I ate some interesting vegan food while I was on holiday in Brazil. There was a Lot of rice and beans (they eat two hot meals a day in Brazil, so sometimes it was rice and beans for lunch and tea!). But because the friend I was staying with is vegan too, she knows all the good places to eat, so there was some variety! I ate some lovely home cooked food too!
This is Brazilian cous cous, made from steaming maize flour in a pan. My friends husband learned this recipe from his Grandmother, who was an indigenous Brazilian, who used to make it over a fire in the rain forest. It is nice for breakfast.
We had vegan pizza delivered one night. The toppings were yummy, lots of different veggies, but the base was quite tough and gave us both jaw ache. I can't remember where it came from, a pizza delivery place in Santa Teresa somewhere.
This is my favourite Brazilian food. It's called aipim, and it's fried manioc root. It is sooo delicious, kind of like chips. You can buy this in lots of bars and cafes. In this photo you can also see that I had a (very strong!) Caipirinha, Brazil's national cocktail of cachaca, sugar and lime, yum!
These white pancake-y things are called tapiocas, and they come with all sorts of fillings. I really liked this but only ate it twice, the first one was with olive oil, the second with fresh coconut. The coconut one was the best. These are street food in Brazil, you can buy them all over the place from little carts. (They also sell popcorn absolutely everywhere, from similar little carts, but beware, the popcorn is sometimes popped with butter and nearly always has ham in it. Very Dissapointing!)
This is plate one of my vegan buffet from Refeitorio Organico. Soooo good!
Some of the places we went to were,
Vegetariano Social Clube nice simple buffet, some cooked dishes, salad and soup for about 35 reals, cake is extra but worth it, they also sell vegan ice cream and pancakes but had run out on the day we went.
Bio Carioca I ate a rice and mushroom burger here and some fried greens, it was ok, the staff were nice here and they offered filtered water instead of bottled, which was nice.
Bar do Mineiro I ate one of my favourite meals here, simple rice, beans, the best garlic-y greens, pumpkin puree and soya meat, served for 2 to share for 45 reals. Unfortunately there was some meat in the bowl of beans, but the waiter was quick to sort it and the food was so delicious it didn't put me off too much.
Refeitorio Organico This place is sooooooo good, my friend's meat eating husband loves eating here too! They have a buffet on Saturdays for 35 reals, with dozens of salads, hot dishes and sushi to choose from, all vegan as far as I could tell. The thing you really want to eat here is the mustard kafta, it's a kebab on a stick and is extremely yummy.
Laffa Kebab Store The falafel wrap here is vegan and yummy and has chips in it and we ate it about 3 or 4 times. There are several Laffa's in Rio so it's an easy, vegan option.
I would go back to Rio just to eat aipim and coconut tapiocas all day!
