Dubai’s Vibrant Vegetarian Food Scene

  • Category: Food
  • March 16, 2017

Despite the hearty carnivorous Arabic food scene in Dubai, in parallel is a thriving vegetarian food scene evidenced by the presence of a vegetarian restaurant on literally every corner in the city. Meet Sucheta Goenka, Director of Green Foods Restaurant, the company that operates Khandani Rajdhani in the UAE, who explains her formula for success.

Background
“For over 5 decades, Rajdhani has been serving pure vegetarian thaalis, with a specialization in Gujarati and Rajasthani cuisine. When Rajdhani came into being, there were no trusted vegetarian thaali chains anywhere, so Rajdhani pioneered this segment. Today, it has over 26 outlets across India, UAE, and Oman.”

Vegetarian Surge in Dubai
“Vegetarianism has, in the past decade, become a global food trend. More and more people are opting to go vegetarian, even vegan. Dubai has people from all over the world both living and visiting in large numbers. So it’s imperative that vegetarian food is well represented here. This has led to a vibrant food scene in Dubai.”

RAJDHANI-THALI

Merging Global Food Trends
“Indian food has always had healthy ingredients in its food. The traditional recipes use a lot of roasting and steaming, which in itself is a healthy way of preparing food. As the world shifts to eating healthy, newer ingredients have come into the spotlight. Indian cuisine adapts very well to global trends, mostly because Indians travel the world and pick up trends on-the-go. So yes, ingredients like quinoa are making their way into Indian recipes, but it’s not very common yet.”

Health Benefits
“The world is moving to vegetarian food. It’s healthy, has immense variety, and is easy to prepare. If I’ve to pick three reasons one should consider going vegetarian, they are, firstly, it’s healthier as it reduces one’s risk of disease. Secondly, it is easier to digest as it is much lighter than digesting meat. And finally, it has immense variety, more than one can imagine.”