40+ Indian Vegan Dinner Recipes (dairy-free)

If you’ve been looking for doable, flavorful Indian vegan dinner recipes, look no further. I have an extensive collection that includes everything you need to make a show-stopping Indian dinner, even if you have never cooked Indian food at home before.

My recipes include many authentic Indian dishes. These dairy-free dishes are simple with a few ingredients and some a bit longer. I’ve simplified a lot of the more complicated recipes to be more accessible to home cooks. I have converted a few to casseroles which take just 1-2 steps!

With simple swaps, like using vegan butter in place of ghee or non-dairy yogurt in place of conventional yogurt, you can make many vegetarian Indian recipes vegan. I’ve even veganized some of the meat-heavy vegan Indian dinner recipes using substitutes like beans, soy curls, or tofu. Serve these with my Naan(gf options) or parathas or rice or grains.

Don’t worry. Even the simplified recipes don’t sacrifice an ounce of that restaurant-worthy FLAVOR!

Indian Curries

Vegan Cauliflower Tikka Masala

Vegan Lasooni Chicken Curry with Red pepper sauce (tomato-free)

Tofu Eggplant Curry

Vegan Palak Tofu “Paneer” – Tofu in Spinach Sauce

Vegan Cauliflower Pea Curry – 1 Pot Gobi Matar

Hyderabadi Wedding Chicken Curry

Dhaba Rajma Masala Indian Kidney Bean Curry

Vegan Chicken Changezi (Tofu in tangy spicy tomato sauce)

Indian Butter Chickpeas

Matar Tofu (Tofu & Pea curry with cumin tomato sauce)

Vegan Green Keema

Dal Lasooni

Tofu Vindaloo

Butter Tofu Paneer – Restaurant Style Tofu Butter Masala Recipe

Vegan Malai Kofta (Indian dumplings in Tomato onion curry sauce)

Vegan Paneer Lababdar (Tofu lababdar)

Restaurant Style Aloo Gobi

Rice and Biryani

Podi Rice (South Indian Chili Garlic Peanut Rice)

Turmeric Cauliflower Rice

Masala Fried Rice with Turmeric Onion Raita

Turmeric Lemon Rice Recipe

Instant Pot Vegan Indian Dinners

Instant Pot Kashmiri Mushroom in spiced Sun-dried tomato sauce

Instant Pot Mushroom Biryani

Instant Pot Vegan Coconut Chicken Curry with Soy curls

Instant Pot Kitchari

Instant Pot Saag Aloo – Sweet Potato & Chard Curry

Instant Pot Vegan Korma Recipe

Indo-Chinese

Schezwan Fried Rice (Indo-Chinese)

Veggies in Hot Garlic Sauce

Baked Gobi Manchurian (Cauliflower Manchurian)

Chili Chicken With Soycurls (An Indo-Chinese Recipe)

Casseroles

Baked Tofu Curry (Vegan Tofu Makhani)

Lentil Curry Casserole

Lentil Keema Pav Casserole (vegan mince curry bread bake)

Idli Sambhar Casserole(South Indian Split Pea stew Semolina bread bake)

Saag Cornbread Casserole (Curried Mustard Greens Cornbread bake)

Shahi Tofu Kofta Casserole

Madras Curry Tofu Casserole

No Onion, No Garlic Vegan Indian Recipes

Tofu Tikka Masala (No Onion, No Garlic)

Dhaba style Butter Dal Vegan no Onion No Garlic

Vegetable Korma – Creamy Indian Korma Recipe. No Onion Garlic

Jeera aloo (cumin potatoes)

Instant Pot Dal Bukhara

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked questions

Which Indian dishes are typically vegan?

Vegetarian dishes are very common in Indian cooking, but you do have to take a bit more care when looking for vegan Indian recipes, as many will use ghee, a clarified butter made from cow’s milk. Yogurt and paneer. — a mild, white cheese — are also a common ingredient in vegetarian Indian dishes.

When you’re dining out, look for dishes like Chana masala, gobi aloo, rice dishes, dal, curries, onion fritters and samosas. From there, read the descriptions to see if they contain animal ingredients. Make sure that you ask about yogurt and ghee, because these may not be listed in the dish description.

If you’re cooking Indian food at home, it’s easy to veganize those vegetarian dishes by using butter instead of ghee, non-dairy yogurt, and replacing paneer with pressed tofu.

Which Indian breads are vegan?

Naan is typically made with yogurt, so it is not vegan unless it’s made with non-dairy yogurt. Here is my easy vegan naan recipe.

Papadum, some parathas, roti, puri, and chapati are typically vegan. If you order chapati or roti, just ask that they not brush it with ghee or butter before serving.