Romanian traditional food is meat-based. Sour cream is served with a lot of dishes and it’s pretty hard to find recipes without eggs or milk in them.

On the other hand, Romanians still keep the Lent. Being a predominantly Greek Orthodox Country, Lent features vegan food (and even excludes oil).

So, then, what is it like being vegan in Romania?

But first, a bit about my vegan journey

I’ve been vegan for almost four years (a.n. since August 2017) and this is the longest I’ve been vegan for.
I’ve tried before (2007-2009) but various circumstances led me to go back to vegetarian.

My entire life I was somewhere between vegetarian and flexi until, finally, I’ve had it with feeling not-so-lovely after eating dairy.

Back in July 2017, while transitioning, I have visited Oradea and Cluj-Napoca. I’ve tried to eat vegan as much as I could, but vegetarian dishes were incredibly easier to find.

The first events and trips after switching were even harder. I defaulted to veggie pizza without cheese or grilled vegetables with a salad. And most often, my breakfasts when traveling would look pretty dull. Good thing I’ve started doing intermittent fasting so that I could wait until brunch or even lunch!

Not that it saved me from weird conversations at tango retreats (where if you don’t eat when food is served you are as good as hungry until dinner).

>> Read more: Tango Retreat – Attending My First Mindfulness Workshop

Being a vegan in Romania: Lent Food

As I mentioned earlier, Romanians are mostly Greek Orthodox and a lot of people still keep the Lent.

The most important one is Great Lent, or the Great Fast, which lasts 40 days before Easter. Another important one is Christmas Lent and there are shorter ones throughout the year. Many people are fasting on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday each week.

Greek Orthodoxy Lent food excludes all animal products. Therefore, it’s vegan. Even better for the health, traditionally, it also excludes oil.

Zacusca (eggplant dip) is traditionally vegan and very popular during Lent. The famous cabbage rolls have several Lent variations depending on which region of Romania you are visiting; and you can bet there are a lot of veggies soups to delight your taste buds.

>>Read more: Vegan Traditional Christmas Food in Romania

The popularity of Lent food in the country means two things: you can ask if the restaurant has Lent food even if they aren’t advertising that they have vegan food; and during the two big Lent periods, there’s a lot of vegan food available in stores.

Even throughout the year, the variety of vegan food – and by this, I mean vegan cheese, burgers, mock-up foods, vegan pizza, etc – is plentiful. Because veggies, fruits, beans, rice, and so on are super easy to find anyway.

Being a vegan in Romania: Vegan Restaurants

Thankfully, vegan restaurants are starting to pop up in major towns in the country.

Of course, if you venture away from the beaten path and visit a small village in the mountains, you aren’t going to find a place dedicated to vegan food (but you’ll likely find yummy traditional vegan food!)

If you use HappyCow in other countries, I don’t have good news for you. It’s really limited in Romania. At my base, there are three vegan restaurants that I know of and only one is included in the app. When I tried to use it in Baile Felix, it didn’t even show anything in nearby Oradea.

On the other hand, a quick Google Search for vegan restaurants in the respective city, offers good choices, including places that aren’t exclusively vegan but serve vegan good.

Being a vegan in Romania: Other Restaurants

I found it easiest to find the option to “veganize” an order in Italian places. The pizza dough is vegan – but ask, of course – and all it takes for me is to ask them to put the veggies on top, without any cheese. In many places, I’d get extra veggie topping because I forgo the cheese.

I’ve even found places that don’t advertise offering vegan food are able to switch the cheese to vegan when I ask for no cheese.

The other option I go for is grilled vegetables with a salad. You’ll just have to ask them to not put any dressing on the salad and to make sure the veggies are grilled separately from other products.

(Note: I am aware that many vegans don’t have a problem with cross-contamination, but I do.)

Being a vegan in Romania: Coffee Shops

I love cappuccino. As you probably know, it’s made with frothed milk.

It took me quite a bit to start asking local cafes in Romania if they have any plant-based milk option. Sometimes I’m lucky that they do, otherwise, I stick to espresso.

I’ve been able to get a plant-based option at Mercato Segafredo Zanetti and Tucano. But, to be perfectly honest, I haven’t asked elsewhere when I traveled within Romania.

Being a vegan in Romania: Non-food items

As a vegan, avoiding using products that are being tested on animals or include animal byproducts is something we strive to do all the time.

There’s no such thing as a perfect vegan. We all know that.

That said, thankfully, it’s getting easier to find cosmetics that are both vegan and cruelty-free (not tested on animals). Various brands of toothpaste now have vegan products, for example. And for years, I’ve been able to get a vegan face cleansing gel.