice with deliciously spiced, long, separate grains of rice. This recipe needs just three ingredients, no soaking or prep time, and it goes from scratch to done in just over 15 minutes.
In this aromatic and easy lemon rice recipe, long grains of basmati rice are tempered with mustard seeds, lentils, chili peppers and nuts. Tangy lemon juice ties all these vibrant flavors together.
A savory, delicious Coconut Rice made in the south Indian style, studded with crunchy lentils and cashews and flavored with mustard seeds and curry leaves. Perfect for an easy weeknight meal, but also a great brown bag lunch.
A biryani might not sound like an easy recipe, but this vegetable biryani takes barely any time to make, and very little prep. You get all of the aromatic deliciousness of a restaurant-style biryani for less work and less time than it takes to order takeout!
Dessert
Indian desserts, with just a few exceptions, use oodles of ghee, cream and milk. Veganizing Indian sweets takes some understanding of their original flavors and textures. The vegan Indian dessert recipes below need just a few ingredients and they will give you a good grounding before you try more complex desserts, like vegan gulab jamun.
This vegan kheer (Indian rice pudding) is dairy-free but more delicious. It’s smooth and creamy with the aromatic flavors of cardamom and saffron woven through.
This Vegan Kaju Katli recipe is dairy-free but delectable and authentic, and it is flavored headily with saffron and cardamom.
Carrots simmered with plant-based milk create a delectable and authentic but vegan version of this classic Indian dessert. One taste and you will fall in love!
A rabri is a thick, creamy, milk-based Indian pudding flavored with cardamom and saffron. This vegan rabri has no dairy — it’s made with nuts and is quite divine.
Zarda (Zarda Pulao or Meethe Chawal or Sweet Saffron Rice) is an Indian Muslim delicacy. Long grains of fragrant basmati rice are flavored with saffron and tossed together with dry fruits and sugar.
Drinks
Learn how to make delicious but easy Indian drinks like masala chai, mango lassi and golden milk. These can be had by themselves or with a snack or meal.
Learn how to make an authentic spiced masala chai (tea) recipe by brewing loose leaf black tea with water, milk and chai masala. This delicious beverage has a perfect balance of flavors and tastes way better than tea made with store bought concentrate.
This vegan Mango Lassi made is made with cashew yogurt for an authentic, creamy taste. Cardamom and vanilla complement the tangy sweetness of the mangoes.
This divine golden milk, with the alluring flavors of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and saffron, warms you from within, warding off colds and infections while boosting the metabolism. Taken just before bedtime, it helps you sleep better.
This vegan mango smoothie is so fresh and delicious and all you need to make it are five ingredients and five minutes. The secret is cardamom which pairs beautifully with mango and adds an exquisite aroma to this smoothie, and a hint of vanilla. Drink on its own or serve topped with vegan vanilla ice cream for an extra special treat.
Drinking a Thandai is like drinking an Indian sweet right out of a glass. This milk drink, infused with cooling spices and nuts and festooned with saffron, is especially popular at Holi, the Indian festival of colors, which celebrates the arrival of summer. For my vegan Thandai I infuse the spices and nuts with creamy oat milk and a touch of vanilla.
