Eating Vegan in Spain

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” — Saint Augustine 

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Beach umbrellas in Malaga

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This year has been pretty incredible. I mean–ME–the same girl who was once afraid of planes and never used to take vacations or go anywhere exciting–has been to Italy, Aruba, and now SPAIN all in just nine months. So allow me to let you in on a little secret…

 

I finally caught it.

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My plane to Madrid!

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I’ve got the TRAVEL BUG.

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First and foremost, let me offer my sincerest apologies for being missing in action this summer. Thank you Prettyfitlifers for being so understanding during my brief hiatus. I’m beginning to realize that blogging is pretty darn close to a full-time job, especially as I find myself getting pickier and pickier with the content I aim to feature on my page. I promised myself when I started this blog that I would never put up a post just to put up a post. Everything that I publish is carefully thought out, written, photographed and edited until it’s ready to be put out there for all of you :) . Unfortunately, this means that each post can take quite a bit of time to go live! Writing for Pretty Fit Life is my true passion, however, seeing as I already have a full-time (paying!) job–and a new one at that– when work calls, I must answer :) .

 

And thank goodness I do…or I never would have been given the opportunity to go on this amazing trip to Spain!

 

You see, Spain wasn’t soley for pleasure (though I still enjoyed every second of it). I actually had the opportunity to go on an EF Tour for work. What does that mean exactly? Well, for 11 beautiful days I criss-crossed my way through Spain, hitting Málaga, Granada, Seville, Córdoba, Madrid and Barcelona all along the way. And I wasn’t alone on this action-packed adventure–I was accompanied by a group of middle school students, a handful of teachers, another EF staffer (known as a tour consultant), and one awesomely patient tour guide.

 

Crazy? Probably.

Educational? Absolutely.

Amazing? Yes. DEFINITELY.

 

Unfortunately I didn’t have enough room in my luggage to pack my computer on this little trip–YEP…this girl packed for 11 days and only brought a carry-on. BOO-YA! (Those of you who know me understand that this is an INCREDIBLE feat—I once brought a hairdryer camping for goodness sake). I did, however, have my phone. So even though I couldn’t blog in real-time (as much as I’d hoped I could), I managed to Instagram my way through all six cities.

 

And I don’t think I missed a beat…

I took almost 1,000 photos.

 

Okay, so I was definitely “that tourist” who took pictures of anything and everything (a rock Ashley? Really??). But I was just so memserized by every little piece of this gorgeous country that I wanted to document it all (thankfully, by the end of my trip I had become much more selective with my picture-taking). I’m equally embarrassed to admit that I went to Spain not really knowing much about the country’s incredibly rich history. But all that changed the moment I met Laura–our EF tour guide. This incredible lady knew it all! I would never be able to fit everything I learned into just one blog post (and don’t worry, I won’t turn this into a history lesson) but just so you can see exactly what I was up to while on tour, here’s a little breakdown of my trip day by day:

 

Experience Spain

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Photo Credit:

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Day 1: SPAIN!

Fly overnight to Spain

 

Day 2: Málaga & Granada

Meet my Tour Director and student group at the airport. Relax on the beach in Malaga before traveling to Granada.

 

Day 3: Granada

Take a guided tour of Granada, visit the Alhambra, visit a Moroccan tea house, attend a traditional flamenco show.

 

Day 4: Granada & Seville

Visit an olive oil farm, travel to Seville, take a walking tour of Seville, attend a classical flamenco show.

 

Day 5: Seville

Take a guided tour of Seville, visit the Seville Alcázar, visit the Seville Cathedral, visit the Seville Bullring, enjoy free time in Seville, take a salsa dance lesson, take a boat cruise along the river at night.

 

Day 6: Córdoba & Madrid

Travel to Córdoba, visit the Mezquita, continue on to Madrid, try vegetable paella.

 

Day 7: Madrid

Take a guided tour of Madrid, visit the Royal Palace, take a walking tour of Madrid, visit the Prado Museum.

 

Day 8: Madrid

Visit a local school, visit Dali exhibit, enjoy free time (aka shopping + sangria :) ).

 

Day 9: Madrid & Barcelona

Experience an AVE train to Barcelona, take a guided tour of Barcelona, visit Parque Güell, take a bike tour around Barcelona.

 

Day 10: Barcelona

Take a walking tour of Barcelona, hit the beach and explore the city on my own.

 

Day 11: USA

Depart for home :(

 

Yep. Our days were pretty jam-packed. And thanks to our knowledgeable tour director, they were pretty awesome too. Laura guided us through each day in each city perfectly. She also guided us through breakfast, lunch, dinner and every meal in between–YES–she even managed to help little old vegan me not go hungry. In fact, Laura made me feel like quite the VIP, calling restaurants ahead of time and speaking to the chef to ask (en espanol of course) whether or not certain meals were made with (or could be made without) dairy, eggs, beef stock, chicken, fish (etc…). Now, I successfully ate my way all through Italy as a vegan, so I figured Spain would be pretty similar. And while Italian food is still my favorite (helloooo can you say soy gelato??) Spain proved to be a pretty manageable place to maintain a plant-based diet– it just meant getting a little creative every now and then.

 

The fantastic thing about Spain and Italy is that they rarely use butter in their cooking (unlike traditional American fare). Instead, olive oil is the product of choice– this makes perfect sense given the fact that these two countries are the leading olive oil producers in the world (Spain accounts for 43.8% of the world’s production while Italy accounts for 21.5%). This took a lot of the guess work out of ordering food since I wasn’t left wondering whether or not butter was used to cook my veggies, rice (etc…).  And even better? Where there’s olive oil, there are bound to be plenty of olives!

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"Aceitunas" (olives) + sangria = the perfect afternoon snack :)

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And olive trees…

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Unripe olives on an olive tree in Seville

 

And hanging out near those olive trees also happen to be plenty of orange trees (just my luck! :) ).

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In addition to olive oil, did you know that Spain is one of the world’s foremost exporters of oranges?  Orange are everywhere (especially in Seville). I was amazed by the amount of fruit dotting the public trees.  One afternoon after lunch I reached up and plucked a big, juicy orange from one of the many trees lining a busy street in Seville but our tour director quickly shooed my hand away and informed me that the fruit was not for eating. Turns out there was a reason why all of those oranges were still sitting pretty in their branches. You see, in Spain there are three main types of oranges– sweet oranges (Valencia oranges), blood oranges, and sour oranges (Seville oranges). Turns out all of those oranges I saw in the trees were the sour oranges, and they were still up there because they’re too bitter to eat as a piece of fresh fruit alone. Instead, sour oranges are used to make marmalade, liqueurs, spices, and teas. I actually had the opportunity to try some fresh marmalade at a Spanish olive oil farm and it was pretty tasty– much more bitter than the sugary stuff we have here, but yummy nonetheless.

 

I also had the opportunity to taste test some of the farm’s fresh olive oil and learn some fun facts about the oil. For instance, olive oil should always be stored in a dark container because the light can putrify it (so all that olive oil in clear glass bottles? Don’t buy it!). We also learned all about olive oil production (it’s quite tedious, so I won’t get into it right now but feel free to read all about it here!)  Instead, let’s focus on the important stuff…

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Olive oil tasting in Seville

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Like sangria…

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And “cerveza” (beer)…

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And “alimentos” (food)…

 

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And more sangria…;)

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(Okay. So clearly you now know my weakness…)

But naughty drinks aside…let’s talk about the food! Since this trip was essentially an all-incusive tour, most of the meals were already planned out. This meant that we had set menus at area restaurants or ate set meals at the hotel restaurants. Now, I’ll be quite honest and admit that not every meal was a hit on this trip– for the first couple of nights at our hotel in Granada I was served a plate of soggy and bland canned green beans, artichokes, carrots, cauliflower, and white asparagus (not exactly the tastiest meal in the world)– but thankfully the food situation got much better, especially when we went out to eat.

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A disappointing meal...

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An amazingggg meal! :)

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I already mentioned that the Spanish love their olive oil, so no need to worry too much about butter– but the Spanish also love their pork…which meant I had to be extra careful about asking for things  ”sin carne” (without meat) when it came to ordering food. Thankfully the most popular type of Spanish cuisine — tapas– provided me with plenty of veggie options to choose from.

 

Tapas are a variety of small appetizer plates (both hot and cold) and snacks that can be shared with friends or combined to create a full meal. This was perfect for me because all I had to do was order a few veggie plates and I’d have a complete dinner. Plus, I loved being able to sample and taste a few different things rather than order just one main course off the menu.

 

Some of my favorite things to order were “pimientos de padrón” (small, sweet, green peppers roasted in olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt), “aceitunas” (olives), “verduras asadas” (roasted vegetables), “espinacas con garbanzos” (spinach, olive oil, garlic, and garbanzo beans), “humus” (hummus), “champiñones salteados” (mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and white wine), and “pan con tomate” (bread topped with tomato, olive oil, and garlic).

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Roasted pimientos

 

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A bowl of olives is a tapas staple!

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Roasted veggies never get old. I could eat them every day.

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Looks terrible...tastes delicious! You've gotta trust me on this one...

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Hummus is yummy in any country :)

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Bad lighting, good mushrooms!

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"Pan con Tomate" is the perfect snack after a day of touring

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Soup, better knows as “sopa” in Spain, is another typical menu item I was thankful for. Almost every restaurant has some sort of veggie-based soup to choose from which made eating out much easier for me. The most common soup I came across in every city was gazpacho. To my surprise, however, traditional gazpacho soup is not the same kind of gazpacho we have here in the United States. Spanish gazpacho is a cold, tomato-based soup made by blending tomatoes, soaked bread, cucumbers, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and salt in a food processor until silky smooth. The first time I saw the soup, I was convinced there had to be dairy in it because it seemed to have a creamy consistency. Nonetheless, the waiter assured me gazpacho is dairy-free and the smoothness comes from blending the oil and bread (I Googled the recipe later and confirmed the waiter’s explanation was the truth :) ).

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Silky smooth gazpacho

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Oh…and did I mention it tastes amazing??

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Another popular soup on many menus is “sopa de lentejas,” or lentil soup. I  would order this option over gazpacho when I felt I needed to get an extra dose of protein in my veggie-heavy diet.

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Hearty but healthy lentil soup

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As popular as tapas are in Spain, this wasn’t my only option for every single meal. I was actually able to enjoy a few well-rounded vegan dinners here and there as well. Couscous, lentils, grilled veggies, salad, and the popular Spanish rice dish known as “paella” were all fair game. I even found a couple vegan restaurants– one in Madrid and one in Barcelona. Sadly, the Madrid restaurant was closed when I finally had a moment to slip away and venture out on my own, but I was able to test out the vegan restaurant in Barcelona :) (pictures below!).

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Couscous mushrooms blood orange salad

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Marinated veggie taster plate-- Spain goes "simple vegan" :)

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Saffron gives this vegetable paella a beautiful golden hue

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Simple salad with white asparagus-- I found this to be a salad staple in Spain

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Roasted peppers, peas, asparagus, tomato, and rice plate-- drizzled in olive oil and sprinkled in sea salt...perfection!

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More roasted veggies...

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Pecan couscous with curried carrots and eggplant

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This meal was SO good...I asked for it again! Peas, tomatoes, rice, peppers, lettuce (with less olive oil this time). Simple!

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Pineapple carpaccio for dessert-- looks unimpressive...tasted INCREDIBLE!

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Assorted melon for dessert. The yellow melon is a Spanish melon and is quite possibly the most sweet and tasty melon I've ever had!

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Even a tea girl like me had to have some Spanish coffee...or "espreso" in this case :) .

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Believe it or not, aside from enjoying amazing vegan Spanish food, I also enjoyed some amazing places!  So, I wanted to leave you with some fun photos in addition to food photos that I snapped over the course of my trip. Enjoy!

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Famous Flamenco show in Granada-- the studio is built into a cave in a mountain!

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Yes, even in Spain I found my bubbly water :)

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Rioja-- a delicous Spanish wine and newfound love

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Street in Cordoba

I found my knight in shining armor in Spain!

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A beautiful sunny day in Barcelona (plus my attempt at an artistic "selfie"...)

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More dried fruit

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On a boat cruise in Seville

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Fountain in Barcelona

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The 1992 Olympics Barcelona Fish sculpture

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The Sagrada Família in Barcelona

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Enjoying sangria in Madrid :)

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A view from my morning run in Granada

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Ceiling decor in Barcelona

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Gorgeous flowers in a Seville garden

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Original Roman bridge to Cordoba

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Bullring in Seville

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Flamenco cave in Granada

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The Barcelona shoreline

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Overlooking Barclona

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Fancy Spanish melon

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Flamenco dancer in Granada

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Biking in Barcelona

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Church tower in Cordoba

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A little friend I made during my morning run in Madrid :)

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At the Park Güell in Barcelona

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Park Güell in Barcelona

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Even the doors are pretty in Spain

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The streets of Malaga

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Beach in Malaga

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Plaza de España in Seville

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Mezquita-- the Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba

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Enjoying the marina in Barcelona

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Driving between cities we saw lots and lots of sunflower fields. Absolutely gorgeous!

Olive trees at an olive oil farm

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Entrance to Alcazar-- Seville Palace

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Cake from a (wait for it!) VEGAN restaurant in Barcelona!

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Veggie and bean burgers also from the little vegan restaurant in Barcelona

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Fancy ceiling lamps in Granada

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Striking a pose in Barcelona

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Not all those who wander are lost.” — J.R.R. Tolkien

 

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Fabulously Yours,

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Ashley Michelle

 

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Sources:

Olive Oil Production

Experience Spain EF Tour