Did you enjoy the first part of the ‘Vegetarian Foodie in Europe’ series last week? If you haven’t, do check it out and let me know your feedback. Many people swear by the ‘Happy Cow’ app to find the nearest vegan restaurant and I use it all the time when I am travelling as a vegetarian. In India, I am used to Zomato and when I was in the US, I mostly got by, using Yelp.
As you may have read, it was comparatively easy for me to find vegetarian food in Portugal. However, I did eat a lot of eggs here. But I still did not go hungry in Portugal. The next destination on my list was Spain. How did I fare in finding vegetarian food in Spain? Read on to find out.
Planning your Spain Itinerary at the last minute?
I know everyone is busy and don’t have time to plan their itinerary to Spain. In this section, I list some of my favorite websites and apps I use while planning my Spain travel itineraries.
- Skyscanner is my go to app when it comes to booking flight tickets for Spain
- I use Booking for all my accommodations in Spain
- If I am staying in hostels, then HostelWorld is my preferred app for hostels in Spain.
- I use Omio and RailEurope for all my train tickets in Spain.
- I use Getyourguide for all my tours within Spain.
- I used Flixbus to travel around Spain.
- Safetywing has your insurance covered in Spain.
- Get an eSim when you are travelling across Spain.
Table Of Contents
Vegetarian food Spain – Huelva
I had to take a train from Huelva to Madrid. I went to Huelva just to catch the train. It is a small town and most of the places around the train station were closed that day (Sunday). The only thing that was open at 3 in the afternoon there was a small café. It only had a cheesecake that looked vegetarian and I had to satisfy my hunger with a cheesecake.
Find out my recommendations for Spain Food tours
Before we go any further, find out my recommendations for the best food tour in Spain
Barcelona Tapas Walking tour
Book a wine and Tapas food tour in Barcelona
Vegetarian Dishes in Spain’s Food capital Madrid:
I did go around Madrid train station looking for something vegetarian to eat. I did not want to eat anything sweet and wanted to have some savory for dinner. But then I realized that all the food packets were written in Spanish.
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| Madrid, Spain |
That is when I realised the importance of learning how to say “Vegetarian only – no seafood, no meat” in the language that is spoken in the country you are visiting. I do not recall where I read it but that is definitely some good advice. I ended up buying nothing since I could not figure out what was vegetarian nor could I make the person at the counter understand.
I got robbed the same night and I completely forgot to eat anything by the time I got to the hostel.
Once I was done sulking the next day, I went looking for food. That is when I realised how Madrid was a paradise for food lovers, even for vegetarians. I stayed in Madrid for 4 days and every day I ate some vegan food in Spain to test my taste palette.
Recommended Read – 4 days in Madrid
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| Madrid, Spain |
Since I was staying around Plaza Mayor, options were unlimited with both Puerta Del Sol and Gran Via being, walking distance from where I stayed. But my favourite place to eat in Madrid was the Mercado San Miguel market. It is a gourmet tapas (appetiser or snacks) market and it had a wide array of Spanish Vegetarian dishes particularly tapas and desserts to eat. One thing to note is that it is always crowded.
I did try a wide array of vegetarian tapas in the many tapas bars in Madrid and I loved most of them. I did try the Vegetarian Paella, which is a Spanish rice dish that is similar to the Indian biriyani. The only problem with paella is that it usually comes in sharing portions and I did not find people to share it with.
There are lots of dessert shops around and I tried quite a number of sweet dishes as well. There is no dearth of sweet dishes in Spanish cuisine and I had a nice time sampling few of them. Don’t forget to have some churros with chocolate or Flan or maybe a Crema Catalana.
But my favourite part of Spanish cuisine was the Spanish Tortilla, an omelette that is usually stuffed with potatoes. If you had given me only Spanish Tortilla to eat for the whole day, I would have had them without any qualms. They were that delicious.
Find recommendations for recipes for some of the dishes mentioned in this post
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| Spanish Tortilla |
I even found a cute little Vegan restaurant, YerbaBuena near Plaza Mayor in Madrid. Our hostel was also quite nice when it came to arranging events every night. On my 2nd night there, me and my roommates ended up gate crashing a beer tasting party held in our hostel’s rooftop restaurant. I don’t drink beer but my roommates were quite impressed with the beer (Basqueland Brewing Project). They also conducted daily pub crawls around the area we were staying in and I had fun attending one of them. Check out some food tours to check around in Madrid.
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| Basque land Brewing Company |
Spain Vegetarian Food in Mallorca:
Mallorca is an island destination. I continued my love of Spanish vegetarian food, mainly tortillas here and ended having a lot of them here too.
My hotel here, Hotel Miramar, was a quaint hotel and they were also kind enough to make something delicious and vegetarian for me. There was an Indian restaurant right next to my hotel for people who are interested. I prefer not to eat Indian food while traveling abroad.
Mallorca is quite famous for its oranges and lemons. Do try them while you are in Mallorca, they are definitely different than the ones I have had in India.
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| Oranges in Mallorca |
If you do end up going to Valldemossa in Mallorca, a well-known delicacy here is the Almond cake with milk. They were supposedly made famous by the music composer Chopin and his lover George Sand (Her real name was Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin) during their stay in Valldermoosa.
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| Almond Cake, Valldermoosa |
Vegetarian Food in Barcelona, vegetarian Spain:
Barcelona is also a heaven for foodies. There are so many options to choose from when it comes to finding delicious food.
So on my first night here, I decided to ask Google for nearby vegetarian restaurants and Google directed me to a cute little restaurant called ‘Gut’, just 100 metres behind my hostel. They were highly recommended for vegetarians. As I sat there browsing the menu, my eye caught a special item ‘Chicken Kerala Curry’. For people who don’t know, my parents are from Kerala in India (affectionately called God’s Own Country) and I was born in Kerala as well.
I found it quite amusing that they had this item on their menu. How small things like this surprise us? Here I was sitting half way across the world, in a small restaurant in Barcelona and I found something that connected me to my roots. We could see the kitchen and the chef there looked like a Mallu (People from Kerala are called Malayalees and the anglicised short form is Mallu). I contemplated asking to speak to the chef but I finally did not. The food again was delicious and they had lots of vegetarian options in addition to the non-vegetarian ones.
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| Gut, Barcelona, Spain |
The breakfast at the hostel (Generator, Barcelona) was not that good though. So by the time I got to Las Ramblas one day, I was really hungry. And then I saw it, the Hard Rock Café in Barcelona right at the corner of Placa Catalunya. I love the burgers there and I did not even have any second thoughts of going there for lunch. I know they are expensive but after having Spanish food for more than a week, all I wanted was an American burger. Check out some food tours in Barcelona.
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| Hard Rock, Barcelona |
I went with my roommates to a dismal pub crawl around Eixample and I would not recommend it. But do try out the various Tapas places around Barcelona. I wish I had more time to explore Barcelona but my time here was limited.
Commonly asked FAQ’s about Veg food in Spain
In this section, I answer some of the most commonly asked questions about vegetarians in Spain:
Is Spain vegetarian friendly?
Yes, Spain is definitely vegetarian friendly in spite of being known for being a meat loving country. When I was travelling across Spain, I did not find it very hard to find Spain veg food. You can always find apps like HappyCow to find the best vegetarian food near you.
How do you say vegan in Spanish?
If you want to tell someone ‘I am Vegan’ in Spanish, then the correct way to say this is Soy Vegano or Soy Vegana. Learn some Spanish words before you intend to travel in Spain as a vegetarian.
How to say vegetarian in Spanish?
If you want to tell someone ‘I am Vegetarian’ in Spanish, then the correct way to say this is Soy Vegetariano or Soy Vegetariana.
Is vegetarianism popular in Spain?
Around 1.5% of the population of Spain are vegetarians. Hence it is not as popular compared to other countries in Spain for vegetarians. Nevertheless, you can find some popular Spanish vegetarian recipes to try from.
Conclusion
So did you enjoy the guide to finding Vegetarian food in Spain? I loved being a vegetarian in Spain. Check out more posts about the struggles and adventures I faced as a vegetarian foodie in Europe below.
Read other posts from my Vegetarian series:
- Vegetarian Food in Portugal
- Vegetarian Food in Belgium
- Vegetarian Food in France
- Best vegan restaurants in Mexico City
- Vegetarian Food in Amsterdam
- Vegetarian Food in Prague
- Vegetarian Food in Mexico
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Find my recommendations for guide books on Spain.
Guidebooks for Spain
Traveling to Spain and need more guidance on which books to read? These are our recommendations for you to read before you go.
Recommended: Spain travel tips
BOOKING RESOURCES
Looking to book your trip now? Find some of my favorite resources I use while booking my trip. You can also find my travel gear here.
Book Your Flight
I am a Skyscanner fan when it comes to booking international flights. I use Makemytrip and Yatra for domestic flights.
Travel Insurance
As an Indian, I prefer ICICILombard and I am always insured when I am traveling outside India. In addition, I have used World Nomads and SafetyWing for some of my trips.
Book Tours
I do go on a lot of day tours especially when I am traveling solo and love going on road trips with my husband.. Depending on convenience, my choices are Viator or Getyourguide.
Exotic to see veggie food in Spain and this is indeed a treat for the eyes…wish it was for the stomach:)
It was a treat for the stomach as well, Sunita. 🙂
What a great guide! Even as a vegetarian, it’s great to know there’s so many amazingly delicious looking options around. It’s definitely making me hungry 😀
Yes there were lots of great choices to have in Europe.
Better Carry Khakhare or frozen paratha ..:) … Searching for vegan food is tedious task and actually take away time from enjoying location
I would love to disagree. For me, part of visiting a place is to try out the local cuisine and this definitely adds to the experience. You would be surprised at the number of vegan options in many places now. Searching for local food and interacting with the local people only adds to the experience.
I wouldn’t prefer to have Khakra or frozen paratha when I am traveling. Besides I was on the road for almost 6 weeks and it would have been really boring to only survive on these. I hope as frequent travelers, we can show the world that you can have delicious vegetarian food wherever we go. Even though it is difficult, it is not impossible.
So the burger from Hard Rock Cafe was vegetarian as well? It would deceive me ha! Looks real! I love Spain and I have spent over a year and a half of my life there. Love the food and everything you described took me right back to that time when I used to live there. Thanks for sharing!
Oh yes that was vegetarian. They have few vegetarian options and all of them are delicious. Spain must have been such a great place to stay.
Getting a vegetarian pasta in Europe is always easy…but I am glad that you found a veg paella as well 🙂 Paella and Churros are on my list when I go there. Isn’t Gelato big …as dessert in Spain..the way it is in Italy or Croatia?
I didn’t see that many Gelato shops. I did have few but none of them compares to Italy. I ended up having Gelato every day when I was in Italy, that too in November.
Yummy veggie food around Europe. I did not expect to see those food in this continent. i would love to try them all.
Hope you get to try them in Europe too. 🙂
We also loved to eat tortilla when we were in Spain. And Barcelona is heaven for foodies. Our apartment was near Sagrada familia and the street was lined with plenty of outdoor restaurants to choose from every night for dinner.
I was also staying near the Sagrada familia and there were quite a number of places to choose from. Tortilla for the win.
Oh man that Spanish Tortilla looks good. I LOVE eggs and taters! I’m not a vegetarian but I wouldn’t mind some of these dishes!
I love them too. So the combination of both of them was something that I loved.
All that food looks so yummy! So sorry to hear you were robbed also that is awful! Glad it didn’t get your spirits down too much and continued with your trip! Such a good guide to so many places. All them cakes is making me peckish!
Yes it was difficult but I am glad that I continued with my trip. I would just go stare at the displays of the many dessert shops around Madrid. I couldn’t afford to have so many desserts.
Great guide! Looks like you found lots of yummy vegetarian dishes 🙂 I would love to try that Almond cake!
Hopefully you will when you visit Valldermoosa.
While I’m not vegetarian, I do remember seeing lots of vegetarian options at tapas bars in Barcelona. Glad to read that you were able to indulge in the delicious looking Spanish omelets. The fruits from Mallorca look so delicious…yum!!!
My options were unlimited when it came to finding vegetarian food in Spain.
Great post! I find there are quite a lot of vegetarian options here in Germany as well, but of course the German kitchen is nothing like the Spanish :p
This time around I went to Frankfurt only to catch a flight back. I am planning to come to a Germany for a 3rd time visit soon. 🙂
Oh Gosh..you too got robbed in Spain:( I experienced that in BCN but anyhow glad that you managed fine with the food. I am a vegetarian too and I had to search a lot for vegetarian paella! God things there are so many other delicious things to try out too:)
Yes I had a lot of new things to try out in Spain that I did not try it out all. Hopefully you didn’t lose much
The tortillas in Spain are one of my favorite things! There is a famous place to get it in San Sebastian (I forget the name) but it sells out early, so we didn’t get to try it.
I didn’t get to go to San Sebastián though
This looks amazing! Even though I am not a vegetarian, I still love fruits and vegetables…and of course dessert, so this guide is wonderful. I am so sorry to hear you got robbed, but I am glad to hear that things bounced back for you and you were able to find some lovely things to eat and enjoy in Spain.
Yes food is universal and is a great stress buster
I’ve only recently heard of Happy Cow- super keen to try it out next time I am travelling! This list is fantastic! Ive recently gone vego so am excited to try all these wonderful places next time I am in Europe!
Great to know that you turned vegetarian recently. Good luck
Sharing with my vegan/veggie friends!! As a non-vegetarian its always so hard for us to find food choices, and we’re heading to spain together in a few months so this is perfect!
Hope you have a fun time in Spain
For some reason I always thought Spain would be a tough place to find vegetarian options. As a veggie myself I know how hard it can be to travel to different places and trying to communicate your dietary restrictions. Definitely the best advice is learn some phrases to communicate your needs when ordering food! All of the food you’ve described sounds so delicious. I love Spanish omlettes too! So delicious!
Yes it is difficult in some places but it is definitely getting better.
Those food looks delicious. Honestly, I don’t like eating green leafy vegetables. But looking at those photos, Oh boy! I want to try. I’m sorry to hear about your bad experience. Hope everythings okay. Anyway, I have a couple of vegan friends. I’ll refer them to your blog. They’ll going to love it.
Hope they get some inputs from my blog. But being a vegan can be even more difficult.
That food looks amazing!
They tasted amazing too.
It sucks that you got robbed, but glad you could recover and resume your travels! I was at Plaza Mayor just about a week back and having read many such stories, a sizable amount of my attention was focused on just being alert and aware the entire time.
I too went to Yerbabuena! 🙂 Good food!
The oranges in Madrid were amazing! The first time I had fresh squeezed orange juice, I actually double checked if it was 100% natural or artificially sweetened. Also, initially I found it a little weird that most “traditional” breakfast menus in Madrid included both coffee and orange juice, but soon enough I starting liking it that way.
Plaza Mayor, La Rambles all are hot spots for getting robbed. It was a different experience and I was glad that I was able to recover.
The oranges were amazing and I loved having orange juice all around Spain.