Buddhist vegetarian: what a label does not tell you

Buddhist vegetarian practice asks something of a label that ordinary vegetarianism does not: it excludes the five pungent roots, and those are precisely the ingredients that hide inside the word seasoning.

The forms this practice takes

Buddhist vegetarian diets are not uniform. 全素, sometimes rendered as pure or strict vegetarian, excludes all animal products including dairy, eggs and honey. 蛋奶素 permits dairy and eggs. A pure Mahayana practice excludes meat, fish and eggs while permitting dairy. What all of them share, and what distinguishes them from Western vegetarianism, is the exclusion of the five pungent roots.

The five pungent roots

The five are onion, garlic, leek, chives and shallot, known in Chinese as 五辛. They are excluded in Mahayana practice on the traditional understanding that they agitate the mind and the body, and so work against the settled attention that practice is meant to cultivate. Asafoetida, known as hing, is used in some traditions as a substitute that gives a similar savoury depth.

The practical difficulty is that these are among the most widely used flavour bases in all of cooking, and they very often do not appear under their own names. Onion powder and garlic powder are standard in seasoning blends, stock cubes, crisps, instant noodle sachets, sauces and marinades. A label reading seasoning, spices, natural flavouring or vegetable extract may well be built on them, and is not required to break them out.

Where the animal ingredients hide

Alongside the roots, Buddhist vegetarian practice faces the same hidden animal ingredients as any vegetarian diet. Gelatin, listed as E441, sets sweets and desserts. Carmine, E120, colours them red. Shellac, E904, glazes them. Rennet from a calf's stomach sets a great deal of cheese. Fish sauce, oyster sauce and shrimp paste underpin many East and Southeast Asian dishes that otherwise read as vegetable.

Mock meats deserve a note of their own, since they are a long tradition in Chinese Buddhist cooking and are usually made from wheat gluten, soy or mushroom. They are generally suitable, but commercially produced versions are frequently seasoned with onion or garlic, so the ingredients list still repays reading.

Names worth knowing

Ingredients worth recognising on sight, with the other names each one appears under. The five pungent roots come first, since they are the ones a label most often buries inside a word like seasoning.

Onion

Onion PowderDried OnionOnion GranulesOnion Flakes

Garlic

Garlic PowderGarlic GranulesDried Garlic

Leek

Chives

ChiveGarlic ChivesChinese ChivesGau ChoyKucai

Shallot

EschalotBawang MerahFried Shallot

Spring Onion

ScallionGreen OnionDaun Bawang

Asafoetida

HingPerungayam

Gelatin

GelatineBeef GelatinPork GelatinBovine GelatineFish GelatinMarine GelatinGelatine PowderE441INS 441441

Carmine

CochinealE120Carminic AcidNatural Red 4C.I. 75470INS 120120

Shellac

E904Confectioners GlazeConfectioner's GlazePharmaceutical GlazeLac ResinLac GlazeShellac GlazeINS 904904

Oyster Sauce

Oyster Extract Sauce

Fish Sauce

Nam PlaNuoc MamPatis

Rennet

Animal Rennet

Lecithin

E322INS 322322

A selection, not the full list.

Check a whole label at once

Recognising these by eye is the hard way to do it. Photograph the ingredients panel and NoshWise reads every line against this profile, names what to avoid, and says why.

Scan a label

Common questions

What are the five pungent roots?

Onion, garlic, leek, chives and shallot, known in Chinese as 五辛. Mahayana Buddhist practice excludes them on the traditional understanding that they agitate body and mind and work against settled attention.

Why do Buddhists avoid garlic and onion?

They are two of the five pungent roots. The traditional reasoning is that they stimulate agitation and desire, which works against the calm the practice is meant to cultivate. This is separate from the reasoning behind avoiding meat, which rests on non-harm.

What is the difference between 全素 and 蛋奶素?

全素 excludes all animal products, including dairy, eggs and honey. 蛋奶素 permits dairy and eggs. Both exclude meat, fish and the five pungent roots.

Is asafoetida allowed in Buddhist vegetarian cooking?

Asafoetida, or hing, is used in some traditions as a substitute for onion and garlic, giving a comparable savoury depth without being one of the five. Practice varies, so it is worth checking against your own tradition.

Does natural flavouring contain onion or garlic?

It can, and the label will not say. Flavouring is a category rather than an ingredient, and onion and garlic are among the most common bases for savoury flavourings, seasoning blends and stock. This is the single most common way the five pungent roots enter a product unannounced.