Home | About us | Open Forum | Property For Sale/Rent | Contact us

According to the UK Food Standards Agency 8% of English people are vegetarian or partly vegetarian.  I am one who has the fortune to live in Spain, where tomatoes taste like tomatoes, local markets sell seasonal fruits from down the road and green, nutty olive oil abounds.  Unlike in England, I can afford to eat and drink out on a regular basis and small shops with local goods are still surviving despite the looming presence of supermarkets.  So let’s get this straight, there are great things about being a vegetarian in Spain, unfortunately though, as a veggie visitor recently said “Amazing how they can add meat to everything - even my vegetable soup wasn't safe!”
Let’s go back to three years ago, when I was flying out to Spain for the first time in many years,  "Tiene algo para vegetarianas?"  Do you have anything for vegetarians? 

"No, sorry.  We had cheese sandwiches but they have finished."

"Oh, how about snacks?"

"Well, we have this."  She offered me a salami.

"Um, that's meat."

"Oh, you don't eat this?"  She sounds surprised, I’m not.

Ten years previously, when I was living and eating in Spain, being a vegetarian was seen as a peculiar and pitiable anomaly.  My Spanish friends and their families attempted to force-feed me large chunks of cheese, convinced that I would fade away without the aid of meat.  Eating out was a trial.  Vegetable paella was made with heavy fish stock and soups tended to be the same.  Mixed salads came with tuna, mushroom pizzas came with ham.  "But that's not meat," waiters assured me.  "No?"  "No, it's only ham."  Oh right, ham, from the pig tree.

For some reason, in Spain ham is not meat and tuna is not fish.  I have not as yet been able to discover which plants yield these unwieldy tuna and ham fruits, but there must be a grand orchard of them somewhere!

The Spanish don't eat vegetables, at least not like we do.  A meal is not a meal unless it contains meat and Spaniards tend to prefer salad to vegetables.  Vegetable dishes that seem innocuous on the menu arrive sprinkled with small pieces of chorizo (a kind of spicy sausage) or surreptitiously small pieces of cured ham.

However, with a cursory knowledge of Spanish, patience and careful menu selections it is possible to find something to enjoy almost everywhere.  First of all, there's the salads, ‘ensalada mixta’ mixed salad usually consists of lettuce, grated carrot, tomatoes, sweetcorn and sometimes asparagus, mixed salad nearly always also contains boiled egg and tuna or ham, to be sure ask: ‘¿Qué ingredientes tiene?’ What is in it? The traditional Spanish omelette (‘tortilla’) is a simple, filling combination of thinly sliced potatoes and egg, but mushroom, tomato and cheese versions are also available.  Lots of restaurants offer pasta ‘con salsa a eligir’ with the sauce of your choice.  I know this is Spain and not Italy, but pizzas and pizza breads are always safe fall back.

The only way to really enjoy Spanish food is to experience tapas.  Most bars offer their own selection of tapas at around 2 euros for snack-sized portion.

Try the following-

Patatas bravas ~ potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce

Revuelta de setas ~ mushroom and scrambled egg (do check it doesn't contain ham or prawns)

Aceitunas ~ olives (beware those that may be stuffed with anchovies)

Espinacas con garbanzos ~ spinach and chickpeas cooked with spices

Patatas ali-oli ~ potatoes in a garlic mayonnaise sauce

Gazpacho ~ cold tomato soup

Salmorejo (in Andalucia)~ a thicker more dip~like version of gazpacho (see below)

Queso manchego ~ a delicious hard Spanish goat’s cheese

Croquetas de espinacas – Spinach croquettes made with béchamel sauce, usually with pine nuts.

The best advice is to accept that you will have to experiment, have a ‘taster’ check unidentifiable food for you and befriend some bar owners who can adapt dishes to your diet.  Happy eating! 

Salmorejo

Salmorejo is a cold dish served with bread sticks for dipping, it should be similar to the consistency of hummus, more like a dip than a soup as we know it. 

1 and a half kilos very mature tomatoes

1 or 2 cloves of garlic

1 green pepper, deseeded

Half a loaf of white bread (crusts removed)

Salt and white wine vinegar

Good quality olive oil

1 free/range egg

1) Make a cross in the skin of the tomatoes and submerge them in just boiled water.  Leave for a minute.  Peel the tomatoes and discard the skin.  Cut the tomatoes in half and throw away the seeds.

2) Put the peppers, tomatoes, and garlic together into a blender and blend well.

3) Cut the bread into slices and soak in the vegetable puree for a few minutes.  Blend the mixture with the bread.  Add salt, vinegar and olive oil – each restaurant and family vary in their proportions, go for a tablespoon of oil, half a tablespoon of vinegar and a pinch of salt to start with and then adjust it to suit your tastes

4) Boil the egg, peel and cut into small pieces.  Serve the salmorejo well chilled and garnished with small pieces of egg.

However, a local café owner tells me he just sticks all the ingredients together in a blender, without peeling and deseeding the tomatoes or soaking the bread and it tastes just as good with a lot less fuss! 

Many thanks to Antonio, the owner of cafe/bar Lido for this recipe.

Fari Greenaway

email: thefari@yahoo.co.uk