Getaways: 10 Country Restaurants for Vegetarians and Vegans Near the City

The plumes of smoke rising from the country restaurants of Buenos Aires province are a beckon to visitors, inviting them to delight their palates with the barbecue of the humid pampas, a tradition often accompanied by snacks, meat empanadas, and homemade pasta.

To ensure that no one is left out of the appeal of these soup kitchens, some establishments add to the classic menu various options for vegetarians (excluding meat, poultry, fish, and seafood), vegans (excluding all animal products) , and even gluten-free menus adapted for celiacs.

This report highlights ten places with this gastronomic diversity worth considering, located within 120 kilometers of the city of Buenos Aires.

Amid the dozens of barbecue grills at the Carlos Keen restaurant in Luján, Alma Verde is the only country restaurant exclusively geared toward vegetarian and vegan palates.

It stands out for its variety of natural juices (such as lemonade with mint and ginger), preserves, teas, yerba mate with adaptogenic mushrooms, vegetables, pizzas, cakes, rice with concentrated soy, seasonal cereals, and mushrooms from local producers with whole-wheat flour.

It operates every weekend and holiday as a tea house, and one Sunday a month offers lunches or themed events. Seasonal vegetables and fruits from the garden are harvested for freshly prepared dishes, a participatory experience open to the public and accompanied by an educational talk.

For example, you can take part in the vegetarian menu, which consists of starters with homemade chutney, fruits, vegetables, homemade chard cannelloni, smoked vegetables baked in a clay oven, and the incomparable pumpkin sorrentinos with green sauce sautéed with mushrooms.

La Florita's three main course lunch options, tailored to vegetarians, range from Spanish omelet to homemade noodles and vegetable ravioli with pink or white sauce.

Gluten-friendly meals are also prepared upon request, using products from San Antonio de Areco.

The menu at the La Materina country restaurant—renovated with new services, specialties, and a wine cellar, and renamed Rosalindo—has a very complete vegetarian option, including a tequeño with jawa sauce, a salad starter, a main course of vegetable and cheese ravioli with a choice of sauce, dessert, and a soft drink.

In addition to the renowned cheeses, pickled vegetables, chopped fembres, stuffed tomatoes, eggplant parmesan, roasted meats and sorrentinos—some of chef Lidia Tomadoni's specialties—La Fernanda stands out for its gluten-free menu and "Veggie" option, designed with vegetable cannelloni with sauce for lunch and rice toast, country bread, gluten-free fritters and homemade biscuits for breakfast and snacks.

Products from the farm and organic garden, as well as from the homemade bread and cookie workshops, are used for Pampas del Sur's gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan menus. Pampas del Sur offers a day out in the country with breakfast, lunch, a snack, a folklore show, children's games, and entertainment for all ages, such as ping-pong, foosball, volleyball, and soccer.

While the roast beef, minced meat, and meat empanadas are the best options, the menu also includes vegetarian options (vegetable empanadas, vegetable ratatouille with cauliflower sandwiches, and grilled vegetables with a choice of pastas in a variety of sauces).

And for celiacs, there are breakfasts of biscuits, quince jelly, and sweet potato seeds with hot infusions, a starter with a variety of cheeses and empanadas, a lunch of roast meat (except for chorizo ​​and blood sausage), plus a basket of special biscuits and homemade bread, rice pudding or homemade flan, and, for a snack, marbled pudding or gluten-free biscuits with infusions.

Along with the lingering aroma of spit-roasted meat, you can opt for a vegetarian menu, which includes a cheese appetizer, hard-boiled egg, sweet and sour brown bread and olives, the typical Italian "caprese" empanada, pasta, salad, and French fries.

For vegans, this rural restaurant in the Mercedes district offers bread, soy empanadas, sweet and sour peppers, salads, French fries, olives, lentils in tomato sauce, chickpea hummus, ravioli with sauteed vegetables and pine mushrooms, and hummus and garlic sorrentinos.

The gluten-free menu for celiacs includes a cold cuts starter, bread, knife-cut meat empanada, a complete grilled meat platter with salad and French fries, dessert (flan, casatta, pumpkin and peaches in syrup) and a snack (coffee, tea or mate cocido with fried cakes).

At this 1859 tavern in the Magdalena district, the vegetarian and vegan options are based on vegetables harvested in the area by the owner, José Luis Boffa, and used in the exquisite dishes—such as a legume appetizer and homemade pasta—handcrafted by his mother, the Italian immigrant (born in Naples in 1938) Donatella Petriella.

The place is also known for its regional cold cuts, pickled meat, pork breast, 9-a-side grass football pitch, and an old Basque pelota court.

This new restaurant, opened a few weeks ago in the historic center of Capilla del Señor, offers a healthy menu of steps that changes weekly, based on seasonal natural products.

Among its starters, three main course options, and desserts, the following stand out: olive hummus, pickled eggplant, country bread, melted provolone with garlic peppers, vegetable and ricotta cannelloni, apple crumble , and homemade vanilla flan.