Oh Yum! Greek cuisine, delicious! When we think of Greek cuisine, we mainly think of olive oil, feta cheese and meat. Lots of meat! Gyros, souvlaki, bifteki, you name it! If you are vega(n) or suffer from an allergy, this can really be a challenge. But in practice, this is not so bad! We tell you all about eating veg(n) on Karpathos in this blog.

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

Vega(n) food on Karpathos

Karpathos cannot be compared to the mainland or the Netherlands in this respect. In the Netherlands, it is already quite normal for a menu to indicate the options for vega(n), gluten or lactose-free food. On Karpathos, they are still a bit 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 cuisine that consists a lot of fresh basic products. So you can find fine dishes here that you can/want to eat. However, what you do not yet see on the island are the new products especially for allergies or when you want to eat veg(n). Think falafel or tofu (we happened to see this at 1 place on Karpathos: En Plo).

Vega(n) food in the super market

Of course, you can find vega(n) products in any supermarket. Think of products such as salad, fruit, rice and, if you are only vega, also plenty of dairy products. It is different from the Netherlands, where we now have entire product lines from Zonnatura, for example, which are gluten-free. On Karpathos this does not apply, so you will have to rely mainly on the ‘normal’ products. Still, if you look carefully, you will sometimes find a stray product that is specifically vega(n) or gluten-free 😉

2022 – There has recently been a shop next to the Alpha bank (near the taxi rank in Pigadia) that has various gluten- and lactose-free products, as well as vegan and organic!

Lactose- and gluten-free

Lactose- and gluten-free dishes are a lot harder to come by in Greece than in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, we are used to the fact that many restaurants indicate on the menu whether the food is lactose- or gluten-free. In addition, most restaurant staff are also aware of allergies. In Greece, things are slightly different. Yet since this year, some restaurants have started to take this more into account. For instance, Poseidon restaurant has indicated on its menu with icons whether something is lactose-, gluten-free or veg-free.

Of course, it also depends on how allergic or intolerant you are. I know people with celiac disease who just eat gluten and only have to be a little careful with food, while others can’t get a single trace inside. A lactose intolerance is also often a bit easier to explain, than a gluten allergy. This handy map from Celiactravel can help you with that. This shows exactly in Greek what gluten-free eating means.

By the way, what you can eat just fine with a gluten allergy? Delicious souvlaki, stifado and domades!