Vegan Eats in Athens

With the European Union allowing travel between countries and Drexel announcing that we are allowed to travel to “green zone” countries, I had the incredible opportunity to visit Greece, which I will forever call ‘The Land of Hummus and Falafel’! I ate all of the garbanzo beans and fava beans that I possibly could over the four days that I was there and did not take it for granted! The fresh ingredients were super flavorful and it is such a light, yet satiating, cuisine that I feel like I could eat for the rest of my life!

This is an example of the type of dish that I ate a lot of over my time there. For this meal, I got quinoa with roasted peppers, green onions, avocado, tomatoes, and lemon vinegar dressing. This dish was priced around 10 euros, making it a fairly cheap meal that was packed with protein and fresh veggies!

Here is an example of one of the MANY falafel in pita wraps that I ate. I never strayed away from the classic of falafel, lettuce, tomatoes, and hummus wrapped in a piece of homemade pita bread. The pita bread is simply water, yeast, sugar, flour, and salt, making it completely vegan. Each one of these wraps costs about 3 euros, which in my opinion is an absolute steal! The stands for these types of wraps are all over the streets of Athens and every single one that I tried was just as good as the last.

Another fresh and flavorful meal that I had was this build-your-own salad! I got kale, chickpeas, wild rice, cucumbers, white onion, tofu, and carrot ginger dressing. My friend got the Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, croutons, olives, and feta and the other for spinach with chicken, egg, cucumber, and pesto vinaigrette. These salads were a little bit on the pricey side but we were all happy paying for this type of meal due to the fact that we all miss Sweetgreen so much at home!

These were the PERFECT ending to a day of hummus and falafel, further proving that the Greeks do food well! These are lukumades. You can see the Greek spelling of this word in the background of this picture, but I do not have the Greek letters on my keyboard and even further, I could not pronounce that word if I tried! I worked really hard all weekend to attempt to learn some basic Greek phrases, but was left feeling confused and wishing that I was more like Percy Jackson! I digress. Back to the lukumades, these are Greek fried dough bites that are traditionally topped with honey and nuts. At this shop I chose to top mine with peanut butter due to the fact that peanut butter is a food that I miss a lot from home and cannot find a lot in Europe.

Athens was such a beautiful city and the amazing food that I ate while I was there truly enhanced the entire experience!

A Message from the Office of Global Engagement:

The safety and security of Drexel students is a priority for the University. As part of the efforts to support Drexel students that are studying abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Office of Global Engagement has conducted a rigorous review of programming and provided additional support to participating students with customized pre-departure orientations and regular check-ins during the required self-isolation period and the term.