Vegetarian Food Options in Turkey

On January 14, 2019
By Shruti
Comments Off on Vegetarian Food Options in Turkey

Turkey is famous for its sea food and thus this post is about vegetarian food in Turkey or Vegan food in Turkey. As a vegetarian family with young kids, we need to find filling and healthy vegetarian options wherever we go and that is what this post is dedicated to. We are an Indian family and when traveling with young kids, we would often look for the best Indian restaurants in Turkey.

This post covers everything from meal options, snacks, street food, desserts, ordering in restaurants and things to keep in mind when asking for vegetarian food in Turkey or vegan food in Turkey.

Breakfast

Most of the hotels will serve abundant varieties of cheese, nuts – pistachio, almonds, walnuts – take your pick; fruits like apples, nectarines and plums; and fresh salad greens, juicy and huge cherry tomatoes. In addition most of them have a good selection of flavoured yogurts (strawberry, mixed berry, blueberry yogurt etc).
Bakery ensemble and a few varieties of cereal is a staple across hotels. Another staple across hotels is the unrefined and raw honey comb honey with a wide variety of breads. I had not seen honey being eaten in such a raw form anywhere else.
Aside from that, at some places you can order for eggs (boiled, poached, omelette etc) while at the others they may have some basic vegetarian options like hash browns, vegetarian noodles and couscous. Wash it all down with Turkish tea or Turkish coffee. White House Hotel, where we stayed in Istanbul had a special way of serving the Turkish Coffee – In their beautifully embellished tea cups along with a bowl of Turkish delights (sugar dusted jelly candies).

Trivia about Turkish Coffee: After you finish the coffee, there is a sediment that remains in the cup (specific to Turkish coffee. Invert the cup and the sediment at the bottom will take a shape. The locals believe that the shape formed at the bottom of the cup can tell your fortune.

Turkish coffee as served in White House Hotel, Istanbul

Meals and Ordering in Restaurants

Even the best seafood restaurants will offer you cold mezze which is essentially vegetarian. Since many of the restaurants offer bread on the house with the accompaniments like cheese, babaganoush, hummus, tahini, olives and a version of muhamarra
Some restaurants in Sultanahmet offer a balloon bread on the house with the same selection of mezze.

balloon bread
Most of the restaurants especially the ones which are multi-cuisine, cafe or Italian will offer Pasta or spaghetti (cheese sauce or tomato sauce), Pizza (margherita and verdure), salads (can be made vegetarian on request), Pide (Turkish pizza, which comes in both varieties – cheese pide or mix veg pide). Hence even at the local restaurants finding vegan food in Turkey will not be a challenge.
At local cuisine aka Turkish restaurants you can order for Dolma platter (something like char grilled vegetables served with dips), couscous with vegetables and vegetable noodles
Couscous

Grilled vegetables platter

Spaghetti in tomato sauce with veggies
You can look for Indian restaurants if and when you crave for Indian food. There are many spread all over Istanbul like Dub (read doob) which was one of the best Indian restaurant in Turkey, Delhi Durbar near Beyoglu and the Istiklal Cadessi etc. There is one in Goreme (Cappadocia) called Namaste India (fantastic food) and we couldn’t find any in Izmir.
For a lot of people fish, fish sauce, meat stock and chicken stock are acceptable in vegetarian food. In case you’re not ok with that, check with the server if the food is “Etsiz” and “EtSuyu”? Etsiz translates to no meat and EtSuyu translates to Meat stock. This should help you in almost 99.9% of the cases where there may be confusion.

Street Food

In August when we were in Turkey, we could find fresh orange and pomegranate juice in all of Turkey. Look for fresh juices (made both with and without ice) as a nutritious third quencher in the heat. Juices were our saviour in both Ephesus and Pamukkale.
Dondurma, the Turkish Icecream which is typically made from whipped cream, salep, mastic, and sugar, is a common sight wherever you go in Turkey. Quick calories for kids and adults alike. They come in a lot of interesting flavours and again a filling respite from heat.
Other street food like Simich and chestnuts are a common sight in Istanbul and to some extent in Izmir. The other locations like Pamukkale and Cappadocia don’t boast of these options. Simich is a local donut or bagel, essentially a round bread topped with sesame seeds served with a spread of you choice.. nutella, cinnamon, hummus and the like.
Kids enjoying Dondurma

corn on the cob

chestnuts
Roasted chestnuts is high on nutrition and great on taste. They usually sell about a handful for 10TL and makes for a good quick on the go snack.
If you are a fan of corn on the cob, you will never go hungry in Istanbul for sure. These are abundantly available in all parts of Istanbul and especially near the tourist spots. You don’t have to rely on chips and cookies for the kiddie hunger pangs. What is also different about these corn cobs is that its boiled corn which is then roasted. This makes it extremely soft and a great idea for an empty tummy.

Desserts

When in Turkey you have to have baklava, kafiye and their other traditional desserts. In fact I recommend not just eating it there but packing some for back home friends and family as well. Take a look at 5 souvenirs to buy in Turkey. I found the use of pistachio mixed with all the other flavours quite amazing and very specific to Turkey as well.