Café Zupas is a soup, salad and sandwich chain founded in Provo, Utah in 2004 by Rob Seely and Dustin Schulthies. Its menu turns over often, and it has turned over a lot since this guide was first written.
Vegan Options at Zupas
Answer: one soup, and not much else. Café Zupas publishes an ingredient list, an allergen list and a set of dietary tags for every item on its menu — Keto, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Dairy-Free Option, Low Calories, High Protein. There is no vegan tag, and the chain does not claim any item is vegan. The only item that carries no declared allergens, no cholesterol and no animal ingredient in its own description is the Chickpea & Vegetable soup. Several dishes this guide used to recommend have been removed from the menu, and the two berry salads it recommended both declare milk.
What Zupas Publishes
Zupas is at the transparent end of the scale. Its online menu lists the full ingredient line-up for each dish, plus a “dietary info” allergen string and dietary icons. Everything below comes from that menu data, checked on 28 July 2026.
The gap is that the tag set stops at Vegetarian and “Dairy-Free Option.” Neither means vegan. An allergen list also only covers allergens — it says nothing about honey, gelatin or stock, and Zupas uses honey in several items where it never appears in an allergen field.
Chickpea & Vegetable Soup
This is the one. Zupas describes it as broccolini, Roma tomatoes, chickpeas, onions, celery and leeks in a roasted vegetable broth. It carries no declared allergens at all, 0 mg cholesterol, and the tags Vegetarian, Keto, Low Calories, Dairy-Free Option and Gluten Free. A half is 60 calories and a full is 130 — an earlier version of this article said 120, which is out of date.
Two honest caveats. Zupas does not label it vegan, and the broth is described as a roasted vegetable broth without a published recipe. If it matters to you, that is the question to ask. Do not add the French baguette that normally comes alongside — see below.
The Berry Salads Are Not Vegan
Both are still on the menu and both are tagged Vegetarian, but neither can be made vegan by dropping the almonds.
Nuts About Berries is mixed greens, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and cinnamon almonds with poppyseed dressing. Its allergen line reads milk and almond. The milk is in the dressing, not the almonds.
Mangoberry is mixed greens, blueberries, strawberries, mangoes and cinnamon almonds — and the dressing is now a mango yogurt dressing, not a vinaigrette. Its allergen line also reads milk and almond. Asked without almonds and without the dressing you are left with fruit and leaves, and Zupas publishes nothing about what an undressed build contains.
Items That No Longer Exist
The Harvest Quinoa Bowl and the Asian Steak & Quinoa Bowl, both of which this guide walked through in detail, are not on the current menu. Neither are the fruit and veggie cups, the kids’ tomato basil pasta, or the tofu that the old build-your-own topping list referenced. The salad line-up is now Avocado Caesar, Strawberry Harvest, Chipotle Glazed, California Cobb, Nuts About Berries, BBQ Chicken and Mangoberry — five of the seven built around chicken.
The Vegetarian Sandwich Is Now the Veggie Crunch
The sandwich this guide described — coconut-grilled tofu, microgreens, roasted red peppers — is gone. The current vegetarian sandwich is the Veggie Crunch: roasted sweet potatoes, sliced avocado, baby cucumber, mixed greens, Roma tomato, goat cheese, roasted red pepper hummus and pesto spread. Its allergen line reads wheat, milk, soy, eggs, sesame and almond. Removing the goat cheese and the pesto still leaves egg somewhere in the build, and Zupas publishes no allergen data for a modified sandwich. It is not a vegan option as served.
The Free Bread Declares Milk
This is the correction most likely to catch someone out. The complimentary French Baguette Bread at Zupas has an allergen line of wheat and milk. It is not a vegan option and never was, and the previous version of this article recommended it. If you are ordering the chickpea soup, decline the bread.
Chips
The chip situation has changed too, and the old blanket warning about Miss Vickie’s was too broad. On the current menu:
- Miss Vickie’s Smokehouse BBQ — no declared allergens.
- Baked Lays — declares soy.
- Miss Vickie’s Sea Salt & Vinegar — declares milk. This is the one to skip.
Lay’s Classic Potato Chips are no longer listed at Zupas.
Drinks
The whole drinks menu has been rebuilt around house-made sodas, and the four signature ones — The OG, Dr. Red, Saint Sipper and the Root Beer Float — all declare milk, because they are finished with a house-made vanilla bean creamer. Skip all four.
The mocktails are a honey problem rather than an allergen problem. The Raspberry Mojito and the Strawberry Daiquiri both list honey in their own descriptions. The Piña Colada — pineapple, coconut, house-pressed orange juice and filtered water — does not.
Items with no declared allergens: fresh-squeezed orange juice, Health-Ade kombucha, OLIPOP Strawberry Vanilla, OLIPOP Root Beer, Spindrift Raspberry Lime, Smartwater, Vitamin Water XXX, Gold Peak Sweet Tea and the fountain drinks.
Foods to Avoid
Every soup other than the chickpea one is out. Tomato Basil, Wisconsin Cauliflower, Mushroom Bisque and “The Chris” all declare milk. Southwest Potato & Green Chili declares wheat and milk and contains bacon. Chicken Noodle, Chicken Enchilada Chili and Lobster Bisque are self-explanatory. On the dessert side, every single item declares milk, including the chocolate-dipped strawberries, which are dipped in milk chocolate.
Wrapping Up
Zupas gives you the information you need and then gives you almost nothing to order. One soup, a bag of BBQ chips, and a build-your-own bowl assembled ingredient by ingredient with the staff is the realistic ceiling. That is a thinner answer than this guide used to give, but it is the one the chain’s own menu data supports. For a comparison, the Cracker Barrel guide covers a chain that does tag individual items vegan.
