Vegan and healthy food in Dikwella, near Hiriketiya

At Ohana on Turtle Beach, eleven dishes on the menu have a vegan way, from a tempeh steak with pineapple curry to avo toast on our own sourdough, and no alcohol is served. Here is what eating consciously means in our kitchen, with names and prices.

What does eating consciously mean here?

It means knowing what is on your plate. We keep it to a few plain habits:

• The kitchen cooks to order. Fruit and vegetables from the island, the day's catch, and sourdough, granola and sauces made here.
• Every ingredient is listed. The full menu shows what is in each dish and which allergens it carries.
• Food is not spicy unless the dish says so.
• No alcohol. We serve mocktails, iced teas and elixirs, and filtered water is on the house.

One honest note. Ours is one shared kitchen. A vegan way has no animal product in its recipe, but we cannot promise that no trace is there. Tell us about any allergy.

Which dishes have a vegan way?

A vegan way is the same dish, thought through again without animal products. On the menu it sits beside the original. Tempeh, the firm cake of fermented soybeans from Indonesia, often takes the place of the fish, and it is rich in protein.

At breakfast, from 08:00 to 11:00:

• Vegan Avo Toast, 2,400 LKR. Avocado and wilted spinach on sourdough griddled with olive oil, with chilli flakes and lemon zest.
• Vegan Zucchini Toast, 2,450 LKR. Zucchini blended green with coriander and garlic, on sourdough, with cashews and herbs.
• Vegan Yemeni Shakshuka, 3,000 LKR. Chickpeas in our cumin and paprika tomato sauce, under a spoon of green chilli relish. Spicy.

At lunch and dinner, from 11:00 to 21:00:

• Tempeh Steak with Pineapple Curry, 6,400 LKR. Marinated tempeh, seared, on coconut mashed potatoes, under a curry of coconut milk and sweet pineapple. A little heat.
• Vegan Sweet Curry, 6,200 LKR. Tempeh in a gentle coconut milk curry, with basmati.
• Tempeh Poke Bowl, 4,200 LKR. Tempeh simmered in jaggery, ginger and garlic, on basmati.
• Vegan Papaya & Tempeh Salad, 3,400 LKR. With mango, passion fruit, peanuts and mint.
• Vegan Grilled Pineapple, 1,700 LKR. With cold coconut cream in place of ice cream.
• On the side: Plantain Chips with pineapple salsa, 1,600 LKR. French Fries with fire-roasted tomato salsa, 1,800 LKR. Toasted Sourdough with olive oil, 700 LKR.

The Gotukola Green Salad, 1,800 LKR, is vegan as it stands. Gotukola is the round, grassy leaf Sri Lankans eat with rice and drink as a morning porridge. The Veggie Bowl, the Gazpacho and the Roasted Eggplant with Mushroom Bolognese have no animal product in their ingredient lists, so they are vegan too. We decide the word dish by dish, from the ingredients.

Smoothie bowls and a plant-based breakfast

• Tropical Smoothie Bowl, 3,200 LKR. Papaya, banana and pineapple with coconut milk, under fruit, our kithul granola, coconut and seeds.
• Matcha Vitality Bowl, 2,900 LKR. Avocado, banana and matcha blended with spinach, gotukola and moringa.
• Cocoa and Nut Smoothie Bowl, 2,400 LKR. Banana, cocoa and our own peanut butter.
• Legume Breakfast, 2,400 LKR. Warm mung beans and chickpeas with rice, grated coconut and a fresh relish of onion, chilli and lime. A Sri Lankan morning, all from plants.

Our granola is sweetened with kithul treacle, the dark syrup boiled down from the sap of the island's kithul palm, and not with honey, so the three smoothie bowls are vegan as well.

The Green Morning, 8,100 LKR, puts it on one board: Vegan Avo Toast, a Tropical Smoothie Bowl, a Glow shot, fresh watermelon juice and a pot of Ceylon tea. Plant-based from the bread to the cup.

For coffee, oat milk is 700 LKR and coconut milk 550 LKR. The Matcha Latte, 1,400 LKR, is made with oat milk from the start.

What are the Ayurvedic elixirs, and what do you drink without alcohol?

Ayurveda is the old South Asian way of looking after the body with food, herbs and daily habits. Our elixirs borrow its ingredients. We do not sell them as medicine.

• The Ohana Ritual, 3,300 LKR. Three small shots on a wooden board, drunk from left to right. Cleanse: fresh turmeric, ginger, black pepper, lemon. Focus: gotukola, moringa, king coconut water, lime, mint. Glow: cacao, banana, dates, coconut milk, cinnamon, cardamom.
• Pitta Cooler, 2,400 LKR. Coriander and fennel seeds steeped in king coconut water, over ice with mint, lime and basil seeds.

The mocktails are made with the same care. The Karapincha Mojito, 2,200 LKR, uses curry leaf where a mojito uses mint. Spicy Guava, 2,400 LKR, has ginger, lime and a sliver of green chilli. Our iced teas start at 1,200 LKR and are made from syrups we cook here.

And if you eat fish?

Then one table can hold both. The Grilled Catch of the Day, 7,900 LKR, is a whole snapper cooked on the bone with garlic and thyme. The Tuna Poke Bowl is 4,500 LKR and the Ceviche Limeño 5,700 LKR. The menu marks the dishes that are high in protein.

You can read how the kitchen works on our restaurant page. Join a class in the shala and you get 10% off the whole restaurant menu.

Good to know

• Breakfast is served from 08:00 to 11:00, lunch and dinner from 11:00 to 21:00.
• Prices are in LKR, plus a 10% service charge. Filtered water is on the house.
• No alcohol is served. There are mocktails, iced teas, fresh juices and elixirs.
• We are at Turtle Beach, Dikwella, less than five minutes by road from Hiriketiya.