Vegan Italian Food

Vegan Italian food is hands down one of the easiest foods to cook at home, but it can often be somewhat difficult finding vegan options in most Italian restaurants.

Italian food focuses on using only a few ingredients per dish, but places a great deal of importance on the quality and freshness of those ingredients allowing them to really shine. The difference between good and bad Italian food often comes down to the quality of the ingredients more often than the way in which those ingredients were prepared.

Unfortunately, Italian food is stuffed full of meat, eggs, cheese and other dairy products. When dining out, this can pose a problem for a vegan, but when cooking at home these ingredients are easily replaced with their vegan alternatives.

Staple Italian Foods & Dishes

Staple vegan Italian foods include tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, onions, shallots, garlic, olives, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, beans, squash, herbs and spices.

Staple vegan Italian dishes include pasta marinara, pasta arrabiata, and salad.

Dining Out at an Italian Restaurant

Vegan options are pretty limited when dining out at most Italian restaurants. This is because most Italian foods are traditionally prepared with animal products like meat, eggs, and dairy. Italian food is notorious for grating generous helpings of parmesan cheese on top of everything.

What to Ask

Does your pasta contain egg? (Which ones don’t?)
Which salad dressings don’t contain eggs or dairy?

What to Order & How to Order It

Pasta Marinara (made with spaghetti and added veggies)
Pasta Arrabiata (made with spaghetti and added veggies)
Salad

For pasta dishes, ask your server not to include parmasan cheese, dairy sauces, or butter. For salads, have them not include parmesan cheese, croutons (usually not vegan), and have them swap the dressing for olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Most fresh pasta is made with egg, but you can get around this most of the time by ordering spaghetti or angel hair, as these are dried pastas and are almost never made with eggs.

Because you’ll likely be leaving out a lot of ingredients from each dish you order, ask your server to replace things like cheese or meat with things like eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, olives, and tomatoes.