Tamil Vegetarian Cuisine

Set off on a culinary cruise in South India

India’s agricultural bounty and religious beliefs cultivated staunch vegetarian diets, which later veered towards meat by the waves of colonizers and settlers. Yet, our culinary traditions offer enough for the age-old and the new-age vegetarians – with a rich tropical fare of lentils, millets, tubers, fruits and vegetables that find their way onto our hearty platters. With some tongue-twisting names and some palate-teasing flavours, trace the vegetarian legacy on a banana leaf! Taste signature dishes of rice – from dosas (crispy rice and lentil crepes), idlis (steamed rice-lentil cakes), puttu (cylindrical rice cakes made in bamboo sticks), appam (concave rice-lentil pancakes) to rice preparations like tamarind rice, lemon rice, tomato rice and more. Try curries made of beans, drumsticks, plantains, yams, leafy greens – all cooked with tamarind, or sesame or curry leaves, for that inimical southern taste. We promise you a diversity of tastes that will satiate even the meat-lovers (for a while!).