THIS IS SIMPLY not a vegetarian’s paradise. Vegetarians around the world are on a never-ending quest to diversify our proteins and avoid a diet dominated by cheese sandwiches and bad pizza. If those of us on meat-free diets were to choose a home based on culinary pulls, we would likely find ourselves in Asia or at least the Levant countries.

Fortunately Traditional Egyptian cooking offers some vegetarian options. The streets are saturated with shops offering fuul, falafel and eggplant sandwiches for under LE 1, and lentil soup and koshari are always available. This is fine for those passing through, but if you call Egypt home and vegetarianism your diet, you will eventually tire of bean sandwiches and the carbohydrate-heavy rice and noodle concoction.

Don’t despair — a tasty, balanced vegetarian diet is possible. While Egypt lacks restaurants catering specifically to vegetarians, there are plenty of places with good meat-free grub, especially in cosmopolitan Cairo.

Be careful to avoid the lure of big foreign chains or you are likely to find yourself suffixing your order with “but no chicken” and then dropping LE 50 on a bowl of lettuce and pre-made, imported salad dressing. One of the nice things about eating in a region that puts so much value on meat is that vegetable dishes are usually considered low-worth side plates, not ‘real food,’ making them cheap and portions often generous.

Any establishment serving Middle Eastern fare should offer a wide selection of inexpensive, vegetarian mezza. Don’t underestimate the sustenance of what are called salads; chickpeas, fava beans and lentils are excellent sources of protein and good mezza have a healthy mix of vegetables. Lebanese restaurants like Taboula (oh, the hummus!) or Estoril (likely the best fattoush in the country) all serve brilliant salad spreads of hummus, labneh, tabouleh and falafel and even meat-free mains like chickpea or eggplant fattah.

While the Levantines are king of the mezza, a proper Egyptian feast will also include delightful starter plates of cheese or spinach sambousak, fried eggplant, yogurt salad, tahini and baba ghanoug. Cheap, tasty and always deliverable, baladi fast food chains like Al-Shabrawy and Alexandria-born Gad have all the above and more veggie dishes to choose from. A LE 10-delivery will get you more sandwiches and salads than you can consume; eating-in at Al-Shabrawy, an only slightly pricier option, gives you access to a heavenly salad bar.

Associated Press An abundance of fresh produce means salads are often cheap and well=portioned.

For an alternative to baladi bean sandwiches, eggplant and parsley, check out the Asian cuisine options. Most cook up meat-free noodles and vegetable dishes, but be warned that not all have soy on the menu and if you’re not careful, you may end up with nothing but greasy rice speckled with a few tasteless carrots. Wagamama, in CityStars, does offer tofu and caters to the fussy eater with nut-free, wheat-free, diabetic friendly and of course meatless options for soups, noodles and mains. Sabai Sabai in Zamalek is also a good pick. They will let you swap tofu for the chicken or beef in any of their tasty Thai dishes and offer several strictly veggie soups and starters.

Cairo is also home to several South Asian restaurants, all of which have a selection of dairy and lentil based dishes. The best is Maharaja, in Maadi’s El-Gazayer Square, with more than a dozen meat-free mains, starting at LE 25, as well as savoury starters, salads and speciality Indian bread. The atmosphere is lacking the Oriental sparkle of Cairo’s other South Asian eateries, such as Kandahar and Nile Bukhara, but offers the best selection and value for those who prefer beans over beef.

For something with a little atmosphere, check out the menu at Zamalek’s hip and elegant L’Aubergine, boasting scores of unique Mediterranean and European -inspired vegetarian dishes.

Veggie eaters will also find options at many Dahab restaurants (notably Nirvana, an Indian restaurant on the northern section main promenade), as well as the camps to the east along the Aqaba coast, which cater to hippie backpackers. Unfortunately, outside Cairo and Sinai those on meat-free diets will likely have to sustain themselves primarily on salads, falafel and fuul.

On top of these options, cooking vegetarian can be a highlight of meat-free diet. Vegetables and grains are cheap, spices are bountiful, and in Cairo tofu, veggie burgers and other soy products and protein alternatives are available. For information on where to find these and other hard-tofind ingredients see page 104.

L’Aubergine 5 El-Sayed El-Bakri Street Zamalek, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2735-6550 11am-2am, daily

Sabai Sabai 21 El-Mahad El-Swissry Street Zamalek, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2735-1846/736-3197 Open noon – midnight, daily

Maharaja 45 El-Nasr Street Maadi, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2516-7447 Open noon – midnight, daily

Wagamama City Stars (Phase 2, Floor 4), Omar ben Al Khattab Street Heliopolis, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2480 2533 www.wagamama.com.eg Open noon – midnight, daily

Estoril 12 Talaat Harb Street Downtown, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2574-3102 Open noon – midnight, daily

Taboula 1 Latin America Street Garden City, Cairo Tel: +2 (02) 2792 5262 Open noon – 2am, daily et