Nowadays, you simply need to go outside your home, and you’ll see lots of delicious food. However, these delicious foods are considerably and not healthy. Luckily, you don’t have to worry because there are still many restaurants that serve vegan options, and among these are Indian restaurants hailed by delectable flavours and colourful meals.

India is a vast place, and the food varies from region to region. Additionally, religion and belief systems also play a part in this. With this in mind, diverse choices in food mean a wide variety of choices, including vegan ones.

If an Indian restaurant serves non-vegan food, chances are they still have vegan choices. However, the tricky part is that you still have to do a bit of digging so that you’ll only get the vegan option. 

What exactly are the foods that you should avoid in Indian restaurants? In this article, we’ll shed light on the matter. Read on below to learn more.

Ingredients are the first thing you should keep an eye out for when browsing an Indian restaurant’s menu. While dairy products such as cheese and cream can be easily avoided, the one you should keep an eye out for is clarified butter. 

Clarified butter is considerably hard to spot on your food, so you should consider knowing what kinds of Indian foods use clarified butter. Aside from that, it’s also good to know the names of other common ingredients as well. Below are some examples.

• Gobi - Cauliflower
• Matar - Peas
• Chana - Chickpea
• Aloo - Potato
• Palak - Spinach
• Paneer - Cheese
• Ghee - Clarified butter
• Makhani - Butter chicken
• Korma - Yogurt-based curry

To Indians, clarified butter is known as Ghee. It’s usually used in cooking curry dishes and vegetables. To find out if your food has ghee in it, the simplest way is to ask before ordering. If you’re still not sure, you can tell just by looking at it. Cooked fat usually rises to the top, and if it’s still liquid and pours easily, it’s most likely oil. As opposed to ghee, it will thicken as it cools down.

Makhani is a kind of butter that’s made with a little bit of cream. If you’re going for vegan options in an Indian restaurant, this is something you have to avoid.

Avoiding cheese is pretty easy if you want vegan options in an Indian restaurant. All you have to do is to look for any dish containing “paneer” in the name and don’t pay it any mind. If it’s served in a curry, you can easily spot it because Indians serve cheese in cubes.

• Nan: bread made with yoghurt and butter
• Raita: a mixture of mint and cucumber in a yoghurt-based sauce
• Kadhi: a dish made with onion fritters mixed in with yoghurt gravy
• Korma: a kind of curry that’s almost always made with yoghurt

Indian food is predominantly suitable for vegans, but some of these contain non-vegan dairy products. To find out if your food has non-vegan ingredients, simply ask whenever you’re ordering in an Indian restaurant. However, there are also other tips mentioned above on how you can spot them on your own!

Indian food can be found anywhere, even in a place as far away as London. If you’re looking for some of the best Indian food in London, choose Tower Tandoori! We offer a wide selection of Indian cuisine, ranging from full meals to desserts. Contact us today to learn more!