What Are the Vegan Options at Subway? (Updated Guide)

  • By: Daniel B.
  • Date: December 3, 2022
  • Time to read: 6 min.

Subway is a well-known fast-food restaurant that has been around for a while. Originally from the US, it now has a total of 41,600 branches worldwide. Although the fast-food chain offers a lot of variety in fast-food cuisine, it doesn’t specialize in providing vegan options. 

While ordering vegan at Subway, you might notice the cashier being slightly taken aback, but that’s not something to worry about. That’s the default reaction you’ll get at almost every fast-food chain while ordering plant-based food, and in no time, you’ll get used to it.

Vegan Options at Subway

All that aside, eating vegan at Subway is not a challenge. You need to know what to order, and you’ll easily get your desired plant-based meal. There are many vegan options for people who prefer a plant-based diet. These options include T.L.C., a variety of salads, wraps, and vegan footlong subs. 

In addition to all the vegan options, the non-vegan options can also be tweaked. All of this depends upon the knowledge of various ingredients on the menu and how to make it work according to your diet. This updated guide will help you and make your vegan life easier.   

General Steps to Get Your Vegan Subway

Once you have entered the Subway joint in your area, you plan on walking out of the store with your desired vegan meal. The following basic steps will help you in getting precisely what you want. 

The Type of Sub

The first basic rule to follow when looking for a vegan option at Subway is figuring out what kind of wrap or sandwich bread you want. This would narrow down your choices as not everything available is vegan-friendly. 

If you go for a salad, this problem will be instantly solved. But not everyone wants a salad as it is not the most satisfying option.

Pick Your Ingredients

After figuring out the specific kind of Subway wrap you want, the next step is to pick out the best vegan ingredients. Subway offers a range of ingredients for people to fill their sandwiches with, both vegan-friendly and non-vegan-friendly. 

You’re looking for a vegan meal, so you must avoid all non-vegan ingredients available at the dressing counter. Skip the cheese and go for other non-vegan sauces available. You wouldn’t believe the number of vegan sauces Subway offers, so don’t fret. 

You can fill your sandwich with other plant-based ingredients with various vegetables, vegan patties, mushrooms, vegan-friendly dressings, etc. 

Pick the Right Appetizer

The last step in your vegan Subway scavenger hunt is to pick the right appetizer. It’s natural for people to reach for a dessert after getting their desired vegan meal. But choosing an appetizer would not be an easy thing to do.

It’s essential not to let your sweet tooth take over and get any dessert available on the menu. Evaluate your options and possibly tweak the non-vegan dessert options to make your appetizer 100% vegan-friendly.  

Vegan Options Available at Subway

A few Subway branches offer ready-made vegan meals. So, before making your way to the store’s counter, ensure you’ve stumbled on one of those locations offering these vegan options. If you’re lucky enough, you will find yourself at one of these locations, and you won’t have to worry about going through the hassle of figuring out vegan options. 

There are quite a few plant-based options on Subway’s menu. Some of them are as follows:

Vegan Sandwiches

In the last few years, Subway has become a lot more vegan-friendly. A few years back, nobody could even imagine a Subway sandwich without using meat and cheese. The food joint has become a lot more considerate of vegetarians and vegans and has offered a few vegan options

Although Subway has introduced ready-made vegan options, they are still pretty limited. These plant-based options are available in a few big cities in the United States and the United Kingdom. These locations offer exclusive vegan sandwiches on the menu, which are entirely plant-based and are introduced to satisfy their vegan customers. 

Vegan Meatball Marinara 

A vegan sandwich made out of meatballs, can you believe that? This sandwich offered by Subway is one of a kind. It was first introduced in 2019 across several United States and Canada locations. Then in January 2020, it became an option that was permanent on the menu across the United Kingdom for Veganuary. 

The ‘Beyond Meat Meatball Sub’ is made out of white Italian bread featuring plant-based cheese slices and vegan meatballs. For dressing and seasoning, tomato sauce rich in flavor and plant-based garlic mayo is added. 

This sandwich is hands-down the best plant-based sandwich one can get their hands on at a well-known fast-food joint. You can get your desired vegan diet while simultaneously experiencing the heavenly taste of meatballs and cheese. 

Vegan Patty

This sandwich is considered an O.G. plant-based option at Subway. It was first introduced in 2012 at different locations across North America and gained instant popularity amongst the vegan community. It is available at several locations across the United States and Canada.

The sandwich contains an entirely vegan patty. This patty is packed with oats, rice, and grains. Many crunchy veggies are added to the sandwich, along with a spicy sauce. 

Unfortunately, this sandwich is hard to find at most Subways as other vegan substitutes have taken over. 

The Veggie Delight 

As apparent by the name, this sub is rich in vegetables. It is loaded with a hefty amount of fresh veggies and a dressing of the customer’s choice. Apart from vegetables and dressing, no patty or anything else is added to the sandwich. 

We know what you’re thinking; it doesn’t sound that appetizing. But this is a better and more fulfilling option than having only a salad. You need to know how to work the dressing in your favor, and with time, you’ll learn how to pick the best sauce for your preferred Veggie Delite.

Tastes Like Chicken (T.L.C)

Just recently, Subway announced a vegan chicken sandwich across its U.K. branches. The sub will include a chicken patty made purely out of plant-based ingredients. This vegan chicken goes by the name of ‘Tastes Like Chicken (T.L.C)’ and indeed tastes like chicken. 

One can order T.L.C. as a salad or a sub. The brand is rich in the original flavor and is made with a specifically designed recipe to mimic chicken strips.  

The Subway Falafel 

Subway offers a falafel that is purely plant-based. There’s no need to tweak the ingredients or the recipe to make it vegan-friendly, as this falafel is specially designed to satisfy vegans. 

Unfortunately, this falafel is offered at a few Subway locations and can’t be found on every branch’s menu. 

Vegan Bread

Fortunately, Subway offers a variety of vegan bread options. These bread are made purely from plant-based ingredients and include no animal byproducts. The vegan bread options include:

  • Wheat bread
  • Wheat Wrap
  • White Italian bread
  • Garlic Bread (roasted)
  • Tomato basil wrap
  • Italian bread
  • Habanero wrap

However, vegans should stay away from English muffins and croissants. 

Design Your Own Subway Vegan Sandwich 

If you’re at one of those Subway locations that do not offer ready-made vegan options, you will have to design your own sandwich. Just follow these basic steps: 

Select Your Bread

The very first step to designing your own vegan sandwich is to pick out bread. This is the easiest step, as Subway offers a variety of plant-based bread at all its branches. 

Pick Out the Fillings

This step is relatively easy, as Subway offers many veggies as fillings at their sandwich station. These fillings include tomatoes, shredded lettuce, olives, avocado, cucumbers, pickles, spinach, jalapenos, and guacamole. 

Add Your Sauce

The last step to designing your vegan sandwich is to add a vegan sauce of your preference. The vegan sauces available are yellow mustard, vinegar, sweet sauce, mustard seed spread, etc. 

Wrap Up

Subway is definitely one of the very few fast-food joints which are offering this many vegan options. With time, they have become more considerate and accommodating to their vegan customers who had to go through the hassle of tweaking ingredients to get a vegan meal. The availability of ready-made vegan options has made the lives of vegans much easier. 

With the rise in innovation, Subway would most likely come up with new ideas in the future and would try to cater to vegans around the world by providing these vegan-friendly options at all their locations.