LongHorn Vegan Options – Several Sides to Choose From
What’s in a name, they say. But, to vegans, the names can often tell a lot about foods and restaurants. You know a beef burger or chicken sandwich is not vegan unless it has ‘vegan’ or ‘plant-based’ mentioned in its name.
Similarly, you wouldn’t expect to find a great many vegan-friendly options at a steakhouse.
You shouldn’t expect to find much on the LongHorn Steakhouse menu by this rule. But, as they say, there are exceptions to every rule, so let’s look at the restaurant’s menu to determine what LongHorn vegan options are actually available.
What are the Vegan Options at LongHorn Steakhouse?
Before you get your hopes up high, let’s get it clear that LongHorn Steakhouse doesn’t offer any vegan steak, burger, or sandwich. Wondering, what’s there for plant-eaters on the menu, then? Here are all the vegan options at LongHorn Steakhouse:
- Mixed Greens Side Salad – requires customization
- Farm Fresh Field Greens – requires customization
- Grilled Chicken & Strawberry Salad – requires customization
- Idaho Baked Potato – Plain
- Sweet Potato
- Mashed Potatoes – requires customization
- Seasoned French Fries
- Freshly Baked Bread
- Seasoned Rice Pilaf
- Crispy Brussels Sprouts – requires customization
- Fresh Steamed Asparagus – requires confirmation
- Crispy Texas Okra – requires customization
- Fresh Fruit
- Vegan Dressings
- Beverages
As you can see, LongHorn Steakhouse’s vegan options just include a bunch of sides.
If you can put together a vegan meal with sides (most vegans get pro at it with time) or just looking for a light lunch or a quick snack, LongHorn Steakhouse may not disappoint you much.
But, don’t go there expecting to enjoy a proper meal.
Now that we know what plant-based options are available at LongHorn Steakhouse let’s discuss what customizations they require to be fit for a vegan diet.
LongHorn Vegan Options – A Detailed Breakdown
Here’s how to order vegan food at LongHorn Steakhouse:
Mixed Greens Salad
Let’s start our evaluation of the LongHorn vegan menu with healthier options. First off, we have a green salad.
The LongHorn menu doesn’t state what ingredients are used in this salad. But, as per the information available online, it seems to be the basic green side salad that you can find at a majority of restaurants, with one name or the other.
Not an exciting option, but definitely a healthy choice; you would be getting your daily dose of greens.
Make sure to order it without cheese and croutons to make it vegan-friendly.
Farm Fresh Field Greens
This is another salad option on the LongHorn menu. It comes standard with crispy chicken tenders, croutons, and cheese, so make sure you ask them to hold these ingredients when eating vegan at LongHorn Steakhouse.
These alternations, however, will leave you with a pretty basic salad, though. You will get a mix of field greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Boring, I know, but you gotta know your options.
Grilled Chicken & Strawberry Salad
Next up, we have an interesting salad option, something that you would actually want to try. As the name says, it doesn’t come standard as vegan-friendly but can be made so.
Skip the chicken and feta. According to some online sources, candied pecans may also contain honey. Ask your server to confirm. If they do, and you avoid honey (most vegans do), you would have to skip pecans too.
After these customizations, you will be left with a mix of strawberries, mandarin oranges, and grapes with raspberry vinaigrette.
As you can see, this is essentially a type of fruit salad. If you enjoy fruit salads, order this for yourself. You may even have it to satisfy your sweet craving after a vegan meal at LongHorn Steakhouse.
Plain Idaho Baked Potato
The Idaho Baked Potato at LongHorn Steakhouse comes standard with bacon, butter, sour cream, cheddar, and green onion toppings.
But, as you can tell yourself, you can’t have any of these toppings except the green onions. Better yet, get yourself a plain Idaho Baked Potato and order a sauce separately for some flavor.
I am not sure if it’s the case at LongHorn Steakhouse, but many restaurants rub potatoes with butter, or some other type of animal fat, before baking.
To be on the safe side, make sure to inform your server about your dietary needs and tell them that you don’t want butter in your baked potato.
Sweet Potato
Do you love baked potatoes, but try to eat healthy? Get yourself baked sweet potato at LongHorn Steakhouse.
It comes in two varieties – plain and with cinnamon sugar & butter. While the plain baked sweet potato makes the ideal option for those looking to eat healthily, get the cinnamon sugar topping if the plain sweet potato is a little too boring for you (a little topping doesn’t hurt anybody)
In case you’re wondering about butter, let me tell you that you can choose to get just the cinnamon sugar topping without butter.
Like with baked potato, you would want to emphasize having your sweet potato made without animal fat to be on the safe side.
Mashed Potatoes
If we go by the LongHorn Steakhouse’s allergen menu, their mashed potatoes are not suitable for vegans, as they have dairy. However, according to some online sources, you can order it without butter too.
Confirm it with your server, and if they tell you that the mashed potatoes can be made vegan, go ahead and get yourself some.
Seasoned French Fries
Like many other restaurants, they don’t cook French fries in animal fat at LongHorn Steakhouse. Their allergen menu clearly states that the fries are cooked in soybean oil.
However, they also come with the risk warning for cross-contamination. They likely use the same fryers for French fries that are used for other non-vegan menu items.
Some vegans may not mind having food cooked in shared equipment (because it’s such a common practice and hard to avoid when dining out), while others prefer to avoid such food items.
Whether you would like to have French fries at LongHorn depends on your vegan commitment.
Freshly Baked Bread
When there’s freshly baked bread on the menu, it’s hard not to order it. At LongHorn, they not only offer Freshly Baked Bread, but they also make it without eggs and dairy.
Knowing this, how could you possibly resist the urge to get yourself some warm, soft, moist bread? Not possible for me, at least.
While LongHorn’s allergen menu clearly tells that the fresh bread doesn’t contain any animal-derived ingredient, it also lists butter right underneath it. This could possibly mean that they toast the bread with butter before serving.
When ordering vegan at LongHorn Steakhouse, make sure to ask for fresh bread without butter.
Seasoned Rice Pilaf
Longhorn’s allergen menu doesn’t indicate the presence of eggs, dairy, or any other animal ingredient in Seasoned Rice Pilaf. Hence, most online sources classify it as vegan-friendly.
However, I came across one article that said that LongHorn’s rice pilaf is cooked in chicken broth. While I doubt the authenticity of this information, I would recommend confirming with your server before ordering, just to be a little extra cautious.
Fresh Steamed Asparagus
These are vegan-friendly at most LongHorn locations. However, it may contain butter at some LongHorn restaurants (I don’t say it, the restaurant’s allergen menu does).
Make sure to confirm it with your server before ordering, and if they turn out to be using butter in their steamed asparagus, request them to hold it for you.
Fresh Steamed Broccoli
It’s the same deal with steamed broccoli as with steamed asparagus. It may be combined with butter at some LongHorn locations, so do remember to confirm and request omitting the butter if they do use it.
More Veggie Sides at LongHorn Steakhouse
Not a fan of steamed veggies? Me neither! They must be healthy, but I don’t want to be eating those sad-looking, soggy vegetables at restaurants. Fortunately, LongHorn Steakhouse has some better options too. These include:
- Crispy Brussel Sprouts
- Crispy Texas Okra
- Grilled Mushrooms
Important: All these veggies are prepared standard with butter. However, most online sources tell that you could order them without butter too. Your best option is to ask your server if it’s possible.
If they can accommodate your request, great. If not, you would have to rely on steamed veggies or perhaps skip on vegetable sides altogether.
Some Off-Menu Vegan Items at LongHorn Steakhouse
LongHorn doesn’t have a secret menu, but there are a couple of items that are not listed on the menu, but people tell they have got at the restaurant. These include:
- Fresh Fruits – including oranges, grapes, and watermelon.
- Chips – may not be available at all locations.
What Vegan Dressings are available at LongHorn Steakhouse?
I could only find one salad dressing on LongHorn’s allergen guide, and that is the White Balsamic Vinaigrette. While its’ typically vegan-friendly, it doesn’t seem to be the case at Longhorn Steakhouse.
As per the restaurant’s allergen menu, it contains dairy.
Honestly, it is surprising to me, so I would recommend confirming with your server when ordering.
Another important thing worth mentioning here is that the Grilled Chicken and Strawberry Salad lists raspberry vinaigrette as one of its components. But, it’s not even listed on the allergen menu. So, you’ll have to confirm its vegan status with your server too.
LongHorn Steakhouse Vegan Beverages
LongHorn may not have great vegan food choices, but it definitely offers many vegan-friendly beverages, including alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties.
Here are all your options for vegan drinks at LongHorn Steakhouse:
- Coke
- Diet Coke
- Dr. Pepper
- Sprite
- Pibb Xtra
- Minute Maid Lemonade
- Raspberry Lemonade
- Strawberry Lemonade
- Apple Juice
- Orange Juice
- Cranberry Juice
- Sweet Tea
- Unsweetened Tea
- Peach Iced Tea
- Raspberry Iced Tea
- Tito’s Texas Tea
- Coffee
- Strawberry Margarita
- Mango Margarita
- Texas Margarita
- Don Julio Margarita
- Blazing Berry Sangria
- White Peach Sangria
- LongHorn Old Fashioned Cocktail
- Moscow Mule – made with Deep Eddy Vodka
- Montana Mule – made with Jim Beam Bourbon
- Beer – Options include House Golden Ale, Blue Moon, Shiner Bock, Bud Light, and Sam Adams Seasonal
- A variety of red and white wines
- Sparkling Water
- Plain Bottled Water
LongHorn Steakhouse Menu Items That May Look Vegan, But Are Not
Although in the beginning, I said that names tell about various items, and it is quite often the case, names can sometimes be misleading too.
When dining out, this can lead to mistakenly ordering something that appears vegan-friendly from the name, but contains non-vegan ingredients.
I have found a few such items on the LongHorn Steakhouse’s menu too. I am listing them down below, so you know that you have to steer clear of them when eating vegan at LongHorn Steakhouse.
- Loaded Potato Soup – Contains dairy
- French Onion Soup – Contains dairy
- Sweet Chili-Ginger Sauce – As per the restaurant’s allergen menu, it contains egg
- Tonion Sauce – Contains egg
- White Balsamic Vinaigrette – Contains dairy
LongHorn Steakhouse Vegan Options FAQs
● Is LongHorn’s bread dairy-free?
LongHorn’s Freshly Baked Bread is dairy-free, but flatbread is not.
● Does LongHorn have Beyond Meat?
No, LongHorn doesn’t use Beyond Meat or any other plant-based meat.
● Does LongHorn have a veggie burger?
Sadly, no. LongHorn doesn’t offer any veggie burger.
But, you can always make one at home. Check out the following video for a great vegan burger recipe…
Conclusion – Is LongHorn Steakhouse Vegan-Friendly?
LongHorn Steakhouse can definitely not be termed as a vegan-friendly restaurant. But, you wouldn’t go hungry here either. There are some plant-based side options that can be made vegan upon request.
You can pair them up with a drink to put together a light vegan meal for yourself. Having said that, it is certainly not a place a vegan would willingly want to go to.
Did you find this article helpful? Interested to learn about vegan options available at other popular steakhouses in the country?
Check out my article Outback Steakhouse Vegan Options to determine if this casual dining restaurant has anything for plant-eaters.
