When You are Vegan and Kosher, Where Do You Eat?

When you are vegan and kosher, it can be hard to find what to eat at a restaurant. Given the limited options, many kosher vegans have asked if it is permissible to eat in a non-kosher but certified 100% vegan eating establishment. Although on the surface the answer may seem simple – if a restaurant has no animal products on its premises, everything it serves is automatically kosher, right? – it’s not as simple as you might think. Although some authorities have various ways of working with it so a kosher vegan can eat in a non-kosher certified restaurant, there’s a lot that has to be considered. 

For kosher vegans living in Israel, it’s less of an issue as there are a plethora of vegan restaurants in Israel, and the good news is that many of them are certified kosher. But although in many places across the globe  there are kosher vegetarian restaurants that offer vegan dishes as well, for strict vegans this may not be enough. In some cases, kosher hamburger places offer vegan burgers, but then cook them on the same grill with the same equipment as the meat burgers, rendering them meaty even though no animal was killed in the process. 

So what about a certified vegan restaurant where all the ingredients are certified kosher – does that make the vegan restaurant kosher? 

Most halachic Jewish law authorities believe no, that this is not sufficient. There are too many other issues besides the kashrut of the ingredients themselves. Here is a short list and an explanation about the various concerns one might not think about in this situation. (Be aware that there are myriads of books written describing the intricacies involved for all of the bullet points below, so read these as just a very abbreviated summary of the full explanation.)

• Vegetables –  Leafy green vegetables need to be checked carefully for bugs. Vegan restaurants or almost any non-kosher restaurant may not carry out the halachic requirements in this area. In addition to this issue, in Israel, the question arises if the vegetables conform to the halachic requirements regarding shmitta, terumah, ma’aser, etc.
• Wine and grape juice – These products have their own set of halachic rules, and even if kosher, there are other issues with how they are handled once open that need to be considered.
• Vinegar –  When made from grapes can have many of the same issues as wine.
• Sauces – (Hollandaise, Bourguignon, bar-b-q, etc.) or products (Dijon mustard, salad dressings like vinaigrette) that might contain wine or vinegar can be an issue.
• Bread – In order for bread to be kosher, if it is made in a large enough quantity and if the business has Jewish ownership (or even from the supplier where the bread is purchased if not made on the premises) it is required to ”take challah” – this would most likely not be done in an establishment that is not kosher. 

 And even if the dish ordered doesn’t have any of the above issues, there can be the issue of preparing food in a kitchen not certified kosher. This can especially be a problem in a restaurant that has both vegan and non-vegan dishes (even if the other dishes are vegetarian). One of these other issues can be the problem of Bishul Akum – foods cooked by a non-Jew, though it is more complicated than that.

However, having reviewed some of the issues involved, one halachic authority, Rabbi Haim Ovadia, the rabbi of the Sephardi synagogue Magen David in Bethesda, MD, has written that there are some ways that an individual CAN eat in a certified vegan restaurant.