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Plant-based fast food – the 2022 must eat list

With the explosion of plant based dining and dishes set to continue, many US fast food restaurants are getting on board. From breakfast to burgers, the biggest and best brands you know and love are offering meat free options aplenty.

So much so, it’s kinda hard to track who is offering what. The following brief list is a round up of all the plant based options at fast food restaurants around the land. We will keep it updated and relevant as their menus change.

Baja Fresh

2021 saw the launch of a trio of dishes using Impossible Foods ground beef:

  • Impossible Taco Combo
  • Fuego Impossible Burrito
  • Impossible Bowl

See the full list of dishes and prices here.

Boston Pizza

The brand announced a link up with Lightlife and Field Roast in the Summer of 2021. See the news release here.

Burger King

BK relies on Impossible Foods for the core of their meat free offering. In our opinion this is the very best plant based burger right now. The notable plant based items at BK include:

Vegans should note the Impossible Whopper is cooked on the same apparatus as standard beef-based burgers. Guests can ask for the patty to be microwaved separately, but for us that would kinda ruin the flavor.

California Pizza Kitchen

CPK debuted a plant-based version of it’s iconic BBQ chicken pizza in late 2020. The ‘Don’t Call Me Chicken’ pizza uses a wheat gluten/soy protein blend in the faux chicken. The company doesn’t list a manufacturer so it appears to be an in house, proprietary item. Read more.

Carl’s Jr. / Hardees

This twinned chain of restaurants use the popular Beyond Foods, Beyond Burger for their meat free sandwiches.

Culver’s

The company uses their own in house proprietary product.

  • Harvest Veggie Burger (does have dairy cheese though)

Del Taco

Beyond Meat are the company that power the plant based items at our favorite fast food Mexican eatery. Items include:

  • Beyond Taco
  • Beyond Avocado Taco
  • Epic Beyond Cali Burrito
  • Beyond 8 Layer Burrito
  • Epic Beyond Original Mex Burrito – our review

El Pollo Loco

The restaurant uses a custom “soy protein base that doesn’t contain egg enzymes.”

Jack In The Box

In the Fall of 2021 JITB announced a limited test of Impossible Burger at Phoenix locations.

Little Caesar’s

In the Summer of 2021, several locations of the pizza chain announced they would use Field Roast meat free products on their pizzas. More info.

Long John Silvers

In the Summer of 2021 the popular seafood chain announced a limited test of Plant-Based Breaded Fish-Free Fillet and Plant-Based Breaded Crab-Free Cake; the new dishes use a proprietary six-legume blend which includes peas, chickpeas, lentils, soy, fava beans and navy beans. The test run included five stores in CA and GA. No word yet if a national roll out will follow.

McDonald’s

In November 2020 McD’s announced plans for McPlant – a possible entire plant-based range of products. The first McPlant based product is expected to be a burger that will be trialled at select U.S. locations in 2021. Read more. Tests continued in early 2022 with a full national launch expected in the year.

MOD Pizza

August 2021 saw this pizza chain link up with lesser know Plantly to offer an all new plant based Italian sausage. The brand wrote that the sausage, “is a classic spiced Italian-style crumble made with only real, high-quality ingredients including U.S. grown non-GMO pea protein, filtered water, expeller-pressed canola oil, and seasoned with fennel, oregano, and thyme. With 12 grams of protein per serving, the plant-based sausage contains no artificial ingredients, fillers, sweeteners, preservatives, flavors, or colorings, and is vegan, gluten-friendly and soy free – offering flexitarian customers a delicious and craveable meatless version of one of MOD’s most popular topping.” Read the full press release here.

Noodles and Company

In early 2022 the brand announced it would be trialling Impossible Foods for possible plant based options. Via press release the company confirmed “Panko Chicken made by Impossible Foods, a new plant-based protein option now available in select markets. Noodles is featuring the new plant-based chicken option in its Orange Chicken Lo Mein dish now also called, Impossible Orange Chicken Lo Mein, and is making the protein option available as an addition or substitution in any dish. ” 

Peet’s Coffee

Vegan friendly food and drink options came to Peet’s as part of a Spring 2022 menu update. Items added to the menu include plant-based selections from Beyond Meat, JUST Egg and Violife. Read the full press release here.

Pizza Pizza

The pizza brand teamed up with Lightlife in August 2021 to offer the following three plant based menu selections. Info per the press release on the lunch:

  • Plant-Based Chick’n Sandwich – available in either Classic or Spicy, the Pizza Pizza Chick’n Sandwich is made with a juicy, tender fillet and topped with crunchy pickles, creamy vegan mayonnaise and a golden, toasted bun.
  • Plant-Based Chick’n Bites – bite-sized, poppable Chick’n Bites available in varieties of 10 or 20, perfectly sized for dipping in one of Pizza Pizza’s plant-based dipping sauces, including Texas BBQ, Sweet Chili Thai, Buffalo or Mild sauce.
  • Plant-Based Combo Box: comes with 16 Chick’n Bites, plus a choice of two more items, including french fries, potato wedges, onion rings or sweet potato fries and two dipping sauces.

Rubios

The chain made famous by their fish tacos joined the plant-based fray in January 2021 with news of their all new Impossible foods based options. Read more.

Shake Shack

The popular East coast based burger business are currently working on a proprietary veggie burger that uses, “greens, grains and herbs”. A previous version of the patty used brown rice and black beans. The burgers are limited time offers for the time being, as the Shack clearly figure out what their customers want in a veggie burger. More info here.

Starbucks

Another Impossible Foods option around town is this famous Seattle based coffee company.

  • Impossible Breakfast Sandwich

TacoTime

In the Spring of 2022, TacoTime tapped Impossible Food to launch the new new Impossible Nacho Burrito. The burrito was a limited time release running until July 26th. Read more here.

TGI Friday’s

TGI launched Beyond’s products onto their menus back in 2018 and have been adding ever since as follows:

  • Beyond Burger
  • Beyond Chili
  • Beyond Chili Loaded Potato Skins
  • Beyond Chili Ballpark Nachos
  • Beyond Chili Cheeseburger
  • Beyond Meat Chili Cheeseburger

Topper’s Pizza

The WI based brand announced in 2021 they would be using Beyond Meats product on a range of their. menu items. See more here.

Wienerschnitzel

In January 2022, THE name in fast food hot dogs announced a link up with Field Roast. The partnership see’s Field Roast’s Plant-Based Signature Stadium Dog become available in more than 325 US Wienerschnitzel locations. See more info here.