Is a vegan restaurant the answer to eating out and keeping kosher?
Trying to keep kosher can be a difficult decision especially if you live someplace without a lot of options. What if there is a non-kosher vegan restaurant in the area? Can eating there be considered kosher?
Yes! Try eating vegan.
Let’s dig deeper
Keeping kosher is a central part of the Jewish tradition and lifestyle. For those living in remote areas with small Jewish populations, keeping kosher can be a real challenge. A modern answer to this challenge is eating in a vegan restaurant. The absence of meat, milk and any animal byproducts makes this a naturally kosher environment.
How is it possible? Vegan foods are free from any animal products and considered kosher in their natural form (except for products cooked in wine or vinegar).
Vegan is a clean choice
Eating a vegan diet is a very healthy and clean lifestyle choice. Today anyone can easily adapt being vegan to any health-conscious routine. Want to keep kosher? Vegan foods are naturally kosher.
When going to a vegan restaurant, make sure it is strictly vegan and check that they have the proper certification. Always check with the kitchen that they do not use animal-derived ingredients at all.
There are a lot of diverse traditions around the topic of kashrut (Kosher laws) many due to historical events and some, cultural while others regional. Look forward to future articles where we will cover this topic in more depth.
*Note that even if you make sure to clean your vegetables from insects, there is a possibility that they will not be cleaned in vegan restaurants either. The level of cleaning varies from place to place so make sure you ask. Restaurants have a variety of certificates that they can show you on request (the most famous of which are –
On a spiritual note, kosher eating is conscious eating. It keeps us aware of everything that enters our bodies. This is a spiritual process where we choose certain restrictions in order to become better human beings – or in the language of the Torah:
For I ה’ am your God: you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not make yourselves impure through any swarming thing that moves upon the earth.
photo credit: Toa Heftiba
