Being of Indian descent, I might be biased. But Indian cuisine is the only cuisine I'm aware of where being vegetarian isn't a compromise in the creativity, quality, and sheer flavors available to you.

For other cuisines, where centuries of culinary creativity mostly went towards making meat, this is the only viable approach to weaning us off growing animals for meaty foods.

Another one that is even vegan-friendly is Ethiopian food. Almost every Ethiopian restaurant I've been to has a "vegetarian sampler", or something of the like, which on closer inspection is usually vegan. Many dishes in the sampler are lentil-and-spice-based, all are entirely delicious.

Thai cuisine (my favorite cuisine, even above Indian) can do without meat. Their curries (green,red) and flat noodle dishes (pad ki mow, pad see ew) work well with protein substitutes. Though, a certain richness will be lacking.

Vietnamese cuisine also kind of works if you know how to make a good veg stock. My vegan fried basically lives out of a local Vietnamese place.

Chinese stir fries can be made any way you like. Again, you will need to be a good cook to get add sufficient richness and umami to a veg only stir fry, but with a good base of chinese spices, the sky is the limit.

You may see a trend here. Any cuisine that relies on spices to impart flavor to the dish, can be easily ported over to a veg only format. Western dishes depend on leveraging the innate flavors in the ingredients, and veggies don't fare quite as well in that regard.

honorary mention: (cuisines that taste great veg, but do get a huuuge boost when meat is added) * Middle eastern falafel-hummus-salad based cuisine (these are no normal salads. Huge variety in salads here) * Mexican ( treat it like a Subway with better ingredients. Most veg Indians that I know of, live off of Subways anyways. We are hard wired to like Rajma Chawal...so mexican feels like home)

There are also quite a few German/Austrian dishes that are sweet but are a full meal. Look up "Kaiserschmarrn" or " Zwetschgenknoedel". "Kässpätzle" are not sweet but also a full meal.

But to be frank, while Austrian desserts-as-main-course could qualify as vegetarian cuisine, most main courses aren't vegetarian, and at least include a little bit of bacon here and there.

The dishes I mentioned aren't considered desserts. They are main courses.

Well, I am Austrian, and I consider them both desserts and main courses.

I guess you Austrians must be doing things wrong :-). In Bavaria I have never seen Kaiserschmarrn as dessert.

I wouldn't consider either German or Austrian cuisines to be vegetarian-friendly. Especially when contrasted with Indian food.

Having a few dishes that simply don't contain meat is a pretty low standard to set. I think good vegetarian cuisine should also make up for the lost nutritional value of meat (e.g. protein through lentils, seitan, tofu, etc), and of course, have the creativity and effort go into making it delicious. In German/Austrian cuisine, I find that often the vegetarian dishes are an afterthought, being more often on par with a side dish, rather than a true main course.

Ethiopia provides solid competition.

I don't dp this often or ever on HN, but....Bullshit, there are far more vegetarian foods available than your typical fish, pork, beef, lamb and poultry (and perhaps "game") dishes.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I can certainly say that products based on a previous living animal are certainly not a "subset" of vegetable based diets.

What a most ridiculous assertion to make.

How am I wrong? By not eating meat you are making a compromise. Maybe worthwhile, but it still is a compromise.

You're being downvoted because you're missing the point, and trying to argue semantics.

Yes, of course, by the number of individual ingredient options, keeping meat out is a "subset" in the strictest of mathematical definitions, but that is a largely useless argument.

The point is, while this is changing a lot in the US coasts for example, in most other places in the US (and even worse in parts of Europe I've travelled to), the dishes that are actually vegetarian (contain only ingredients derived from vegetables or spices), are a VERY small subset, usually side dishes.

But in Indian cuisine (and probably Ethiopian as the other poster stated), you could have just as much of a variety of dishes that are just made from vegetables, that you wouldn't grow tired of eating mashed potatoes, green beans, and salads.

This white guy agrees :)

Look for falafel.

Food is a cultural and emotional issue. As much as some people like to try new dishes, others prefer to stick to what they know and love, give or take a few variations. What you eat may be part of your identity and culture, and giving that up for something foreign that's supposedly better isn't easy. Seemingly small steps are an easier sell.

For me as a vegetarian, getting into Indian food was a dietary breakthrough. Vegetarian Indian food has already been developed for thousands of years to be tasty and meet dietary requirements.

I grew up on typical American cuisine and then became vegetarian, and I was disappointed by a lot of vegetarian recipes that were designed to make sense to people with my culinary background. However, I recognize that switching someone's cuisine is a big thing to ask for; reducing meat consumption will go a lot smoother if it doesn't mean switching to a new culinary tradition - which is why cookbooks featuring those recipes that I didn't like are so popular.

> vegetarian meals that can rival even the best meat based meal

I like a few Indian dishes, so I can appreciate what can be done in the vegetarian space.

Even so, I'd find it difficult to believe that any of them could match a properly cooked smoked BBQ beef brisket in flavor or texture.

Though I'm sure more than a few would make good side dishes, or work well with the brisket as an ingredient.

In addition to breakfast tacos and cigarettes there are few things that inspire cravings as much as a good curry.

Not indian, didn't grow up with indian cuisine, love brisket, eat the best in the world couple times a month, and I am definitely a texture eater and not vegetarian.

Good curries with fresh spices have made me defacto vegetarian and nearly vegan for long stretches of time without any intentionality or effort on my part, they are hardly side dishes, they activate feelings of wellness and primal satisfaction in parts of my brain I thought only steak could provide, I'm glad I was introduced to good indian cuisine in my late 20s. Obviously the reductionist truism is correct "steak != not steak", but indian food relegated to side dishes? Pffft.

Just to make a point, there are many Indian dishes that are cooked very sloppily out of the state they are found in. (yes, sloppy even in other states in India, and especially sloppy in the US) Just as you would need to be in Texas-NC-SC to get the best good BBQ.

The best Indian food I've had in the US is always when a friend's mom is visiting.

Trying an Indian dish in the region it hails from, completely changes your perception of dish. If you are ever in Delhi, do try their Mughlai cusine. It is the Indian equivalent of meat heaven.

> Even so, I'd find it difficult to believe that any of them could match a properly cooked smoked BBQ beef brisket in flavor or texture.

The point is to have a similar abstract value of "tastiness", rather than having the exact same flavor or texture.

It’s astounding to me that you mock efforts to replicate meat when the “simpler solutions” is to just tell people to eat veg cuisines and this give up the meat-based cuisines they’ve lived with. And then in the next sentence, you oppose veganism because it’s apparently wrong to give up cuisines you’ve lived with.

Cold-turkey is an idiom meaning to immediately change without a transition. It's often used as "quitting smoking cold-turkey".

Yes, I'm aware of that. But this is the full context of the comment:

> I am opposed to advocating for cold-turkey veganism though. Milk products and eggs are great meat substitutes, and the lack of both makes entire cuisines inaccessible.

The "immediately change" connotation of "cold-turkey" doesn't make much sense here. The commenter seems to imply that eliminating entire cuisines -- i.e. having "entire cuisines inaccessible" -- is a difficult problem for people, regardless of the speed at which you do it. And I agree with that. Which is why I find it weird that he thinks it's weird why people who weren't born on vegetarian cuisines can't just switch to them, when introduced. I would argue that even if that were possible for most people, things like "Impossible Burger" are necessary for a successful transition.

> Which is why I find it weird that he thinks it's weird why people who weren't born on vegetarian cuisines can't just switch to them, when introduced.

I didn't read it like this at all. He's arguing to bring more vegetarian cuisines to the forefront to raise awareness of the possibilities that exist. His critique was against lauding the "impossible" as the solution to getting everyone on veganism immediately.

From his original comment:

> it is funny that the meat reduction movement is looking at such impractical and immature products instead of simpler solutions such as bringing veg friendly cuisines to the fore.

I don't disagree that ventures like Impossible Burger are a convoluted way to reduce meat consumption. But I disagree that introducing vegetarian cuisines is a simpler "solution" -- if we mean to actually solve the problem -- for the reason that he states in his next paragraph: it's very difficult to voluntarily give up the cuisines you've lived your life on, and this includes the many meat-centered cuisines found in non-vegetarian cultures. Meat-alternatives may be complicated and difficult, but so is the problem they hope to solve.

That is what I meant.

I applaud efforts such as the impossible burger. But maybe, we should have a gander at the 'very much possible' first.

In my opinion Indian cuisine is the way to go for vegetarians. There are a ton of great dishes that make vegetables and beans shine without trying to imitate meat. I like veggie burgers from time to time but I don't think meat imitation products are good long term path.

The one big problem for me is that nearly every "veggie" dish I've ever known would be IMPROVED with meat in my very personal opinion. Is there any meal/food that tastes worse with a dead animal added?

I live in a primarily meat eating household, with a couple of veg days every month. (and my mom makes some Michelin star tier non-veg...strong bias applies)

Everyone in the house looks forward to the veg day, because we know it will be special. The techniques needed to cook good vegetarian food are fundamentally different, in a way that meat can't take advantage of it.

You would never want to eat a parmesan beef or a chicken pastrami. It just won't work. Similarly some dishes only work as veg dishes.

There are many indian veg dishes (daal-baati-churma, Undio, garlic-tomato sabji, misal, usal, chat) which simply do not have any non-veg equivalent. And all of these are main courses with the vegetable being the highlight.

Vanilla pudding may taste worse with meat :-). I am also not sure about pineapple juice.

Milk Steak too

> instead of simpler solutions such as bringing veg friendly cuisines to the fore.

To me, transforming people's food preference requires obviously much more complex solutions than replicating meat.