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Every veggie's delight

Many restaurants are modifying non-vegetarian dishes to suit the vegetarian palate and people are enjoying it

PHOTO: S. THANTHONI

AMPLE CHOICE Restaurateurs cater to vegetarians than ever before

"You are missing out on a lot of interesting dishes by being a vegetarian." How often have you heard this from friends who eat non-vegetarian food? Must be quite often. Though you just brushed the thought aside, at times you wished you could eat those interesting foods your friends were talking about without having to turn non-veg. And looks like restaurateurs and chefs have heard your prayers.

Many restaurants are now turning non-vegetarian dishes into vegetarian by replacing a few ingredients. The chefs are doing this by replacing the meat with a vegetarian equivalent, but stick to the spices and arrive at the same texture. Vegetarian Ustav tried something similar during its Kashmiri food festival and is more than happy with the kind of response it garnered.

"We introduced a vegetarian Kheema pulao, where we replaced the kheema with paneer as both have nearly the same texture," says Kapil Upadhayaya, executive chef. "Since Kashmiri cuisine has a lot of non-vegetarian dishes, we thought it would be nice to convert some popular ones. We, of course, intend to continue with similar experiments in future." And these experimentations are not limited to any particular cuisine. Manish Baldev, working partner of Hira Panna caterers, believes that any kind of food in any cuisine can be modified for the vegetarians or, at least, most of it. "It is just the matter of choosing the right substitute. We did a lot of R&D on food before converting non-veg dishes into vegetarian. We started with Indian cuisine before moving into Chinese, Arabian, Thai, Burmese and Tibetan dishes," he says.

He gives the example of tangdi kebab, where they replace the meat with cauliflower. "We marinate and barbeque it the same way as the original. Even the look wise it is the same," he adds.

Another restaurant that has played around with non-vegetarian food is Little Italy. Serving pure vegetarian Italian food is not an easy task, especially when the place is visited by a lot of non-vegetarians as well. "By retaining the look and taste of the original dish we are able to satisfy our non-vegetarian clientele as well, who don't find much difference in the veggie version," points out Gajanand Rao, who works as a senior captain. Some of the dishes that have been modified in their menu are Pasta Bolognese, Matriciana, Lasagne and starters like Pepperoni Arrosto and Capriese. "All of these are typical non-vegetarian dishes. In most cases, we place the meat with either soya (as it gives the chewy feel) or tofu," he says. But in this process of conversion, there's going to be some difference in the taste, as even the spices need to be toned down, that one cannot help," explains Kapil Upadhayaya, executive chef, Utsav.

"Any kind of food can be modified for the vegetarians. It is just the matter of choosing the right substitute. We did a lot of R & D on food before converting non-veg dishes into vegetarian. We started with Indian cuisine before moving into Chinese, Arabian, Thai, Burmese and Tibetan dishes," says Manish Baldev, working partner of Hira Panna caterers. In Thakdi Kebab, for example, we replace the meat with cauliflower but marinate and barbeque it the same way as the original. Even the look is the same.

But not everyone is going gaga over this new trend. Shankar Krishnamurthy, owner, Fusion 9, believes that there's no dish that's exclusively non-veg or veg as it just depends on the ingredients used. He feels there are enough vegetarian dishes and one really need not modify non-veg items. But he does agree that the fad of conversion has caught up with chefs big time. "People are now coming out with vegetarian variations just to increase the vegetarian choice. It is a concept that has caught on globally. If you go abroad, vegans (they don't even drink milk) are stricter than vegetarians," he Another reason he sees the growing trend is due to the advancement in food technology. "Chefs have a lot more choices now like tofu or soya," he feels.

MANGALA RAMAMOORTHY

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