We'll be travelling in Portugal ( Lisbon and Sintra) and Spain ( Madrid, Segovia and Avila, Segovia Province) and one of our party is a vegetarian ( no meat or fish, dairy products ok). I welcome all recommendations for restaurants with vegetarian options or ideas about what might be available for vegetarians in "typical" restaurants. Usually breakfast is a great meal for vegetarians, so I am not worried about that.

Many thanks!

Flying away

Flyingaway,
Veggie items found in traditional Madrid tapas bars:

aceitunas (olives)
pimientos de Padrón
(little green peppers from Galicia)
tortilla española
(egg & potato omelette)
patatas bravas
(potato cubes in a spicy sauce)
champiñones al ajillo
(sauteed mushrooms with garlic)
queso manchego or other artisan cheeses


On restaurant menus in Madrid (perhaps a few in Segovia/Avila):

gazpacho

sopa de ajo (garlic soup-but the "castellana" version has ham)

huevos estrellados or huevos rotos
(scrambled eggs & potatoes)

espárragos
(either of the thick, white variety or the "trigueros", slender, green)

pisto
(Spanish ratatouille- not served often in Segovia/Avila-some versions have bits of ham )

pimientos asados
(roasted red peppers-make sure they're not "piquillos" stuffed with veal, cod or shellfish)

ensalada de lechuga y tomate
(simple lettuce & tomato salad-the "ensalada ilustrada" or "mixta" will come with tuna)

vegetarian paella
(found at most all Madrid restaurants specializing in paella, like La Barraca)

any restaurant can prepare a scrambled egg/vegetable dish such as
revuelto de trigueros
(scrambled eggs with asparagus-on the menu at Botín)

revuelto de champiñones
(scrambled eggs with mushrooms)


Madrid has dozens of reginal cuisine bars/restaurants-the Andalusian ones *may* have some of these regional dishes

espinacas con garbanzos
(spinach & chickpea dish)
ajo blanco
(garlic soup with grapes)
salmorejo
(Cordoban, thick gazpacho)
patatas a lo pobre
(poor man's fried potatoes)
berenjenas con miel
(eggplant with honey)
espinacas con pasas
(spinach with raisins)

Probably the best vegetarian restaurant in Madrid (popular with non-vegetarians too)
Isla del Tesoro
www.isladeltesoro.net

Although in the Avila & Segovia provinces, pig and lamb reign supreme at all the roasting taverns, I just checked Cándido's menu, and surprisingly I found several nice veggie options: www.mesondecandido.es
(download word document of English menu)

and endibias de Cuéllar con cabrales on Restaurante José María's menu
(endive with blue cheese)

but for vegetarians, Narizotas in Segovia is a better overall option than the 3 famed roasting taverns. See the menu at www.narizotas.net

And your Segovia hotel, the Infanta Isabel, has a nice bar/cafetería/restaurant "Casares", which may have at least a few tapas or dishes that are vegetarian friendly.

Note for Segovia/Avila:
any sort of "judiones de la Granja" or "judiones de El Barco de Avila", a stew of broad white beans, will be seasoned with pork products

And in Spain many vegetables are sauteed with bits of ham, such as green beans (judías verdes), limas (habas) and artichokes (alcachofas)

Hope this helps and that others can help you more.

This thread should help with the Spain part of your itinerary:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ns-please-.cfm

Flyingaway,
Completely forgot about that thread that Shanti linked-

in addition to all those suggestions,

If you end up staying in Old Madrid, and the vegetarian member of your group gets hungry for a real veggie hot and cold buffet, there are 2 outposts of Viva La Vida, an organic market and cafe. These have a self-service buffet, you can eat in or take out, and you pay according to weight of what you choose.
There's one on Huertas 57 and another at the Plaza de la Paja on Costanilla de San Andrés 16.
And they keep long hours.

www.vivalavida.vg

Maribel response is not only excellent but honest. It is often difficult to find foods not cooked in animal fat. And the defintion of vegetarian can be elastic. Once a SIL asked for vegetarian soup and the restaurant order gave her a soup with very little pork, to him that was vegetarian.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. Maribel, the Isla de Tesora and the viva la vida both look fabulous!

As a person who has been to portugal a few times as my in laws live there, its a bit of a challenge to eat vegetarian. I ate a lot of egg dishes and was sick of them by the time I got back home. Mind you, we did not eat out too much because we have a place to stay and cook our own meals.
We were fortunate to find an italian restaurant in town that was really great though
Sometimes you can find some bean and rice dishes but as someone mentioned they can cook this in animal fat, so you need to inquire.