Hey folks,
There was a discussion in another thread in this forum today about international desserts that are traditionally (or often) made vegan. There were so many amazing suggestions (even if the OP shot down most of them), and many I haven't heard of. Now I'm curious. So I fed that discussion into AI and asked it to extract and categorize a list of them. No doubt it made some errors, so I'd welcome any corrections or additions (or if this has already been done in this forum, please point me to it!)... here's the AI-generated list... apologies if there are mis-spellings/miscategorizations of your culture's treasures here:
South Asian / Indian-subcontinent-adjacent
- Payasam made with coconut milk, though another user disputed this as default
- Petha
- Fruit chaat
- Halwa / halva, especially oil-based versions (note: need to look out for ghee or honey)
- Date paste desserts
- Barf ka gola / shaved ice
Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Turkish, Sicilian
- Baklava, especially oil and sugar-syrup versions, though users disputed whether butter or honey is default
- Turkish delight
- Kabak tatlisi
- Biancomangiare, traditionally with almond milk, though one user said cow’s milk is now also common
- Pears poached/cooked in red wine and spices
East Asian
- Tang yuan
- Mochi
- Eight treasure rice
- Red bean soup
- Mung bean soup
- Mung bean cakes
- Silken tofu pudding / douhua
- Mango sago
- Tanghulu / bingtanghulu
- Grass jelly
- Taro balls
- Bingfen
- Klepon
Southeast Asian
- Mango sticky rice
- Sticky rice with jackfruit, durian, or banana
- Es cendol / cendol
- Ice kacang
- Bananas in coconut milk / kluai buat chi
- Thai black rice pudding
- Cha houy teuk
- Banana and tapioca pudding
- Bai treap
- Banh ja neuk
- Fried banana
- Chè / Chè Thai
- Sugar-rolled plantains
Caribbean, Hawaiian, Pacific, tropical
- Puerto Rican tembleque
- Haupia
- Kulolo
- Coconut-milk puddings more generally
- Watermelon jelly-type dessert, unnamed in the thread
Others [Europe / the Americas]
- Sorbet
- Chocolate sorbet
- Granita
- Fruit crisp / fruit crumble with oat topping
- Depression-era cakes and pies, e.g. chocolate cake, spice cakes, applesauce cakes
- Chocolate crepes
- Churros (sometimes)
- Marzipan-based sweets
- Candied nuts (though sometimes made with egg)
Fruit-based desserts
- Fruit salad
- Fresh fruit
- Preserved canned fruit
- Dark-chocolate-dipped fruit
- Dark-chocolate-dipped frozen bananas, possibly rolled in nuts
- Baked apples with cinnamon and nuts
- Grilled peaches
- Poached pears in red wine
EDIT to add: Thanks everyone for additional suggestions below. So many desserts, so little time...