Being recently diagnosed with coeliac disease, I've been looking for restaurants and cuisines where gluten isn't such as central ingredient as it is in European food. As a result, I've been eating at way more central and South American restaurants, which means eating old favourites and trying new-to-me dishes. Here are a couple of places I tried in London recently that give you a taste of Latin America for a fraction of the cost of a plane ticket.
I've been trying to take advantage of as many of London's museums and galleries as I can recently, and stopped by the Tate Modern to check out the Julio Le Parc exhibition before wandering down to the Hayward Gallery to check out the Anish Kapoor exhibition afterwards (what can I say, I love an exhibition!?)
Between the two is the South Bank Centre food and drink market, which handily has vegan and gluten- free options. I've mentioned Horn OK Please before - you can find it in Borough Market too - and there's also Ethiopiques, which does great Ethiopian vegan food which is mostly gluten free but they do serve cous cous, so probably fine if you're gluten-sensitive, but not necessarily if you're coeliac.
With that in mind, I went to Pabellon, a Venezuelan stall. When I lived in London full-time, I used to be quite close to a Venezuelan restaurant and would often order the vegan version of pabellón - a traditional Venezuelan dish that involves rice, beans, plantain and normally meat.
Pabellon has a few different options - arepas, nachos, wraps - but if you're going to a place called Pabellon, I feel like you have to have the pabellon.
The vegan option is rice, black beans, pico de gallo, plantain, avocado and half an arepa, spicy sauce optional (but recommended).
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| vegan pabellon from Pabellon |
This is food that's designed to be gluten-free, and easily veganisable - it's food I would happily eat every day if I lived by the South Bank. It feels like something hearty and healthy at the same time, simple and still incredibly tasty too.
Pabellon
South Bank Centre Food Market (and other markets), Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
If you're food fancies take you more towards El Salvador rather than Venezuela, there's always Quinta Pupusas.
Pupusas are Salvadorean flatbreads, made with a corn dough and stuffed with whatever you fancy. Quinta does meat, veggie and one vegan version, which is filled with beans (think refried rather than Heinz baked). All come with curtido - a Salvadorean fermented vegetable side, normally made with cabbage, onion, and carrot, but served without the carrot here - as well as a spicy salsa.
All the pupusas are made to order, and mine arrived at my table steaming hot and fresh. They're naturally gluten-free, and fried to give a crispy crust with soft inside, wrapped around the beans.
You get two pupusas per order, and all the curtido and salsa you need - it's a good size for a quick lunch, but if you need a bit extra, there are other vegan side dishes like plantains or yuca fries to add.
There's also a fun drinks menu with some beverages you might not of heard of, at least if you're me. I've never come across tepache, a fermented pineapple juice drink, before, so I had to order it immediately. At Quinta, you can have tepache on its own, or as part of an Explorer cocktail, where it's mixed with mezcal. Or so they tell me - I couldn't really taste it when I ordered an Explorer, but the tepache was a sharp, slightly sour treat.
Quinta Pupusas
hello@quintapupusas.com
18 Bute St, South Kensington, London SW7 3EX
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