When talking about typical Cypriot food, meat seems always included in the main dishes. Many Cypriot people are surprised when they meet vegetarians as they can’t imagine a diet without pork, chicken, lamb and so on. Sometimes they sound sorry for me when I say that I don’t eat meat and they wonder how I am surviving in Cyprus since the typical local food is souvla (or souvlaki) and the majority of their meals contain meat, not to mention during the festivities.
For this reason, I thought that a list of typical Cypriot vegetarian dishes and products could be useful for the next ESC volunteers and readers of this article.
Let’s start with the typical food par excellence: Halloumi. Halloumi is a typical cheese from Cyprus and is traditionally made from goat’s and sheep’s milk. Versions made from cow’s milk are available on the market as well. You can find it in supermarkets, restaurants and, even better, in local groceries shops in the villages outside the big cities. Either grilled or fried, Halloumi is simply delicious and always a good vegetarian choice.
In Cyprus I discovered my favourite food in the world: pita bread. It’s versatile and simply delicious on every occasion. Its oval shape makes it different from the Greek one. Once you cut it, you can fill it with everything you want. The typical one is filled with meat (of course), but you can create various vegetarian versions. My favourite one is with halloumi, tomatoes and olive paste. Falafel and yogurt is a tasty combination as well. I eat it almost everyday and it is perfect with sauces such as tzatziki, humus and tahini.
Cypriot bakery and pastry are other very good options for vegetarians. You can easily find bakeries around the island where you can stop for a coffee and taste their specialities. Among these, feta pie, spinach pie, halloumi pie and olive pie are my favourite. Cypriot pastry includes various fried sweets such as loukoumades and different kinds of donuts. Cakes made of phyllo dough such as baklava and bougatsa are also famous and worth tasting.
Finally, I want to mention the veggie Moussaka. Compared with the traditional one, the veggie moussaka is made of eggplant filled with only potato, without meat, but it is good as the original one, even better.
I hope this short vegetarian guide to Cypriot traditional food will help future volunteers to discover and enjoy Cypriot culture as much as I’m doing.
