Eating Indian food with allergies

Indian guides by allergen

Each guide covers typical dishes, what to ask, and where the allergen hides.

• Indian food with a milk allergy — Dairy in an Indian kitchen is structural rather than decorative: ghee is the cooking fat, yoghurt is the marinade, and cream finishes the gravies — so a dairy-free order usually means choosing from the South Indian and vegan sections rather than adapting a korma.
• Indian food with a tree nut allergy — Nuts in Indian cooking are usually ground into the gravy rather than scattered on top: cashew and almond paste give korma, pasanda and many restaurant-style curries their body, so a nut allergy cannot be managed by asking for no garnish.
• Indian food with a peanut allergy — Peanut is regional in Indian cooking rather than universal — heavy in western and southern dishes, groundnut oil in some kitchens, peanut in chutneys and chaat — so the question is which region the kitchen cooks from and which oil it uses.
• Indian food with a mustard allergy — Mustard in Indian cooking is an oil and a tempering seed rather than a condiment: black mustard seed popped in hot oil starts a very large number of South and East Indian dishes, and mustard oil is the base fat in Bengali cooking.
• Indian food with coeliac disease — Indian food is one of the better cuisines for gluten-free eating because rice, lentils and chickpea flour carry so much of it — the exceptions are the bread basket, the fryer and asafoetida, which is usually blended with wheat flour.

Related guides

• All cuisine guides
• All allergen and diet guides