Everything Vegan at Panda Express (Late-2020)

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Panda Express used to be extremely bad for vegans with only their rice being vegan, but now they have a few vegan options including multiple entrees and delicious sides, and of course rice.

This is largely thanks to PETA, while many vegans aren’t a fan of them they do good sometimes, and in this case they definitely did good — thanks to a petition they started and shared everywhere they pressured Panda Express into a complete menu revamp that included adding tons of vegan options and removing unnecessary ingredients like chicken stock or butter to their vegetable dishes. 

Now Panda Express doesn’t do such nonsense so their vegetable dishes are largely vegan-friendly. Unfortunately Panda Express stopped having multiple vegan-friendly vegetable entrees at all locations now; so some locations won’t have things like Eggplant Tofu. If you aren’t sure it’s safer to go to Pei Wei, which always seems to have vegan-friendly options.

Vegan Appetizers at Panda Express:

  • Vegetable Spring Roll (Not all locations)

That’s the only Vegan “Appetizer” Panda Express offers — personally I see spring rolls more as a side-dish than an appetizer, but hey, they call it an appetizer so I suppose it’s an appetizer at Panda Express.

Vegan Entrees at Panda Express:

  • Eggplant Tofu (Not all locations)
  • Vegetable Chow-Mein (Not all locations)
  • Super-Greens

Generally at Panda Express you’ll pick one of the above as a “double-portion” and 2 sides to go with it, so keep this in mind — you can also order super greens or chowmein as a side-dish rather than an entree, it’ll just be a smaller portion if you select it as your side-dish to, say, the eggplant tofu.

Vegan Side Options at Panda Express:

  • Brown Rice (steamed)
  • White Rice (steamed)
  • Vegetable Chow-Mein (not all locations)
  • Super-Greens (broccoli/kale mix)
You can’t order spring rolls as a side-dish at Panda Express, or at least they’re not supposed to allow it — although it doesn’t hurt to ask if you want them and don’t want to order them as an appetizer. Don’t shy away from the super-greens here, they’re not so bad and when you get it with a vegan-friendly sauce (mentioned below) they actually become quite tasty while remaining relatively healthy.

Vegan Sauces/Dips at Panda Express:

  • Teriyaki Sauce
  • Sweet & Sour Sauce
  • Chili Sauce
  • Plum Sauce
  • Potsticker (dumpling) Sauce
  • Hot Mustard
  • Soy Sauce
All of the above sauces are vegan-friendly at panda express — personally we’d recommend the plum sauce if you just want a mild flavor enhancer, say to cover up some kale flavor in the super-greens, the Chili sauce if you want to spice up your rice or chow mein, and the others if you just really love Teriyaki or Sweet & Sour Sauce.

Vegan Dessert Options at Panda Express:

  • Fortune Cookie
  • Sweet Tea’s/Drinks

While many Chinese Buffet’s have ones that are made with egg, the Fortune cookies at Panda Express are 100% Vegan-friendly, and completely free.

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