Vegetarian cuisine

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A variety of vegetarian food ingredients that are also vegan.

Vegetarian cuisine is based on food that meets vegetarian standards by not including meat and animal tissue products (such as gelatin or animal-derived rennet). For lacto-ovo vegetarianism (the most common type of vegetarianism in the Western world), eggs and dairy products such as milk and cheese are permitted. For lacto vegetarianism, the earliest known type of vegetarianism (recorded in India), dairy products such as milk and cheese are permitted.[1] The strictest forms of vegetarianism are veganism and fruitarianism, which exclude all animal products, including dairy products as well as honey, and even some refined sugars if filtered and whitened with bone char.

Vegetarian foods can be classified into several different types:

Foods used in vegetarian cuisine[edit]

Vegetable soup and cheese sandwich, a meal which is suitable for vegetarians but not vegans

Food regarded as suitable for all vegetarians (including vegans) typically includes:

Foods not suitable for vegan-vegetarians, but for some other types of vegetarians:

  • Dairy products (butter, cheese (except for cheese containing rennet of animal origin), milk, yogurt (excluding yogurt made with gelatin) etc.) – not eaten by vegans and pure ovo-vegetarians
  • Eggsnot eaten by pure vegetarians, vegans and lacto-vegetarians (most Indian vegetarians)
  • Honeynot eaten by most vegans

Cuisine that is traditionally vegetarian[edit]

These are some of the most common dishes that vegetarians eat without substitution of ingredients. Such dishes include, from breakfasts to dinnertime desserts:

Vegetarian food products made from cereal grains.

National cuisines[edit]

Buddha's delight, a famous Chinese vegetarian dish.
Sautéed tempeh with green beans, an Indonesian dish
Tolstoy's vegetarian breakfast

Desserts and sweets[edit]

Most desserts, including pies, cobblers, cakes, brownies, cookies, truffles, Rice Krispie treats (from gelatin-free marshmallows or marshmallow fluff), peanut butter treats, pudding, rice pudding, ice cream, crème brulée, etc., are free of meat and fish and are suitable for ovo-lacto vegetarians. Eastern confectionery and desserts, such as halva and Turkish delight, are mostly vegan, while others such as baklava (which often contains butter) are lacto vegetarian. Indian desserts and sweets are mostly vegetarian like peda, barfi, gulab jamun, shrikhand, basundi, kaju katri, rasgulla, cham cham, rajbhog, etc. Indian sweets are mostly made from milk products and are thus lacto vegetarian; dry fruit-based sweets are vegan.

Cuisine that uses meat analogues[edit]

Morningstar Farms tomato and basil pizza veggie burgers garnished with onion, ketchup and Cheddar.

These are vegetarian versions of popular dishes that non-vegetarians enjoy and are frequently consumed as fast food, comfort food, transition food for new vegetarians, or a way to show non-vegetarians that they can be vegetarians while still enjoying their favorite foods. Many vegetarians just enjoy these dishes as part of a varied diet.

Some popular mock-meat dishes include:

  • Veggie burgers (burgers usually made from grains, TVP, seitan (wheat gluten), tempeh or mushrooms)
  • Veggie dogs (usually made from TVP)
  • Imitation sausage (soysage, various types of 'salami', 'bologna', 'pepperoni', et al., made of some form of soy)
  • Mockmeat or 'meatyballs' (usually made from TVP)
  • Vegetarian or meatless 'chicken' (usually made from seitan, tofu or TVP)
  • Jambalaya (with mock sausage and mock chicken, usually made from TVP, seitan, or tempeh)
  • Tomato omelette where tomatoes and a paste of flour are used to produce a vegetable omelette without the use of eggs.
  • Scrambled eggs where tofu is mashed and fried with spices (often including turmeric, for its strong yellow color) to produce a dish that strongly resembles eggs.
  • When baking, eggs are easily replaced by ground flax seeds, applesauce, mashed bananas, or commercial egg replacer

Mycoprotein is another common base for mock-meats, and vegetarian flavorings are added to these bases, such as sea vegetables for a seafood taste.

Commercial products[edit]

Labeling used in India to distinguish vegetarian products (left) from non-vegetarian products (right).

Commercial products, marketed especially towards vegetarians and labeled as such, are available in most countries worldwide, in varying amounts and quality. As example, in Australia, various vegetarian products are available in most of supermarket chains and a vegetarian shopping guide is provided by Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland.[4] However, the biggest market for commercially vegetarian-labeled foods is India, with official governmental laws regulating the "vegetarian" and "non vegetarian" labels.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Edible fungi include some mushrooms and cultured microfungi (yeasts and moulds) such as Aspergillus oryzae and Fusarium venenatum, though some strict[clarification needed] Indian vegetarians do not eat mushrooms.


  1. ^ "International Vegetarian Union - The Origins of Some Words". 
  2. ^
  3. ^ a b Peter Brang. Ein unbekanntes Russland, Kulturgeschichte vegetarischer Lebensweisen von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart An ignored aspect of Russia. Vegetarian lifestyles from the very beginning till the present day. Böhlau Verlag, Köln 2002 ISBN 3-412-07902-2
  4. ^ Vegetarian/Vegan Society of Queensland. "Vegetarian/Vegan Supermarket Shopping Guide". Retrieved 7 May 2009. 

External links[edit]