The Best Of Bali’s Clean Eats
Wholefoods and smoothie bowl cafes, paleo, macrobiotic and raw vegan: it’s never been easier to eat clean in Bali. For the best spots for a wheatgrass shot, matcha latte or fermented veggie bowl, your healthy island holiday eating is sorted.
Here’s your guide to eating clean in Bali:
Alchemy
This 100 per cent raw organic vegan café and health store was Bali’s first. Alchemy is tucked away on Penestanan in Ubud’s cool heights, its white, open-air interior is where you’ll find healthy smoothies and juice cleanses, an all-day breakfast bar and eat-the-rainbow menu that’s wheat, sugar- and dairy-free.
The daily salad bar has picks like raw burgers, zucchini pasta, raw pad thai and coconut bacon. For gut-happiness, there’s kimchee, cultured sauerkraut and Alchemy’s own cocobiotic, a fermented coconut water drink. Serves are big and ingredients are locally sourced or grown fresh in Alchemy’s organic garden.
Coffee lovers are catered for with local single origin beans while those with a sweet tooth can get their fix at the raw chocolaterie. Best of all, there’s take-away and home delivery. A second Alchemy is now open next to Seminyak’s Potato Head Beach Club.
Shady Shack
Set amid tropical gardens with views of Canggu’s rice paddies is expat favourite Shady Shack – a wholefoods vegetarian café that’s as pretty as a picture, with food to match.
Come here for wheatgrass shots and matcha lattes, good coffee and breakfast onsen eggs poached to silky perfection and served on smashed potatoes, avocado or mushrooms.
Lunch here is just as good – a nutrient-dense menu that’s full of colour and flavour. There’s zucchini spaghetti and cauliflower rice, super-seed breads and fermented veggies. For a king-serve of green goodness, order the Nori Bowl. It’s packed with yummy bites of tamari rice and rocket, pickled ginger, snow peas, puffed tofu and edamame beans.
Don’t miss the raw banoffee cheesecake (just one of a long list of raw and vegan desserts), and be prepared to Instagram. A lot. From its raffia-covered courtyard and wall of framed butterflies and shells to the wrap-around balcony and cosy nooks of Tumblr-hip design, Shady Shack is one pretty joint.
Earth Café & Market Bali
Earth Café brings conscious eating to the table. Based on macrobiotic principles, this is plant-powered food that’s organic (from local certified organic farms), vegan and delicious. It’s also non-GMO and MSG-free.
With outlets in Ubud and Seminyak, here you’ll find scrambled tofu, buckwheat or quinoa pancakes, along with cleansing juices, the Balinese Jamu (turmeric tonic), maca, spirulina and dairy-free coconut cream and cashew cheese.
The burger is made with seitan (wheat protein). There’s a BLT sandwich (smoked coconut and cashew cream replacing the bacon and mayonnaise) and raw pizza. For a Balinese-style nasi, order the planet platter, a macrobiotic hit of brown rice, pickled salad, protein, seaweed and greens.
Open daily til late, the menu (all 18 pages) is Mediterranean in flavour and includes a special kid’s menu.
Nalu Bowls
Sweet beach shack Nalu Bowls is the place to go for a sweet breakfast fix. Inspired by Hawaii’s surfer culture (nalu means “wave” and to nalu means “to go with the flow”), Nalu Bowls is a hole-in-the-wall cafe where you’ll find the yummiest breakfast smoothie bowls topped with house-made granola and banana – and all served with a big Balinese smile.
Just moments from the surf of Canggu’s Echo Beach (and another outlet in Seminyak), the menu draws inspiration from the big surf breaks around the world. There’s the superfood-dense teahupoo made with spinach, ginger and mango. The mavericks is an Acai mix of fruity blends, while the pipeline is a tropical hit of coconut, banana, pineapple and mango.
Made using local ingredients, all up there are five combinations on the blackboard menu – and the option to add Superfood-rich goji berries, bee pollen, chia seeds and acai; or build your own.
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[media_embed]https://youtu.be/5PC6Sx1MM2o[/media_embed](Lead image: Shady Shack / Belinda Luksic)
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