I had turned vegan about four years back. In Northern India, almost all sweets and rich dishes for meals are dairy based. So most people believe it’s tough to be vegan in this part.
A couple of days back I traveled to New Delhi. I arrived there in morning hours and I went straight to meet an old friend. I had never communicated to him about my new vegan avatar. So when his wife insisted for the morning breakfast, I was quite reluctant to her offer. But she served me some dry fruits along with a vegan welcome drink. Then I was pampered by vegan chhole bhature and a halwa along with some fruits & salad followed by a green tea. However, I promptly put away the sweet dish called Halwa as it is customarily prepared in ghee (clarified butter). But she told me that she has specially prepared it in refined oil for me. I was pleasantly surprised to taste this unexpected vegan sweet dish. It was delicious indeed. I had to ask them how did they know I’m vegan. Then my friend told me that he came to know of it through my Facebook account.
I don’t understand why people think it is so difficult to live a vegan life. However, I don’t prefer eating sweet dishes regularly but I’ve been regularly enjoying delicious vegan versions of Indian sweets courtesy my friends and well-wishers. The halwa (a kind of sweet pudding), I was talking above was also served to me when I visited my grandmother’s place last year too. It is the easiest sweet dish to pepare and can be done quickly. Here is a picture of her preparing it:
Last week, it was time for Rakshabandhan festival. Rakshabandhan or Raakhi is festival celebrated across the country to strengthen the bonding between brothers and sisters. Sisters ties a thread of love on the wrist of her brothers and offer them some sweets. Brothers take a vow to protect their sisters from any eventuality and shower some love in the form of some gifts to their sisters.
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He is a master in preparing vegan versions of Indian dishes. I remember sometime back he had brought us the vegan version of the most favourite Indian sweet Gulab Jamuns at a vegan potluck lunch. Everyone fell in love with them and it was the most discussed dish in that party:
Beside these, I've eaten vegan versions of many Indian dishes, Kaju Katli, Badam Barfi, Gajar ka Halwa, ice-creams,cakes, Rabdi to name a few. There is never a dearth of vegan options. You name it and you can have it! My friend @chetanpadliya runs a vegan channel on YouTube called Vegan Planet for simple ways to prepare vegan versions of delicious Indian sweets and dishes. Do subscribe it to try many such interesting dishes. You will certainly love the tastes of these cruelty free dishes.
To know more about veganism, you can chat with Telegram chat bot Veganizer. There is one Hindi bot too viz. GaumataBot.