The hard life of a vegetarian?

For the vegetarians among you, the following situation will be all too familiar: you’re desperately looking for something to eat – without any meat. You minutely peruse the entire menu, and when you ask the waiter, all you hear is: “We only have a small salad platter”. Grmpf. Great. That’s not the answer you want to hear as a vegetarian. As if the “herbivores”, as the meat-eaters call them, prefer to eat nothing but lettuce, 24/7. Pah! As a dyed-in-the-green-food vegetarian, this is not the sort of answer I’m prepared to accept!

So I was all the more sceptical when I joined Krones. At a traditional machinery manufacturer from the Upper Palatinate, I was anticipating traditional-style plain cooking in the canteen. My first thought was this: I’m condemned to pick the meat out of the food or I’ll have to cook myself a week’s supply of food. All right, “Challenge accepted”!

Contrary to my expectations, the canteen looks just great: light, modern and inviting. Whether it’s yoghurt, fruit or cheese in a roll instead of meat-loaf, here you can always find something tasty. Breakfast, then, was taken care of! The more difficult part would appear to be lunch.

So I was all the more pleasantly surprised when I read Krones’ menu for the first time. An extra line just for vegetarians. Yes, jackpot! A small “v” in the menu designates the meat-free choices. For everyone reluctant to asphyxiate their colleagues with the smell of onions or garlic, these ingredients are also designated, by the way. Whether it’s “stuffed peppers” or “risotto with vegetables”, no one has to go hungry at Krones, and the prices concerned are moderate as well. Nor are there any long queues, which I see as an enormous advantage, since at lunchtime I’m absolutely starving, and the queue for the traditional schnitzel-lovers is significantly longer. I prefer to saunter past the carnivores and get my meal straight away. Yes, that’s more like it!

For cold days, there’s also a small bowl of soup, or I put together my own lunch from side dishes like buttered vegetables or potatoes.

If I then want to have a “salad day” or fancy a side dish, I can serve myself from the salad bar, which also offers an abundance of choice. Now and then, there are even puffs stuffed with cream cheese or a kind of wrap as a small extra for an individually assembled salad. You can round off the whole thing with a wholegrain baguette. And then I can choose from among three different dressings, et voilà, luncheon is served!

As you can see, a vegetarian’s prospects of survival at Krones are quite good! And even if you’re not a vegetarian, it’s definitely worthwhile trying out the veggie dishes. You won’t be eating your own food out of existence 😉 So give vegetarian dishes a chance, and take a look at the @kroneskarriere Instagram channel. Here, we shall now and then be posting new food inspirations from the Krones kitchen!