How I Managed to Eat as a Vegan in the Camino de Santiago
In the bigger cities, I made the most out of having some vegan restaurants (or vegan-friendly spots!)
There comes a time (or a myriad of times) in your life, where you just need to press that reset button on your life. The soul demands transformation, whether it’s propelled by a specific event, an accumulation of stressors, the simple passing of time, or out of nowhere. In any case, we must heed that call and take the matter into our own hands.
This moment came for me in late 2022, even though I have had this need before, and I’ve also fulfilled it with traveling. My last soul-transformation trip had been in early 2018, so it was about time that I got out of my routine, explored the world, absorbed new experiences, and stopped feeling stuck. The solution started taking shape in my mind and heart gradually, until one day there was nothing I could do but put my things in order, buy a plane ticket, grab a backpack, and just leave.
The first time I heard about the Camino de Santiago was in 2013. I was studying in Madrid for a semester, and I was living in a “shared floor”, which means I had a room in an apartment where other people lived or stayed at. One night I had dinner with an older couple who were doing the Camino that passes through Madrid (as there are several routes), and they told me what it was about. That memory was printed on my brain for almost 10 years, until this opportunity arose. Some seeds take a longer time to yield flowers.
The Camino de Santiago (or Saint James’ Way) is a network of ancient pilgrim routes, that stretch across Europe, although they are most popular in Spain. During my experience, I found out some routes start as far as the Czech Republic, to name an example. The one I chose for myself was the Camino Francés, because it suited all my needs: I needed to walk for several weeks, it had a good availability of albergues (similar to hostels but just for pilgrims), it had the right amount of ascents and descents, and beautiful landscapes. Also, it’s the most popular route, as it’s the traditional Camino, and as I was going to do it by myself, it would give me the opportunity to meet people along the way. Originally, the Camino was conceived as a religious experience, where pilgrims would walk towards Saint James’ tomb. However, nowadays, people do the Camino for various reasons that have nothing to do with religion: spirituality, adventure, physical challenge, celebration, soul-searching, self-searching, etc.
The vegan pasta my friend Jose and I prepared for our pilgrim friends in Estella. We even bought a vegan wine!
On April 27th I took a flight from Miami to Madrid, where I arrived the next day. Only two hours after landing, I took a second plane to Pamplona. I walked to leave the airport and headed to a local bus station, to go downtown. There, I waited a couple of hours, had lunch, and took the only daily bus that goes to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, a small town in France, next to the Pyrenees, which is a mountain range that separates the French and Spanish border, and from where I was going to start my walking and spiritual journey.
I stayed two nights in Saint-Jean, although, originally, I was only going to spend one, but since my best friend, who lives in Barcelona, joined me in my first week of walking, I had to wait for her one extra night as she finished her work week and traveled all the way to Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port. During my wait, I tried to rest, recover a bit from my jet lag, explore the town, and drink lots of coffee. On Saturday, my friend Jose arrived, we went to the supermarket, made a lovely dinner, and went to bed as early as we could, even though the excitement took over us.
We woke up on Sunday at around 6 a.m. and started our Camino. The first day we crossed the Pyreness–the most physically-challenged day in the whole Camino, because we had a 1,400 mts ascent, and around 25 kms–, and the rest of the week we enjoyed the mountain scenery, blending in with the cows, and admiring the greenness that surrounded us.
In Logroño, one of the bigger cities I walked across during my trip, I said goodbye to Jose, and kept on walking across vineyards, the countryside, the meseta, forests, and mountains, until some weeks later I reached the ocean and there was no more land to walk on. I walked a total of 898 kms in 37 stages (37 days) and took two rest days in between. There wasn’t a single day when I didn’t want to get off bed and walk. Everyday my purpose was clear, my motivation was ignited, and my will and desire to walk surpassed any other emotion I could feel at that moment.
I stopped in Sahagún, on my way to Bercianos del Real Camino, for a lunch break. I stopped at the supermarket and had incredible tacos at a bench on the street. Everyone who walked by told me “que aproveche”. Mushrooms, chickpeas with spinach, veggie spread, cherry tomatoes, guac, orange juice, and raw protein bars–delicious!
On the way, I stopped at the little towns that are part of the Camino experience, where I usually took breaks for coffee, snacks, and to say hello to my pilgrim friends that I met along the way and saw every day or every other day. You become a family with them, as most are either doing the same itinerary or a similar one, and you run into them even when you think you will no longer see them, sometimes later the same day or weeks afterwards. I walked an average of 25 kms per day, although I had days in which I walked as little as 20 kms, and longer days of 33 kms.
Walking 4 to 7 hours every day, sometimes uphill and always carrying weight on my back, meant I needed a lot of energy to burn. I’m a celiac and a vegan, and my diet consists mostly of whole foods. At home, I love to cook healthy and nutritious food, bowls and woks being some of my favorite dishes. Also, I love eating cooked food; even as a vegan, raw vegetables are harder for me to eat, not only because they are more difficult to digest, but also because I don’t enjoy the taste and consistency of raw veggies as much as when they are cooked. This, combined with the needs that arose during my trip–having to eat on-the-go, usually without a kitchen, and keeping my healthy habits–demanded I paid a lot of attention to my gastronomic decision-making.
At first, I thought it was going to be tough. Nonetheless, I discovered that the only thing I needed was planning and taking it day by day. As I was changing towns every single day, was always on the move, and lacked access to a kitchen, I came by with a couple of meal combinations that offered variety, and that allowed me to have all my nutrients and all the energy I needed to succeed in my Camino. During these weeks, I ran into two people who told me they were plant-based or vegetarian at home but decided to make it a flexible diet during the Camino, because they didn’t know how to fuel up otherwise. The girl who told me she was usually plant-based, said she had given in to eggs (I suggested she tried seitan or tofu, which can be found in most towns, and she said that was a good idea she hadn’t thought about before), whereas my vegetarian friend had eaten fish a few times. In my experience and opinion, this shouldn’t be necessary at all, all you need is dedication and to rely more on the supermarket than on bars and restaurants!
With these tips I’m sharing with you, you will understand why it’s not necessary to cheat on your plant-based diet, and that if you’re a vegan, you can eat wholesome, delicious, and nutritious meals during your trip. Here’s my vegan guide to the Camino de Santiago.
A restaurant I found by pure chance on my way to Triacastela, just before it started raining. The vegan menu was front and back. The back (not pictured) offered lentil soup (4 euros), spaghetti with soy bolognese (6.5 euros), and homemade croquettes (6.5%). I ordered gazpacho and spaghetti with the gluten-free version.
HOW TO EAT AS A VEGAN IN THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO, SPAIN
1. PLAN IN ADVANCE
As I mentioned before, every day–with exception of the two rest days I took, where I stayed two nights in Logroño and two nights in León, instead of one–I slept in a different town. I would say 90% of these towns are small, and some of them are so small they don’t even have a supermarket. At times, I would pass by or stay at a small town that only had one albergue and one restaurant or bar, which offered the most popular easy-to-eat foods in Spain: sandwiches, pastries, potato tortilla, and bites with a lot of ham. Nothing very nutritious, and nothing vegan and gluten-free, for that matter.
Sometimes, I could grab snacks in those places, maybe a bag of chips, some fruit, or olives, but that was only “in case of emergency”, as I usually had enough snacks for the day in my backpack. It only took me a couple of days to be an expert in planning in advance.
What I did was stop trying to make it a spontaneous trip. The “I’ll see what awaits in the next town” mentality had to crumble to make room for the “let me check what towns I’ll walk by today and which one I’m sleeping at” vision. This usually meant spending a few minutes on Google Maps the day before, and checking if the town I had as a destination had any supermarkets or restaurants with vegan options. Then, I would check what towns I’d be crossing on my way there. This would define whether I would stop for lunch halfway and at which town, carry food from where I already was, or whether I should carry food for either dinner or lunch from the town I was currently staying at, or from one of the towns I would walk by.
I did my entire Camino with a 38-litre backpack, meaning space was limited and every ounce of weight had an instant impact on my performance, health, and energy. When I figured out there weren’t many options for me to eat, I would fill my backpack as much as I could with food such as tofu, chips, hummus, bread, nuts, and fruit. It could weigh anything from 7 to 10 kilograms, depending on how much food I carried. As I walked during springtime, food kept very well outside the refrigerator.
2. A FOOD STORAGE CONTAINER IS YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND
Unfortunately, I didn’t carry a tupper with me from home, but I bought one at the supermarket a few days into my Camino, because I figured it would be the easiest way to carry a healthy lunch, and to avoid falling into the habit of eating just sandwiches (which were practical to eat on-the-go and without plates, but not something I’d prefer to do daily). Turns out, it was the best decision and purchase I’ve ever made! To this day, I still use that container, since I brought it back to Miami with me.
What I did was buy nutritious food, assemble it in my tupper the day before, and have it as lunch the next day. Sometimes, if I found, by pure serendipity, a place with vegan options, I would save it for dinner (it wasn’t hot at all, most of the time, so the food didn’t go bad). My favorite combination was made by buying cooked quinoa, mushrooms (either in a can or raw), tofu (no need to cook it, as the soybeans in tofu are already cooked), and avocado. This combination provided me with all essential amino acids and covered all my macros. One time I bought algae for sushi and put everything in there and made wraps. Other times I swapped ingredients, some of the most popular being peas, beans, artichokes, peppers, and asparagus. I would also carry hummus around for snacking or to add to my meals.
3. THE SUPERMARKET WILL SAVE YOU
In addition to the ingredients I’ve already mentioned, the supermarket in the Camino offers you salvation! Depending on which one you go to, and how big they are, you can find a wide range of vegan food, including bread, vegan potato tortilla, cooked spinach sauteed with chickpeas, tacos, vegetable spreads, vegan cookies, tempeh, tofu, seitan, vegan soups, vegan burgers, vegan tuna, vegan cheese, vegan sausages, olives in every form, peppers, asparagus, artichokes, fruit, vegetables, all kinds of mushrooms, cereals, cooked rice and quinoa, vegan yogurt, avocados, pisto sauce, nachos, vegan protein bars, cherry tomatoes, vegan ham, vegan turkey, vegan snacks, vegan palmeritas, almond or peanut butter, among many other options.
A vegan paella I ate and enjoyed in Astorga
4. CHOOSE WISELY, CHOOSE NUTRITION
At home I usually follow a 90%/10% rule–out of habit, not diet–which means I usually eat a super healthy homecooked whole foods plant-based diet, and only every full moon I eat something that could be considered a bit less healthy (for example, a chocolate bar, cookies, or vegan puffs, all of which are mostly made with good ingredients anyway, as I choose the healthiest option for each, but I consider them less healthy because they are more processed). In the Camino, I tried to keep up with my habits, although I did fall a lot for sandwiches, which usually consisted of the best gluten-free bread (as few ingredients as possible) and tofu, and every now and then, vegan cheese, as it wasn’t that easy to find. A couple of times, I found I was still a bit hungry after dinner (I burned too many calories, and sometimes I didn’t snack much while walking), and ended up buying “patatas bravas” (fries) about 5 or 7 times at a local restaurant. Also, I remember eating a Beyond Meat burger and fried falafel at two different vegan restaurants.
That was absolutely fine by me. Filling my stomach with plant-based food and fueling up to be able to feel strong, was my priority. As long as I ate healthy most of the time, I was good and energetic! My tip here is to eat, at least MOST of the time, very nutritious food, to be able to feel powerful to conquer every single kilometer in your Camino. Focus on variety and whole foods, so you get your carbs, your protein, your fats, and all you need to keep your energy levels up, your long-term health on track, and your body well-taken care of.
5. do smaller meals
Another great tip to eat vegan in the Camino and make the most out of your physical strength, is to eat smaller meals. First, your body won’t get overwhelmed with digestion, and you can use that energy instead for walking. Second, for the same reason, you will feel a lighter and enjoy the Camino a lot more. And third, it will be easier for you to eat as a vegan during the entire day, because you won’t arrive in a town at noon in desperation, looking for the biggest menu, and be disappointed when you don’t find much to eat.
Snacking is a great way of managing all this. For instance, have a light breakfast, which can include a banana, protein bar, or nuts, and then snack these or some bread and hummus, on the way, have your small meal in a tupper as lunch, and then decide what you’ll eat once you arrive to your destination.
6. rely on fresh fruit and dried fruit
Fresh fruit and dried fruits are something you will find almost anywhere in the world. They are super accessible, and are sometimes sold in places that aren’t supermarkets, like bars, gas stations, or albergues that don’t have their own restaurant.
They are a healthy and vegan option that will fill you up and give you the energy you need to walk all those kilometers. Plus, they are delicious! I bought plenty of bananas, strawberries (which were super cheap there), and apples, as well as nuts, peanuts, and hazelnuts.
My famous tupper filled with quinoa, mushrooms, peppers, which I accompanied with an avocado and nori sheets.
7. play detective with restaurants
I used Google Maps and Google to find vegan options in the towns I passed by or stayed at. With Google Maps, what I did was search for the word “vegan” in that area, and see what restaurants appeared. Sometimes it shows actual vegan restaurants, and other times it shows restaurants that have some vegan option, which could be just a salad. With each, I checked their menu to see if there was something I could eat. With Google I searched for blog posts or restaurants in Happy Cow, or any other website that could recommend where to eat as a vegan.
In most cases, I didn’t find specifically vegan restaurants, but a lot of times I found vegan options, whether through Google Maps, or just passing by a restaurant and checking their menus. I found items like vegan paellas, or sides like asparagus, potatoes, beans, rice, gazpacho, olives, pimientos al padrón, salads, among others, which combined made a whole meal.
8. Look out for menú peregrino vegano (vegan pilgrim menues)
In the Camino, most restaurants offer a Pilgrim Menu, which usually costs 10-14 euros and offers 3 courses, water, coffee, or wine. Thrice, I was lucky to find restaurants along the way (very remote locations) with full vegan menus that could be made gluten free, even though the restaurants weren’t fully vegan. In the first one, they even sold vegan snacks like vegan Kit Kat or protein bars. I ordered a vegetable soup, spaghetti with chickpeas and tomato sauce and vegan cheese, and coffee. It even included a glass of wine, but I skipped it. Another time I had quinoa with veggies, grilled vegetables, and coffee. The other time I was lucky to find this restaurant with a wide vegan menu, and I went in just in time before the rain started. I ordered a gazpacho and spaghetti with soy Bolognese.
9. opt for practicality
Another tip that was important to be able to eat abundantly as a vegan in the Camino de Santiago was buying food that was easy to eat on-the-go.
My Favorite choices for this were banana, hummus (which I dipped with chips or put in sandwiches), vegan cheese in slices, guacamole, fruit, cherry tomatoes, bread, tofu (which I ate a lot, with bread), and anything that came in a can and that I could just put in my tupper, like olives, asparagus, artichokes, beans, or vegan spreads.
10. analyze kitchen availability
Another thing I did was to check beforehand if the albergues I was staying at had a kitchen. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, I tried to cook some pasta or make an easy wok. In those cases, you are also restricted in the sense that you can’t buy a lot of food to cook just one dish, because you won’t be able to save it in the fridge for the next day (you won’t even be there the next day!). Unless you were cooking for more people–sometimes I did that, with my Camino friends–the best thing is to buy something that comes in small portions and that won’t be wasteful. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to cook some broccoli, but they only sold them in big pieces, and I would have never been able to eat all of it, not even with a tupper in hand.
Whether you are doing the Camino Francés, or any other Camino, I hope these tips are helpful, so that you can keep up with your plant-based diet or eat nutritious and delicious food as a vegan.
Buen camino!
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Hi, I’m Melina,
I’m the creator of Sustainable Rookie, and my goal is to share what I learn throughout my sustainability journey, so that I can help other people live a more conscious life.
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