Tongue tantalising India is a sweet and spicy vegetarian paradise. India is a predominantly Hindu country and although a lot of Hindus aren't strict vegetarians, many important Hindu (and Buddhist) towns are strictly vegetarian and luckily for the Bus the rest of the country seems to have taken note.  In modern Indian cities and tourist destinations you'll find an array of foods from around the globe all including veggie delights. Just about every obscure small town you visit there'll be a dhaba (roadside restaurant, usually pretty grey) ready to serve you up a range of veggie curries and thalis, and street vendors serving various forms of chaat (snacks). 

The Veggie Bus is here to help you make sense of all this mouth-watering madness from thick creamy paneer (unfermented soft cheese) curries in the North to the lighter spiced dosas of the South. One of the challenges facing the Veggie Bus in India was finding a good variety of Indian foods and healthy options. Although the Bus is a big curry fan, 3 times a day for 9 months was just not plausible and would most probably lead to obesity and premature bus death. So the Bus set out to find a wide selection of Indian veggie delights both of the naughty and nice variety. 
Below we've compiled a Veggie Bus Indian food glossary to help you make sense of whats on offer. For Regional specialities see the regional pages. 

Veggie Bus top tip: If you're not a spice fan but want to try the local cuisine then order a sidedish of curd or raita and mix this into your curry. Some spice haters swore by this technique in India.  

The Veggie Bus glossary of Indian eating
Masala literally means 'spice blend' and the spices used in masala can vary between restaurants and states. The most common spices found in Indian dishes are cumin and cumin seeds, tumeric, black pepper, coriander, tamarind, saffron and of course chillies. The Bus has tried to indicate the level of spice in each dish listed below but the truth is the spicyness of a dish varies greatly between restaurants and states. Luckily most waiters and cooks in India know what foreigners mean when they say 'not spicy', so it's alway best to say if you don't like spice, or if you do! As a general rule of thumb, the more traveller oriented places will cater more for the Western palate and knock up a rather mild version of the Indian originals, but local places will produce fiery delights. Here's our list of the most popular and tasty Indian dishes. If we've left out your favourite then please go to the contct us page and let us know.

Achar: pickle often served with thalis, usually quite spicy.
Aloo tikki: Small snack of potato cake/patty with chick peas served with light sweet cream and a spicy sauce. Mild.
Aloo gobi: (Aloo means potato, gobi means cauliflour) Potato and Cauliflour curry. Mild.
Aloo matter: Potato and pea curry in a thin sauce. Often quite spicy and served as part of a thali. 
Appam: Rice pancake of South India.
Brinjal / Baigan: Slightly sweet and mildly spiced eggplant dish.
Bhajia: Mixed vegtable fritters often served as street snacks.
Bhindi: Soft cooked okra in a light curry sauce. Mild.
Biryani (vegetable): Fragrent rice steamed with various spices and cloves. Sometimes served with a small vegtable curry.
Channa: Spicy chickpeas in a light curry sauce. (Also popular is Channa Masala which is the same dish with a masala spice blend). Mild to hot.
Chapati: Indian bread usually cooked in a clay oven. Served alongside curries, sometimes instead of rice. This is the healthiest type of Indian bread to eat as it's not deep fried in oil. Also called 'roti'. 
Chawal: Rice, but most Indians will use the English word rice when speaking to a Westener.
Curd: Sometimes lumpy, sometimes smooth, sometimes sour, sometimes sweet. Served with thalis or as a side dish along side curry. Also called Dahi.
Dhal: A staple Indian dish served with almost every thali. Lentils in a light, often yellow curry sauce. Mild.
Dhal Fry: Lentils and kidney beans cooked in a thicker brown sauce with cream. Mild.
Dhal Makhini: Dhal Fry cooked with butter and more cream, and often served with an extra lump of butter floating on the top. Mild. 
Dosa: A large light South Indian pancake served with dhal and a coconut based sauce often eaten for breakfasts or a light lunch. Dosas come folded, rolled or in a pyramid depending on how fancy the restaurant is. You can get Dosas stuffed with just about anything, a Veggie Bus favourite was the Masala Dosa; stuffed with spiced potatoes.
Dum Aloo (Aloo Dum): Potato, sometimes with grated panner served in a very rich and creamy tomato based sauce. (Also try the Kashmiri Dum Aloo where the potatoes and paneer are stuffed in tomatoes and peppers).
Idli: Soft South Indian rice cake served with many different sauces. 
Kadhi: It's not meat, but the bus isn't quite sure what it is. The Indians say it's like temph. Usually served in a light mild sauce. 
Kofta (vegetable): In the West we usually associate Koftas with various meats but in India they're usually balls of minced veg served in a thick creamy North Indian sauce.
Mattar paneer: Peas and paneer in a mildly spiced sauce.
Mix Veg: Also rarely called sabzi. There seems to be no standard recipe for mixed veg. You get whatever veg is avaible that day and the spicyness can vary hugely so state your preference when ordering. 
Momos: Tibetan steamed or fried vegetable dumplings. 
Naan: We all know naans. Flatbread cooked in a tandoori oven and stuffed with just about any veg you wish.
Paneer: Unfermented soft cheese, perfect for soaking up the rich curry flavours.
Pakoras: A mix of vegetables or paneer dipped in a chickpea flour batter and deep fried. 
Palak Paneer: Chunks of paneer served up in a rich and creamy green spinach based sauce with a hint of spice. Good as a sharer as it can get quite sickly on it's own with rice.
Paneer Butter Masala: Paneer cooked in a very rich and creamy masala sauce. Mild.
Pappad: Or as we know them, poppadams. Thin crisy and deep fried.
Parathra: Somewhere between a chapati and a naan, cooked with ghee on a hotplate this greasy bread is often served stuffed with potatoes (Aloo Parathra) for breakfast alongside dhal or veg curry. Can also be stuffed with other veg or paneer.
Pilao or pilaf: Flavoured Rice cooked with varying spices. A Veggie Bus favourite was the Kashmir Pilao; fragrent rice served with chuncks of fruit such as pinapple, apple and melon. Although this didn't appear on too many menus.
Poori: A puffed up South Indian deep fried bread. These often replace roti's in South Indian thalis. 
Raita: Chilled and sometimes mildly spiced yoghurt, usually made with cucumba, sometimes fruits such as pinapple.
Saag: Leafy green veg, often spinach. 
Saag Aloo: Leafy green veg cooked with potatoes.
Sambar: Lentils and veg cooked in a light soupy sauce, often served with Dosas in South India.
Samosa (vegetable): Deep fried pastry triangles stuffed with spiced veg. Sometimes served with a sweet dipping sauce.
Stuffed tomato: Big juicy tomatoes stuffed with minced paneer and served in a butter masala sauce. Mild.
Thali: Served on a silver plate with compartments for each different element of the Thali (reminiscent of those used for school dinners), a traditional thali usually involves one or two vegetable dishes, dhal, rice, pickle and chapatis. In local places it's all you can eat and you'll constantly be offered more dhal and chapatis at no extra cost. These are often the best value item on the menu. In more tourist orientated places thick paneer curries may replace the veg dishes.
Upma: Sweet coconut or savory semolina dish.
Uttapam: Thick South Indian pancake cooked with onions, tomatoes, corriander and spices like an omlette. Served with dhal or sambar usually as a breakfast dish in South India.
Veg Seekh Kebab: Vegetable patties cooked in a tandoor.

Veggie Bus top tip for Vegans: It's hard being vegan in India when cream is snuck into so many dishes. The Jain Religion does not believe in using any animal products in cooking. Often restaurants will advertise that they cater for Jains. You'll find many of these restaurants near Jain temples, like the one near the Red Fort in Delhi.