Gluten-Free Vegan Fast Food (I Eat on Occasion)
On occasion, I eat gluten-free vegan fast food. I don’t like to admit it, but it’s a reality, especially if traveling through a food desert. I want to confess how I handle it, in case it helps another.
If I’m out and about and I’ve run out of my packed healthy food, or if I forgot my food entirely, or if I’m overwhelmed—and I can’t find a better option—I sometimes eat GF vegan fast food.
Ideally, I would avoid fast food entirely by pulling into a natural food store to grab food from their deli. Yet there are times when that seems impossible. Life and food deserts happen.
So, in an emergency, I remind myself that I can find GF vegan fast food.
But, again, fast food is never my ideal solution. I feel guilty before, during, and after consuming it, especially since it is so easy to enjoy every juicy morsel.
Then there’s the packaging. How quickly can I hide it? I feel like a horrible role model.
So I am not perfect. Yet, this is only brief and temporary. I’m not promoting this act. It’s emergency food, pure and simple, no matter how addicting.
What helps keep these situations brief is that, while eating fast food, I envision what it’s doing to my body—clogging arteries, preventing oxygen from reaching my brain, heart, and more.
That visualization makes me crave leafy green smoothies asap, which I consider a good thing—instant motivation to stop me from indulging too much.
And I should clarify how I define GF vegan fast food…
if I’m at a standard American fast food restaurant, it’s fast food
if I’m at the rare vegan fast food restaurant, it’s fast food
the ingredients are more processed and fried … the food is greasier
At a fast food restaurant, a GF vegan burger with cheese is more likely made from processed ingredients like soy protein, pea protein, rice protein, oil, potato starch, “flavorings,” etc.
Whereas, a healthier (not fast food) eatery is more likely to serve a GF vegan burger made from whole foods, such as veggies, beans, and lentils. Little carrots and legumes are seen and tasted.
And I must remind myself to verify the fast food ingredients (online) before ordering. Fast-food meals might appear safe for a gluten-free vegan today, but not the next time I stop by.
One day, there might be a dedicated gluten-free fryer. The next day, not.
One day their hashbrowns and fries might be GF and vegan. The next day, their hashbrowns and fries contain wheat and beef (a recent discovery!).
I’m far enough into this journey that these discoveries gross me out and also help make it easier for me to avoid fast food. But at other times, I’m starving and must eat.
Potatoes
If a fast food restaurant serves baked potatoes, I consider that my healthiest choice. My taste buds have changed so much that a plain baked potato almost always tastes buttery to me.
If that’s not the case (if it’s the rare dry or tasteless baked potato), I like to put guacamole on it. Some might love salsa or hummus. Or there’s GF vegan butter and sour cream (if I’m being bad).
Mashed potatoes always seem like my next best choice. However, it’s so rare to find GF vegan mashed potatoes that I often forget it’s an option.
I love hash browns but I first use folded napkins to absorb all the oil I can. Once, twice, and a third time. I eat fast food hash browns only after I’ve pressed away the oil.
If breakfast is no longer on the menu, I look for tater tots or french fries. I can even request less salt now. I have an old addiction to these, though, so I try to put strict limits on myself.
If there’s nothing else for me to eat (say, at a train station in the middle of nowhere, and there’s only a vending machine) I can almost always find gluten-free vegan potato chips for sale.
But potato chips are seriously my last resort. I have to be starving, without any other gluten-free vegan food in sight, or it has to be a holiday. I try to buy the small bags and keep it at that.
And if I ever have the option to choose sweet potatoes or yams over white potatoes, that is my preference. They are so much healthier for me and I love them so.
Veggie Burgers
I love gluten-free vegan veggie burgers. They are usually so delicious nowadays that it’s hard to resist them.
However, most GF buns are not vegan (they usually contain eggs). And most GF buns seem to crumble and dissolve, or they don’t always taste great.
That said, there are a few tasty GF vegan buns out there. But, tasty or terrible, I’m usually charged an extra $2-$3 for gluten-free buns.
If I’m starving, I’ll take whatever gluten-free bun is available, as I’m in a moment where I need the emergency calories.
To avoid the extra expense and imperfection of a GF bun, it’s usually easier (and healthier) for me to order a burger wrapped in lettuce. I love it when my burger is wrapped in a lot of lettuce.
Again, fast food restaurants are more likely to serve GF veggie burgers made from processed ingredients like soy protein, pea protein, rice protein, oil, potato starch, natural “flavorings,” etc.
Simply acknowledging those ingredients makes me wish for healthier food in that moment. It makes it harder for me to enjoy that burger, which I think is helpful (to want better).
But, if I’m lucky, I find a gluten-free veggie burger made from whole foods, such as whole veggies, beans, or lentils. I love tasting the healthy bits of those whole plant ingredients.
Veggie Tacos
I should have listed veggie tacos first on this page because tacos are likely the easiest gluten-free vegan fast food I find, and they are so filling. Plus, I think they are a healthier fast food.
But my fast food impulse always looks for potatoes first … then veggie burgers … then tacos. Goodness. I can’t help it. I’m working on this.
Here’s what my favorite fast food taco order looks like…
crunchy taco shell
refried beans
lettuce
guacamole
pico de gallo
I order four of these at a time, eat two immediately, and then try to eat the others after a brief pause. They literally fill me up for what feels like an entire day.
Veggie Bowls
When I find a tasty gluten-free vegan fast food bowl, it’s usually the ingredients of a wrap, minus the wheat wrap and animal products. Essentially it’s a hearty salad in a bowl…
lettuce
beans
rice
veggies
onions
salsa
cilantro
guacamole
The funny thing about ordering bowls is that it truly makes me wish I had my own fresh homemade organic ingredients with me at that moment—because bowls are so easy to make.
And that’s what always arises when eating fast food—the motivation for me to try and avoid fast food in the first place (whenever possible).