Good news for plant-based travellers: Canarian cooking is more veggie-friendly than it first looks. This is a cuisine built on potatoes, vegetables, pulses, salads and punchy sauces, and some of its most famous dishes just happen to be meat-free. You'll need to ask a few questions and watch out for the odd hidden ingredient, but eating well as a vegetarian or vegan here is genuinely easy — especially in the cities, where the plant-based scene is booming.
For the full culinary picture, start with our guide to Canarian food; this page zooms in on how to navigate it without meat or fish.
The naturally meat-free classics
Order these anywhere and you're on safe, delicious ground:
- Papas arrugadas con mojo — the islands' signature wrinkled salt potatoes with red and green sauces. Vegan when the mojo is oil-based (it usually is). See our full guide to papas arrugadas and mojo.
- Gofio escaldón — toasted-grain gofio scalded into a warm, savoury paste with vegetable or, ideally, vegetable-based broth; check it's not made with fish or meat stock.
- Grilled vegetables and pimientos de padrón — blistered green peppers with sea salt, a perfect tapa.
- Ensalada — simple mixed salads, often with sweetcorn, tomato and onion.
- Potaje de verduras — a hearty vegetable and pulse stew (when made without meat or chorizo).
- Papas, arroz, huevos and cheese — potatoes every way, rice dishes, and grilled Canarian cheese for vegetarians.
Add fresh bread, olives, chickpeas, avocado (grown locally), tropical fruit and the islands' good tomatoes, and you can build a generous meal from side dishes alone in almost any tasca or tapas bar.
Photo: Malopez 21 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · scaled
What to watch out for
The traps are the usual Spanish ones plus a couple of Canarian specifics. A dish that reads as vegetable-based can still hide animal ingredients:
Watch for: fish or meat stock in stews, soups and gofio escaldón; fish (like tuna or salted cod) hidden in "vegetable" dishes and some salads; animal fat, chorizo or bacon in potajes, lentils (lentejas) and chickpeas (garbanzas); ham scattered over otherwise-vegetarian plates; and milk, egg or honey in desserts and sauces. Mojo is usually vegan, but always confirm.
The single most useful habit is to ask directly whether a stew or soup is made with a meat or fish base, since so much Canarian home cooking starts from a broth. Waiters are used to the question and will tell you honestly.
The growing plant-based scene
Beyond the traditional dishes, the islands' cities have embraced modern vegetarian and vegan food with real enthusiasm. If you want dedicated plant-based restaurants, health cafés, veggie tapas and vegan bakeries, head for the capitals.
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the standout — a big, cosmopolitan, student-and-surfer city with a lively crop of vegan and veggie spots, especially around the Las Canteras beach and city-centre neighbourhoods. It's an easy, walkable base for plant-based eating; see our guide to Las Palmas. On Tenerife, the university town of La Laguna and the resort of Puerto de la Cruz both have a good, growing choice of vegetarian-friendly kitchens.
In resort areas, international restaurants (Italian, Indian, Middle Eastern) are a reliable fallback for clearly-labelled vegan mains, while the local tascas are best for authentic meat-free tapas. Mixing the two gives you the best of both.
Self-catering and markets
If you have a kitchen, the islands are a joy to self-cater. Supermarkets stock plant milks, tofu and vegan staples, and the farmers' markets (mercados and mercadillos) overflow with local avocados, tomatoes, bananas, papaya, mango and greens grown in the volcanic soil. A market haul plus a bag of potatoes and a jar of mojo is a cheap, authentic dinner.
Useful phrases
A few words go a long way. Learn these and you'll order with confidence:
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| I'm vegetarian | Soy vegetariano / vegetariana |
| I'm vegan | Soy vegano / vegana |
| Without meat, please | Sin carne, por favor |
| Without fish | Sin pescado |
| Does it have meat or fish stock? | ¿Lleva caldo de carne o pescado? |
| Without ham / without cheese | Sin jamón / sin queso |
| Is it made with milk or egg? | ¿Lleva leche o huevo? |
For a fuller travel vocabulary, keep our list of Spanish phrases for travellers on your phone. A polite question in Spanish nearly always gets a warm, helpful answer.
The bottom line
You will not go hungry. Lean on the naturally meat-free classics, ask about stocks and hidden fish, and treat the cities as your plant-based playground. Between the potatoes, the mojo, the market produce and a fast-growing vegan scene, the Canaries are a friendly, flavourful place to eat green.