A Brief Guide To Vegetarian Living in Ecuador

Contents

. Cities. The Sierra. The Coast. The Oriente

Introduction

Being vegetarian in Ecuador is not particularly difficult although you may have to be slightly creative at times. The most common problem that you may come across is that most Ecuadorians think vegetarians only eat "ensalada" (salad) or also eat chicken and/fish.
So, you will have to explain, with patience of course, that you can also eat cheese, eggs, rice, potatoes etc depending on your tastes. This should usually result in you being brought something that you can eat.
Vegans may have a slightly tougher time as foods like nuts (apart from peanuts) have only been in the country since last year (2006) and at the moment can only be found in larger cities like Quito or Guayaquil. For where to obtain these see the "Where can I find things?" section at the end.

General Food Habits in Ecuador

Food is a huge part of Ecuadorian life. Typically, most Ecuadorians will eat 3 meals a day;

• Desayuno (breakfast)
  For a vegetarian this will probably be the easiest meal for you to cope with. Depending on where you are in the country you should be able to choose from fruit, cheese, yoghurt, bread and eggs with either tea, coffee or chocolate. Different regions will have their own specialities as well.
• Almuerzo (lunch)
  This is the most important meal of the day and typically consists of soup of different kinds and a second course of rice and some kind of protein with an ensalada or vegetables. Just ask the restaurant if they can change the meat for eggs or cheese - they should usually have these. However, some restaurants that only serve a set lunch may be unwilling to do this - just be insistent but polite.
• Merienda or Cena (dinner)
  This is either a smaller version of lunch or just bread and a warm drink.

General Advice

» Al Ajio - cooked in garlic and pepper sauce
» Estofado - cooked in a tomato sauce
» Salsa de maní- peanut sauce ( more commonly known as gordo de maní )- most common in the province of Manabí
» Encocado- coconut sauce- most common in the province of Esmeraldas

Regional Hints and Tips

Cities
Quito and other big cities like Guayaquil and Cuenca and also some smaller towns that are used to tourist, should pose no problems for vegetarians. You will be able to find a huge range of restaurants,both specialist vegetarian and non-specialist and within all price ranges, that will be able to cater for your needs.

The Sierra
Most restaurants will have avocado, plantain, mote( large corn kernels), potatoes,cheese and probaby some kind of prepared salad in their kitchen so they should be able to rustle you up something.
Other dishes you can ask for are:

• Locro de papas - potato and cheese soup often served with avocado
• Llapingachos - fried potato and cheese cakes
• Chochos - lupin seeds- very high protien.
• Quinua - a high protien nutritious grain that is used to make soups and other foods
• Humitas or Quimbolitos - made from corn or corn flour and steamed in different leaves. These come in either sweet or savoury varieties.
• Churrasco is a dish that usually has sausages, ask for it with salad or cheese instead of sausages.

The Coast
On the coast, "frejoles" (beans) that are served in restaurants are usually known as "menestra" so ask for this. However, menestra doesn´t always mean beans, because they also make menestra with potato yuca and plantain, so check that it is menestra de frejoles (beans) o lenteja ( lentils ) You can also ask for "arroz con vegetales" or even better "arroz colorado con muchos vegetales". They often use lots of oil so you muight like to say "sin aceite" ( without oil )You can ask for the same with spagetti ( tallarine con vegetales )
Protein options include the ubiquitous eggs and "queso frito" (fried cheese, which sounds strange but is really good ). In Manabi, they will most likely have peanut butter in the kitchen, but in Ecuador they only ever use it to cook with or to eat with plaintain, not to have on bread. It is called maní molido (not mantequilla de maní )
Other typical food options are:

• Empanadas de verde - make sure you ask for them "con queso" (with cheese )
• Sopa de bola verde - plantain dumpling soup
• Cocadas - sweets made with coconut
• Patacones - fried plantain slices
• Cevcihe - normally made with seafood. You can ask for ceviche sin mariscos or "ceviche de rabano" (radish ceviche) and "ceviche de platano" (plantain ceviche). You might get some strange looks but the cooks usually oblige.

The Oriente
As a vegetarian, this may be the most difficult region for you. Yuca is grown everywhere and there is a huge variety of tropical fruits but finding protein could be difficult. Although, it is unlikely that you will be travelling in the Oriente on your own; you will be most likely staying at a lodge or on a boat that will provide your food for you.

Where can I Find Things?

Glossary