How to Eat Plant-Based While Traveling

Eating vegan junk food is easy while traveling. There are salty snacks (potato chips, Fritos, Ritz crackers) and vegan candy (Swedish Fish, Dots, Skittles) at nearly every airport and convenience store. What is harder is eating whole-food, plant-based when you are on the road.  

Here are a few tips I've picked up over the years for staying on track when away from home.

Breakfast:

For some reason, I find breakfast food to be particularly challenging while traveling. If you are eating in a restaurant, you can always order sides off the menu, such as roasted potatoes, sautéed spinach, and fruit. If you are staying in hotel, though, there will likely be little for you to eat at a typical breakfast buffet. Even the oatmeal and pastries will probably contain eggs, dairy, and unhealthy oils. I get around this by packing an oatmeal survival kit in my luggage. Although I recently had my pre-cooked blueberry overnight oats harassed at airport security, you can bring this oatmeal dry-pack even in your carry-on luggage.

These unsweetened instant oat packs from Trader Joe's include oats, quinoa, amaranth, flax, and chia seeds. Top that with some freeze-dried fruit, raw nuts of your choosing, and some dates for sweetness, and you will have added in eight whole foods before you even leave your hotel room.  

Lunch and Dinner:
These meals tend to be easier, but they can still prove challenging unless you are creative and assertive. On a recent trip to Maine to see our son ski race, I ordered a veggie burger with no cheese. I assumed it would be obvious that I didn't eat animal products from my order. Unfortunately, no luck. My burger arrived with no cheese, but the bun was still covered in butter. Sigh…As I was hungry, the line was long, and it was a $12 burger without fries, I ate it anyway. We all do the best we can.

While times are definitely changing, and I had recently had an excellent quinoa bowl in the airport in Boston, I find I have the best luck eating at Mexican, Thai, Indian, and Japanese restaurants. I can always order a bean burrito without cheese, a veggie curry, or plant-based sushi. When in doubt, don't be embarrassed to ask if a food contains animal products, and learn from my experience and be explicit about your dining needs.

Here are some recent whole-food, plant-based meals I had on the road. All were delicious.

Staying plant-based while traveling requires creativity and humor, but it is totally doable. To avoid a case of hangry-traveler-syndrome, don't forget to pack baggies of nuts, dried fruit, and maybe a black bean brownie or two.

Happy travels!
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