Cracker Barrel is an American chain with a Southern country-store theme, open since 1969.
Answer: yes, but the list is short and very specific. Cracker Barrel is unusual among large US chains in that its own nutrition and allergen guide tags individual items “Vegan.” According to that guide, the vegan-tagged food items are steamed broccoli, country green beans, whole kernel corn, sweet whole baby carrots, steak fries, fried cinnamon apples, sweet potato casserole, fresh fruit, tomato slices, applesauce, sourdough and multigrain bread, and the Impossible Sausage patty. Several things this guide used to recommend — the side salad, grits, mashed potatoes and pinto beans — are not among them.
Where This Information Comes From
Cracker Barrel publishes an interactive Nutrition & Allergen Guide, linked from crackerbarrel.com/nutrition. Unlike most chains, it goes beyond the nine major allergens: it gives a full ingredient list per item and applies dietary tags, including “Vegan” and “Vegetarian.” Everything below comes from that guide, checked on 28 July 2026. Where the guide does not tag an item vegan, this article says so rather than guessing.
The brand’s own warning matters as much as the tags. Cracker Barrel states: “Our normal kitchen operations involve shared preparation and cooking areas, including common fryer oil; therefore, cross-contact of all our menu items (including allergens and meat) is possible. Fried and Grilled items should NOT be consumed if you have a food allergy.” Steak fries and fried cinnamon apples are tagged vegan by recipe, but they share fryer oil with chicken, shrimp, okra and onion petals.
Vegan-Tagged Sides
These are the sides Cracker Barrel’s own guide tags as vegan, with the allergens it declares for each:
- Steamed Broccoli — declares soy and wheat, from the savory vegetable glace it is finished with.
- Country Green Beans — no declared allergens.
- Whole Kernel Corn — declares soy.
- Sweet Whole Baby Carrots — declares soy.
- Steak Fries — no declared allergens, but see the shared-fryer warning above.
- Fried Cinnamon Apples — no declared allergens; also a fried item.
- Sweet Potato Casserole — declares soy and tree nuts.
- Fresh Fruit — no declared allergens.
- Tomato Slices — no declared allergens.
Applesauce, listed under kids’ sides, is also vegan-tagged with no declared allergens.
Sides That Are Not Vegan
Several country sides that sound plant-based are not. Mashed potatoes declare milk. Hashbrown casserole, mac & cheese, dumplings and seasoned rice all declare milk. Cole slaw declares egg. Cornbread dressing declares egg and milk. Turnip greens carry 20 mg of cholesterol and no vegan tag, and the bowl portion is served with boiled egg. Pinto beans carry 10 mg of cholesterol and are tagged neither vegan nor vegetarian, which is worth asking about before you order them. Breaded fried okra has no vegan tag either.
Grits are tagged vegetarian, not vegan, and declare soy and wheat. That is a change from what this article said previously: the guide does not support calling grits a vegan option.
Baked Potato, Oatmeal and English Muffins
This guide used to recommend a plain baked potato, a plain baked sweet potato, oatmeal made with water, and a plain English muffin. None of those four appears in Cracker Barrel’s current guide. The only baked potato listed is the Loaded Baked Potato, which declares milk and contains butter, sour cream, colby cheese and bacon — it is not a vegan option and never was in that form. There is no oatmeal and no English muffin in the current listing at all.
Salads and Dressings
The House Salad is built with bacon pieces, colby cheese shreds and roasted garlic croutons. It declares milk and wheat and carries 25 mg of cholesterol. It is not a vegan option as served, and the claim in the older version of this article that it was dairy-free with zero cholesterol was simply wrong. You can ask for it without the bacon, cheese and croutons, but Cracker Barrel publishes no data for that modified build, so nobody can confirm what is left. The two chicken salads declare egg and milk on top of the meat.
On dressings, Balsamic Vinaigrette is the only one the guide tags vegan, with no declared allergens. Blue cheese dressing declares egg, milk and soy; buttermilk ranch declares egg and milk; honey mustard declares egg. There is no Italian dressing on the current list, so the “fat-free Italian” recommendation that used to be here has been removed.
Bread and Spreads
Sourdough bread and multigrain bread are both vegan-tagged — sourdough declares wheat, multigrain declares wheat and sesame. Biscuits declare milk. Corn muffins and hushpuppies declare egg and milk. The butter served alongside is real butter and declares milk, so ask for your bread dry. Preserves n’ Jam and Apple Butter are both vegan-tagged with no declared allergens, as is Chow Chow relish.
Impossible Sausage
Cracker Barrel carries an Impossible Sausage patty, which the guide tags Vegan and Vegetarian as an egg-sandwich add-on, declaring soy. Two caveats the guide makes plain: the standalone Breakfast Meats entry for the same patty carries no dietary tag, and the Impossible Sausage Biscuit is tagged vegetarian only, because the biscuit itself declares milk. It is also a grilled item, which falls under the cross-contact warning above.
Sauces and Syrups
Vegan-tagged sauces are BBQ Sauce, Cocktail Sauce and Cranberry Relish, none of which declares an allergen. Comeback sauce and tartar sauce declare egg. Buttermilk ranch declares egg and milk. Sawmill, brown and turkey gravies all declare milk.
Among syrups, Strawberry Syrup and Sugar Free Maple Syrup are vegan-tagged. The “100% Pure Natural Syrup” carries no dietary tag at all, so it cannot be confirmed here. Butter Pecan Syrup declares milk. Blueberry syrup, which this article used to list, is not on the current menu.
Vegan Beverages
The guide tags a long list of drinks vegan: regular and decaf coffee, hot tea, unsweet tea, sweet tea, peach tea, Southern Half & Half, lemonade, apple juice, orange juice, Coca-Cola Classic, Coca-Cola Cherry, Coca-Cola Zero, Diet Coke, Sprite, Mello Yello, Dr. Pepper, Seagram’s Ginger Ale and bottled Stewart’s root beer. Every latte and mocha declares milk, as does hot chocolate. Grapefruit juice, tomato juice, apple cider and Blue Sky soda are no longer listed and have been removed from this guide.
Are Cracker Barrel Hash Browns Vegan?
No. Hashbrown Casserole declares milk, soy and wheat, and Cracker Barrel tags it vegetarian rather than vegan. The Loaded version adds colby cheese and bacon, and Hashbrown Casserole Tots also declare milk. If you want a potato side that the brand actually tags vegan, steak fries are the one — with the shared-fryer caveat attached.
Summing Up
Cracker Barrel deserves credit here. Very few chains publish per-item ingredient lists and a vegan tag, and because it does, you can build a plate without guessing: green beans, corn, carrots, broccoli, fried apples, sweet potato casserole and a slice of sourdough are all covered by the brand’s own tagging. What the guide will not do is vouch for anything you modify at the table, or for anything that comes out of a shared fryer or off a shared grill. Those are the two questions worth putting to a manager before you order. If you want more vegan options at sit-down chains, other guides on this site cover the same ground with the same sourcing rules.
