Here’s Every Vegan Option at Bojangles

I’m going to be honest here: Bojangles is a pretty bad choice for where to eat as a vegan. There’s no vegan chicken or biscuits—and the fryer oil contains beef fat, so even the Fries and hash browns aren’t vegan. That said, you can still eat a few sides.

Bojangles vegan options:

• Garden Salad (No Cheese or Croutons)
• Ken’s Fat Free Italian Dressing
• Grits
• Cajun Pintos
• Green Beans
• BBQ Sauce
• Pepsi Products
• Tea (Sweet, Unsweet, Iced)
• Lemonade
• More Beverages

Below, I’ll share more about how to order these items vegan. I’ll also share a list of items that are surprisingly NOT vegan. Then I’ll answer some common questions, and I’ll end by looking at the whole-food plant-based (WFPB) options at Bojangles.

Bojangles Vegan Menu

This vegan menu was compiled with the help of the normal menu, nutritional information, and allergen menu on the Bojangles website. I also consulted some blog posts by other food bloggers.

Restaurant menus change and often vary by location. I recommend double checking any important information with staff at your local Bojangles!

1. Garden Salad (No Cheese or Croutons)

This is a basic salad with romaine and iceberg lettuce, red cabbage, carrot shreds, sliced cucumber, and grape tomatoes. You need to ask them to exclude the cheese.

Now, it’s possible that some locations of Bojangles may have the salads pre-made and pre-packaged. In this case, you may not be able to remove the cheese. Be sure to ask before you order.

The vegan salad dressing to choose is the “Ken’s Fat Free Italian Dressing.” All the rest listed on the menu contain egg or milk ingredients.

2. Grits

Bojangles uses Quaker grits and water—no butter, milk, or other dairy is included in this signature Southern dish. Fully vegan!

3. Cajun Pintos

Beans… That’s what you get with this side. Pinto beans with Cajun spices. It looks like there might be small chunks of tomato included, too. No allergens, so this is butter-free. Even if you get the “Picnic” size, it’s under 500 calories.

4. Green Beans

These Green Beans look like they have some small chunks of tomato included, too, just like the Cajun Pintos. These green beans are cooked in “Bojangles’ seasoning.” This side only costs you about 20-70 calories depending on the size.

5. Sauces and Dressings

• BBQ Sauce
• Ken’s Fat Free Italian Dressing

Note: Bo’s Special Sauce contains egg.

6. Beverages

Lots of vegan soft drinks and beverages:

• Bottled Water
• Cheerwine
• Coffee
• Diet Mountain Dew
• Diet Pepsi
• Dr Pepper
• Sierra Mist
• Mirinda Strawberry
• Mountain Dew
• Mug Root Beer
• Patio Red Cherry
• Pepsi
• Simply Orange
• Tropicana Fruit Punch
• Tropicana Lemonade
• Tropicana Pink Lemonade
• Tropicana Twister Soda

And don’t forget the tea options:

• Half Gallon Sweet Tea
• Half Gallon Unsweetened Tea
• Sweet Iced Tea
• Unsweetened Iced Tea

But What About…

You might think some of the following items would be vegan, too, but unfortunately, they’re not:

• The oil used to cook the Seasoned Fries and Bo-Tato Rounds contains beef fat. (More on this below.)
• The Biscuits all contain milk (even the Plain Biscuit).
• The Cole Slaw contains egg.
• The Mashed Potatoes contain milk.
• The Sweet Potato Pie contains egg and milk.
• The Cinnamon Twist contains milk.
• The Bo-Berry Biscuit contains egg and milk.
• The Dirty Rice contains sausage.

Now let’s answer some commonly asked questions about eating vegan at Bojangles…

What Kind Of Oil Does Bojangles Use?

Bojangles fries their food in All Fry ZT, which is a blend of vegetable oil and beef fat. Therefore, none of the fried food at Bojangles is vegan or even strictly vegetarian. (source)

Are Bojangles Bo-Tato Rounds Vegan?

Bojangles Bo-Tato Rounds are not vegan, as they are fried in a mix of vegetable oil and beef fat.

If you’re not familiar with “Bo-Tato Rounds,” they are hash browns, shaped into small circular discs. But unfortunately, due to the choice of cooking fat, these Bojangles hash browns are not even strictly vegetarian.

Are Bojangles Fries Vegan?

Bojangles Fries are not vegan, as they are fried in a mix of canola oil and beef fat. This is really a shame because fries are often one of the few vegan options at chain restaurants, and it’s only a rare, occasional restaurant that still uses animal fat like Bojangles does.

Do Bojangles Biscuits Have Lard?

I wasn’t able to get access to the full ingredients for Bojangles’ biscuits. However, I’m guessing that their biscuits do not contain lard. Here’s why…

If you look at the dietary cholesterol in various Bojangles items, you’ll see that the Plain Biscuits have 0 mg of cholesterol. You’ll also see that the Fries and Bo-Tato Rounds each do contain some cholesterol. Even the small size of each contains 10 to 15 mg of cholesterol.

Dietary cholesterol comes only from animal fat. So it makes sense that the Fries and Bo-Tato Rounds do contain some cholesterol from the beef fat they are cooked in.

Since the Plain Biscuits contain 0 mg of cholesterol, we can assume they at least contain less animal fat comparitively. It’s possible they still contain a small amount of animal fat… but I’m guessing they do not contain lard.

Is Bojangles Sweet Potato Pie Vegan?

Bojangles Sweet Potato Pie is not vegan, as it contains milk and egg ingredients. This is according to the nutritional information document on the Bojangles website.

Whole-Food Plant-Based Options

What if you’re not just vegan but also trying to avoid processed foods? Can you get a whole-food plant-based (WFPB) meal at Bojangles? Well, let’s take a look.

Interestingly, a lot of the vegan options at Bojangles are already WFPB or nearly so. First, you’ve got the Garden Salad with a fat-free Italian dressing. That should be WFPB if you can get it without the cheese and croutons.

Next, you’ve got Grits. Grits are basically just corn, nutritionally speaking. Not the healthiest food in the world, but not very heavily processed, either. Most people would probably consider grits to be WFPB, as long as you don’t add dairy products or oil.

Then you’ve got the Cajun Pintos. I don’t have the full ingredients list for those, but they don’t seem to contain much oil, if any—the fat content is low, and there’s no soy allergen marked from soybean oil. So these beans should be WFPB.

The Green Beans are a bit of a different story… The allergen menu shows a soy allergen for the Green Beans, which means they probably contain soybean oil. That said, the fat content is still extremely low (0 grams to 0.5 grams per order), so they must not contain much!

All these items are also listed as “under 500 calories” each, too! (That said, the amount of sodium in the Cajun Pintos and the Green Beans is quite high.)

So, there you go. Even though Bojangles doesn’t have many vegan options overall, pretty much all the vegan options are also WFPB! They’re forcing their vegan patrons to eat quite healthfully!

How does Bojangles stack up against Popeyes? Check out my post on the vegan options at Popeyes to find out!

Two More Recommendations for Your Plant-Based Journey

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2. This is the best vegan multivitamin I’ve found in my 14 years of being vegan. It has vitamin B12, vitamin D, omega-3—and nothing else. Translation: It only has the nutrients vegans are actually low in. Read my full review of Future Kind’s multivitamin here (with 10% discount).