Oh Yum! Greek cuisine, delicious! When we think of Greek cuisine, we mainly think of olive oil, feta and meat. Lots of meat! Gyros, souvlaki, bifteki, you name it! If you are vegan or suffer from an allergy, this can be a real challenge. But this works really well in practice! We tell you everything about vegetarian food on Karpathos in this blog.

Last holiday we were out with Alwin and Renee. Renee does eat fish, but no meat (but animal products such as cheese). We noticed that this has never caused a problem. Well, that is of course something easier than eating completely vega or even vegan. Because of Renee we have paid more attention to the menus and there are really many options possible ???? You notice that over the years it is becoming more normal to eat vega(n) and so you also see this on Karpathos now. There are several restaurants that indicate per dish whether something is vegan or suitable if you have allergies.

Vega(n) eten op Karpathos

In that respect, Karpathos cannot be compared with the mainland and the Netherlands. In the Netherlands it is quite normal for a menu to indicate the options for vegan, gluten or lactose free food as standard. On Karpathos they are still somewhat behind in this area. However, that does not mean that it is difficult to find dishes without meat, fish, animal products, gluten or lactose free on Karpathos.

Greece has a very healthy kitchen that consists of many fresh basic products. So you can find excellent dishes here that you can / want to eat. What you don't see on the island yet, however, are the new products especially for allergies or if you want to eat vegan. Think for example of falafel or tofu (coincidentally we saw this at 1 tent on Karpathos: En Plo ).

Vega(s) in the supermarket

Of course you can find vega(n) products in every supermarket. Think of products such as salad, fruit, rice and if you are only vegetarian, also enough dairy products. It is different from the Netherlands, where we now have entire product lines from Zonnatura, for example, that are gluten-free. This does not apply to Karpathos, so you will mainly have to rely on the 'normal' products. Still, if you search well, you sometimes find a stray product that is specifically vegan or gluten-free ????

2022 – Recently there is a shop next to the Alpha bank (near the taxi rank in Pigadia) that has various gluten and lactose-free products, but also vegan and organic!

Lactose and gluten free

Lactose and gluten-free dishes are a lot more difficult to obtain in Greece than in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands we are already used to the fact that it is indicated on the menu at many restaurants whether it is lactose or gluten-free. In addition, most catering employees are also aware of the allergies. In Greece it is slightly different. However, since this year there are restaurants that have started to take this into account. For example, Poseidon restaurant has indicated on the menu with icons whether something is lactose, gluten-free or vegetarian.

Of course it also depends on how allergic or intolerant you are. I know people with celiac disease who just eat gluten and just have to be careful with their food, while others can't ingest any trace. A lactose intolerance is also often easier to explain than a gluten allergy. This handy map from Celiactravel can help you with that. It says exactly in Greek what gluten-free food means.

What can you eat with a gluten allergy? Delicious on the souvlaki, stifado and domades!