Lesser-Known Vegan Dishes from East and Northeast India
- May 18
- 10 min read
East India runs on mustard oil and panch phoron. The Northeast runs on fermentation traditions that predate the modern food movement by centuries. Together, these regions hold some of the most distinctive plant-based cuisines in India — and the most underrepresented in mainstream Indian food coverage.
This is part two of a four-part field guide to lesser-known vegan dishes across India's regional cuisines. Part one covered South India — coconut-based, lentil-heavy, naturally plant-forward. East and Northeast India are different ecosystems, different ingredients, different techniques — but the same underlying truth: most of these dishes have been vegan by design, not by adaptation, for generations.
Fifteen dishes across eight states: Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Mizoram.
For the philosophical and historical backdrop — why so many Indian regional cuisines are naturally plant-based — see the earlier piece on veganism in India's cultural and historical roots.
Bengal (West Bengal)
Bengali everyday cooking is structured around mustard oil and panch phoron — a five-spice blend of fenugreek, nigella, fennel, cumin, and black mustard seed. The cuisine is known for its fish and meat, but the everyday home kitchen is overwhelmingly plant-based. Dairy plays a smaller role than in most Indian cuisines, except in sweets.
1. Shukto
A medley of five to seven vegetables cooked together with a slightly bitter edge — bitter gourd, drumstick, raw banana, sweet potato, ridge gourd, eggplant, and the leaves of a specific bitter plant called shojne are typical. The bitterness is intentional, not a failure.
The dish is finished with a paste of poppy seeds and mustard, panch phoron tempered in mustard oil, and a small amount of jaggery to round out the bitterness. Traditionally cooked with ghee, the vegan version uses coconut oil or refined mustard oil.
Shukto is traditionally served at the start of a Bengali meal because the bitterness is believed to prepare the palate and stimulate digestion. It is a dish that has no obvious analogue in any other Indian cuisine.
2. Cholar Dal
A Bengali version of chana dal that diverges sharply from the Punjabi version most people know. Bengali cholar dal is cooked thicker, finished with whole spices — cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaf, dried red chillies — and grated coconut. The traditional version uses ghee for tempering; substitute coconut oil and the result is essentially identical.
The coconut is what defines it. Where North Indian dal preparations rely on dairy or cream for richness, the Bengali version uses coconut and the natural starch of well-cooked chana dal for body. Served with luchi (puffed deep-fried bread) or rice.
3. Dhokar Dalna
A lentil cake curry with a unique two-step preparation. First, soaked chana dal is ground, spiced, and steamed into firm cakes. The cakes are then cubed, lightly fried, and finished in a gravy of tomato, ginger, and panch phoron.
Dhoka is a traditional Bengali dish that satisfies the texture craving for meat without the meat. The lentil cakes hold their shape in the gravy, take on the seasoning, and chew like firm tofu. Naturally vegan — no dairy or eggs in either the cakes or the gravy.
Odisha
Odisha sits at a culinary intersection — Bengali to the north, South Indian to the south, tribal to the west. The cuisine is among the least internationalised of Indian cuisines and contains some of the cleanest plant-based dishes on the subcontinent.
4. Dalma
A single-pot dish where toor dal and seasonal vegetables — typically pumpkin, raw banana, yam, papaya, eggplant — cook together with a light spice paste of cumin, turmeric, ginger, and dried red chilli. Finished with a tempering of mustard seeds and dried red chillies in mustard oil.
The defining feature is that everything cooks together. Where most Indian preparations cook lentils and vegetables separately and combine at the end, dalma builds flavour in a single pot from start to finish. The result is hearty, deeply seasoned, and complete — a meal in one bowl with rice.
5. Santula
The opposite of Dalma in spirit. Where dalma is heavy and deeply spiced, santula is light, minimally spiced, almost soup-like. Mixed seasonal vegetables — pumpkin, brinjal, papaya, raw banana — are simmered in water with green chilli, turmeric, and a tempering of mustard seed and panch phoron in mustard oil. Salt at the end.
Santula is the everyday vegetable dish in Odia households — what you eat when you want something nourishing without effort. The minimalism is the point. Naturally vegan, naturally light, and one of the cleanest plant-based preparations in Indian cooking.
Bihar and Jharkhand
The plains cuisine of Bihar relies heavily on roasted gram flour (sattu) and dry-roasted spices. The food is straightforward, protein-dense, and built for energy — historically the food of farmers and travellers.
6. Sattu Paratha
A wheat flatbread stuffed with seasoned sattu — roasted chana flour mixed with mustard oil, onion, garlic, lemon juice, ajwain (carom seeds), and green chilli. The stuffed dough is rolled out and cooked on a hot griddle, sometimes brushed with more mustard oil for crispness.
Sattu paratha is portable, high in protein (around 18g per serving), and stays well for hours — which is why it became the working person's food across Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Served with a wedge of lemon and raw onion, or with potato chokha. Naturally vegan in its traditional form.
7. Choka
A fire-roasted vegetable mash. Eggplant, tomato, and potato are roasted directly over a flame until the skins blacken. The charred skins come off, and the soft interiors are mashed with raw mustard oil, green chilli, chopped onion, garlic, lime juice, and salt. No cooking on the stovetop — the technique is entirely fire and seasoning.
The smoke from charred vegetables defines choka. It's served as a side with litti, with sattu paratha, or with rice. The dish is sometimes called bharta in other regions, but the Bihari version is simpler, fresher, and uses raw mustard oil rather than cooked fat. Always plant-based.
Assam
Assam's cuisine sits between the rice-and-fish-dominated lowlands and the tribal vegetable-and-fermentation cuisines of the hill states. The everyday food is light, fresh, and built around indigenous greens and ferments.
8. Khar
Less a dish than a cooking technique — Assamese cuisine's signature ingredient is kola khar, an alkaline solution made from the ash of dried banana peel. The ash is soaked in water and filtered. The resulting alkaline liquid is used as a cooking medium for everything from greens to lentils to raw papaya.
A traditional khar dish combines this alkaline liquid with raw papaya, taro, or wild greens, lightly tempered with mustard oil, garlic, and dried chillies. The alkalinity gives the food a subtle, almost savoury-soapy note that no other Indian cuisine produces.
Khar is also said to aid digestion and balance the acidity of the rice-heavy Assamese diet. Naturally vegan, deeply traditional, and almost impossible to find outside Assamese homes.
9. Aloo Pitika
Mashed potato — but cooked in a way that makes it distinctly Assamese. Boiled potatoes are mashed with finely chopped raw onion, green chilli, fresh coriander, and a generous pour of raw mustard oil. Salt at the end. No butter, no cream, no dairy.
The raw mustard oil is what defines aloo pitika. It gives the dish a sharp, pungent edge that is jarring at first and addictive by the second bite. Served as a side with rice and dal. One of the simplest dishes in Indian cooking, and one of the most distinctive.
Manipur
Manipur sits in a hill valley between the Northeast plains and Myanmar. The cuisine has its own ingredient set — wild herbs, fermented soybean, fermented bamboo, indigenous greens — that doesn't appear elsewhere in India.
10. Singju
A spicy raw salad. Finely shredded cabbage, banana flower, lotus stem, and wild herbs are tossed with roasted gram flour, fermented bamboo shoot, dried red chilli paste, salt, and toasted sesame seeds. Sometimes with fermented fish in modern versions, but the original Singju is plant-based — the fish ingredient is a recent addition.
Meghalaya
Meghalaya's Khasi and Jaintia communities have a long-standing fermentation tradition that runs parallel to the Naga akhuni tradition next door.
11. Tungrymbai
A fermented soybean curry. Soybeans are boiled, packed in banana leaves, and left to ferment for several months until they develop a powerful, pungent aroma. The fermented mass is then cooked into a curry with mustard oil, ginger, garlic, dried red chilli, sesame seeds, and onion.
Tungrymbai's smell precedes it across kitchens and villages — it is one of the most aromatically intense plant foods in India. But the cooked curry mellows into a deeply savoury, almost meat-like flavour that is impossible to describe to anyone who hasn't eaten it. Naturally vegan, naturally probiotic, ancient.
Nagaland
Nagaland's fermentation tradition is among the most documented in India, with Akhuni recognised by the Slow Food Foundation's Ark of Taste for its cultural significance.
12. Axone with Vegetables
The Naga version of fermented soybean — close to tungrymbai in process but distinct in flavour profile. Soybeans are boiled, wrapped in leaves, fermented over several days to weeks, then dried and powdered or kept as a paste.
The fermented soybean is cooked with vegetables — typically pumpkin, beans, or chayote — and finished with bamboo shoot, dried chilli, and a generous use of fresh garlic. The dish is hearty, intensely savoury, and forms one of the few traditional Indian vegan sources of vitamin B12 (through fermentation activity, though amounts vary).
Naga cuisine outside of meat preparations is overwhelmingly plant-based — most Naga vegetable dishes use fermented soybean, bamboo, or wild greens as flavour bases rather than dairy.
Sikkim
Sikkim's cuisine blends Nepali, Tibetan, and indigenous Lepcha traditions. The fermentation tradition here is older than most of South Asia's — preserving vegetables for the long Himalayan winters.
13. Gundruk
Fermented leafy greens. Mustard greens, radish leaves, or cauliflower greens are wilted, packed tightly in earthen jars, and left to ferment for one to two weeks. The fermented greens are then sun-dried for storage and used through the year as a soured, deeply flavoured cooking base.
Gundruk is cooked into a soup with potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, and chilli — eaten with rice or as a standalone broth. The sourness is the defining feature; it gives the dish a tang that no fresh green can produce. Like axone, gundruk is recognised on Slow Food's Ark of Taste for its cultural significance.
14. Sinki
Fermented radish. Whole radishes are sun-dried, then packed into bamboo or earthenware containers and fermented for two to three weeks. The result is sour, slightly funky, and concentrated — a single tablespoon of sinki transforms a soup or vegetable preparation. Like gundruk, sinki was originally a winter preservation technique that has become a flavour signature in its own right.
Mizoram
Mizo cuisine is built on bamboo shoots, fermented soybean (bekang), pumpkin, and the use of soda (a wood-ash alkaline solution similar to Assamese khar). The food is light, often steamed or boiled, with minimal spice.
15. Bai
A mixed vegetable and rice stew. Pumpkin, spinach, cabbage, bamboo shoot, and any seasonal greens are simmered together with a small amount of pre-cooked rice, salt, and sometimes a few pieces of fermented soybean for depth. No oil, no spice paste, no tempering — the technique is deliberate simplicity.
Bai is the everyday Mizo dish — what most households eat most days. It is also one of the cleanest plant-based dishes anywhere in India, with no added fat and almost no processing. Served hot with rice or on its own.
What These Dishes Have in Common
Three patterns hold across both regions despite the cuisines being completely different:
Fermentation is structural, not seasonal. Axone, tungrymbai, gundruk, sinki, and even Bengal's dhokar dalna (with its lentil-cake base) — fermentation isn't a niche technique here, it's the architecture.
Mustard oil is the universal fat. From Bengal through Odisha, Bihar, and Assam, mustard oil is what coconut oil is to the South. Sharp, distinctive, distinctly different from neutral cooking oils.
Wild and foraged ingredients matter. Wild greens, banana flower, lotus stem, fermented bamboo, alkaline ash — these regional cuisines pull from a much wider plant catalogue than mainstream Indian cooking. The diversity is part of why they are naturally plant-based; the resource base never narrowed to just what could be cultivated industrially.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most distinctive vegan dishes from Northeast India?
The Northeast holds India's deepest fermentation tradition. Axone (Nagaland), tungrymbai (Meghalaya), gundruk and sinki (Sikkim), bekang (Mizoram), and the alkaline khar technique of Assam are all naturally vegan and ancient. These dishes use fermentation to build umami in place of dairy or meat.
Is Bengali food mostly vegetarian?
Bengali cuisine has a strong fish and meat tradition, but everyday Bengali home cooking is heavily plant-based. Dishes like shukto, aloo posto, cholar dal, and most vegetable preparations use mustard oil and panch phoron without dairy. Bengali sweets are the major exception — most use dairy.
What is panch phoron?
Panch phoron is a Bengali and Odia five-spice blend of fenugreek, nigella, fennel, cumin, and black mustard seed. Used whole and tempered in hot mustard oil at the start or end of a dish, it gives East Indian cooking its signature aroma. Naturally vegan and used across nearly every Bengali, Odia, and Bihari vegetable preparation.
What is khar?
Khar is both an ingredient and a cooking technique unique to Assam. The ash of dried banana peel is soaked in water and filtered to produce an alkaline liquid, which is then used to cook greens, lentils, and vegetables. The result is a subtle alkaline flavour that no other Indian cuisine produces.
Are Northeast Indian dishes spicy?
Most Northeast Indian cuisines are surprisingly low on dried spices compared to mainland Indian cooking. The flavour comes from fermentation, indigenous greens, smoke, and fresh herbs rather than spice mixes. Chilli is used but not always heavily. Some Naga and Manipuri preparations can be intensely hot.
Where can I learn to cook East and Northeast Indian vegan dishes?
The most direct path is travel — eat these dishes where they're made, especially Bengali home cooking in Kolkata and rural West Bengal, and Northeast tribal cuisines in their home regions. Many of these dishes are rarely cooked outside their home states. For home learners, regional food bloggers and YouTube channels from each state are the best resource.
What's Next in This Series
Part one covered South India. Part three moves west — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, and the Konkan coast. The series closes with the Himalayan and northern plains kitchens of Uttarakhand, Kashmir, Punjab, and Rajasthan.
These regional cuisines do something most modern food cultures struggle with: they treat plant-based eating as the default, not the alternative. Fermented soybean instead of cheese. Banana ash instead of dairy thickeners. Mustard oil instead of butter. Coconut and lentils instead of meat.
Recreating these dishes at home with online recipes from regional cooks is straightforward once the foundational techniques — tempering, fermentation, handling mustard oil, sourcing indigenous ingredients — are in hand. At The Vegan School, those underlying techniques are the focus of the 8-week residential programme. The regional dishes themselves are best learned at the source.
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