Okay my question is do they have any veggies in any of the tapas and other regular lunch and dinner menus at the low to medium priced places in Madrid/Barcelona/Seville places??


Chicken - is that a staple meat as well?

You see all types of meat, a lot of pork. And a lot of veggies. But it can be hard to find vegetarian tapas (although I know there is a place in Sevilla that does only veggie tapas).

One of our favorites that we saw all over was a spinach and garbanzo bean mixture. Also, lots of cheese dishes and fritters.

The tortilla patatas is vegi. Of course is only potato but my vegi friend lived on that and salads when we visited. Then she bought fruit at small markets. Chiramoyas are wonderful and really cheap there. Here they run four bucks a pound in season.

You'll be safe if you stick to cheeses, salads and tortillas (in Spain, a tortilla is not the same as in mexico - here it a sort of omelette with potato) if you want to avoid meat altogether, and there are great olives, too. Note that pork is just about a staple in Spain, so much that it is not even be thought of as "meat" by some locals, who reserve that title for beef or game, maybe poultry. Really!

Spanish food is definitely meat heavy. Lots of pork and lamb. Even seemingly vegetarian dishes will often contain the ubiquitous ham. Most restaurants have veggie first courses. You can find chicken, but it isn't as prevalent as in the US. If you like seafood, you are in luck. It is plentiful and of great quality, even in landlocked Madrid.

-- Chad

In the top ten Tapas list, there is "Verduras a la plancha" a sort of spanish tempura veggie. Try it

Most tapas places (and all other restaurants ) have very pork& ham heavy menus. I barely saw any chicken on any menu. Some beef/veal. Lots of seafood, too.
Those 3 cities, however have huge numbers of choices for veggie-friendly places. You just have to scout them out a bit in advance if you don't want to be stuck eating tortilla espanol (potato omelette) and espinacas con garbanzos (spinach and chickpeas) the whole time...

great - thanks for the wonderful advice everyone!