Chinese Buddhist / Temple Cuisine (寺院菜, 素斋) is the vegetarian culinary tradition developed within Chinese Buddhist monasteries and Buddhist communities. It is shaped by Buddhist precepts against killing (ahimsa) as well as Chinese philosophical ideas of balance, purity, and harmony between humans and nature.
Temple cuisine centers on grains, tofu, mushrooms, vegetables, wild herbs, nuts, fermented products, and seasonal produce.
Many monastic traditions avoid the “Five Pungent Spices” (五辛: garlic, onion, chives, leeks, and shallots), believed to stimulate desire and disrupt meditation. Cooking methods emphasize steaming, braising, light stir-frying, and stewing, often with subtle seasoning to preserve the natural flavor of ingredients.
A distinctive feature is mock meat (仿荤菜), created from wheat gluten (e.g. mianjin 面筋), tofu (e.g. dougan 豆干), bean curd skin (e.g. su ya 素鸭), and mushrooms to imitate the textures of meat, poultry, and seafood. These dishes developed partly for ritual and banquet purposes, allowing elite patrons and pilgrims to observe vegetarianism without abandoning familiar culinary forms. Famous examples include vegetarian “duck,” “fish,” “chicken”, “eel”, “pork”, “goose”, etc.
Many dishes associated with Chinese vegetarian cooking—such as mock duck, vegetarian soup, and elaborate banquet-style Buddhist feasts—originated in monastery kitchens and were later adopted by secular restaurants. Historically, temple cuisine influenced regional culinary traditions, especially in Jiangnan, Fujian, and Guangdong.
