Food in Greece
 

What are food options for vegetarians. What are some dishes I can order that would be meatless and eggless. Can they make souvlaki's without the meat?

topping

can you eat 'egg'-plant?

luvtravelin,

You are going to a country that has so many meatless dishes and they are all very good.

Joan

Yes, they can make souvlakis without the meat. You will still have the onions and the green peppers.
G.

rice, salad, hummus, vegetables, pita bread, feta, yoghurt are just a few things you can order. Maybe someone can substitute feta for lamb in the souvlaki, I have asked and been accommodated.

Spanikopita, Tiropita, Briam (Ratatouille), Eggplant or Tomato Gefthedes, Eggplant Salad, Roasted Potatoes, Green Beans, Roasted Fava Beans In Tomato Sauce, Saganaki (Fried Cheese), Pizza, Spaghetti, Greek Salad, Tomato/cucumber Salad, Veggie Moussaka, French Fried Potatoes, Stuffed Peppers and Tomatoes and Garlic Dip. Some of the better restaurants will have other veggie dishes depending on the creativity in the kitchen.

When you're in Athens be sure to eat at Eden, the long-standing veggie restaurant in the Plaka.

Do not miss the tomatoes in Greece. Someone told me they are imported from Turkey. Anyway, tomatoes with onions in olive oil in Greece was just about the best part of my trip there!

Oh, you are all making me drool, I love Greek food.

I've never seen souvlaki without meat, but there are countless other meat-free dishes:

Greek salad (tomatoes, onions, cucumber olives, peppers and feta cheese) is found everywhere. Then there's cheese pie, spinach pie, stuffed tomatoes, vine leaves, courgettes or peppers, saganaki (fried cheese, which is far more delicious than it sounds), tzatziki (a kind of dip made from yoghurt, cucumber and garlic), battered fried courgettes, pastitsio (sort of like macaroni cheese), gigantes (big butter beans stewed in tomato sauce), skordalia (a potato and garlic dip), briami (mixed vegetable stew), oh, and lots more! I'm not a vegetarian, but I could quite happily live without meat in Greece :)

It wouldn't be souvlaki if it didn't have meat. You can eat vegetables if you want, or wrap some in a pita bread, but don't call it souvlaki.

There are a lot of good vegetables, salads, rice, etc. in Greece so you shouldn't have great problems. One of my favorite such dishes would probably be spanokopita which is a spinach and cheese mixture with other things inside phyllo dough. I'll admit it will probably have some eggs used during the cooking though, for the spinach filing part, so if you refuse to eat eggs, I think you are going to have to stick to rice and vegetables and salads and nothing very exciting. The phyllo dough itself (pastry dough) can be used in various desserts or "pies" or lots of Greek dishes, like the spinach pie thing doesn't usually have eggs.

They have lots of good bean and cheese dishes, artichokes, peas, as well as yoghurt, salads, eggplant, potatoes, zucchini, etc. Moussaka is the baked eggplant dish, but usually has meat in it, so you will have to look for a vegetarian one.

wow - thanks so much for the reply. You all have made me soooo hungry after reading all tha! and yes.."egg" plant is ok PalenqueBob - that cracked me up!

Can you find falaafal's in greece (with the fried chick pea balls) or is it an "american greek food".

I leave tomorrow!!!! Eeep! I am ovo-lacto, so our diets don't overlap completely but I will report back on meatless eating. I was worried when I first booked the trip but then when I started reading trip reports and everyone was talking about the vegetable sides it seemed like I wouldn't have trouble making a meal of them. My only concern is that apparently there is no real tradition of vegetarianism in Greece so the cook might use stock etc. for flavoring without thinking about it and my Greek is certainly not sophisticated enough to get into that discussion. (I can say "I don't speak Greek. Do you speak English?" and that's about it.) I'm pretty sure I can live on only greek yogurt for two weeks if it comes down to it. I so cannot wait to have my first taste! I love Fage here in the States.

I believe falafel is more of an Israeli dish, also found in Levantine countries..Lebanon, Jordan, etc.

I've had falafel served as a mezedes in Greek restaurants in the States, but never in Greece.

sometimes there are vegetarian dolmades, same but without the lamb.

The Greek equivalent of falafel is revythokeftedes (chickpea croquettes). It's a speciality of the island of Sifnos, but I have seen them in other places: Athens and (I think) Crete.

The food in Greece was amazing. Pretty much the best two weeks of eating I've had in my life. Being a vegetarian was no problem. You mention eggs but don't say whether you eat dairy. If no dairy your food choices will be a little limited, but still plenty to choose from and deliciously prepared.

I did a blog post on food that includes typical dishes and restaurant reviews, with some pictures to get you drooling.
http://travelathomeandabroad.blogspo...tarian-in.html