White Castle just added a veggie slider to its menu and are saying it’s “permanent”, but if you’ve been vegan for a while, you know that the word “permanent” can be used loosely. Let’s dig into exactly what this new slider is, whether vegans can eat it, and why this announcement deserves a little healthy skepticism.
Meet White Castle’s Southwest Veggie Slider
White Castle’s new Southwest Veggie Slider features a Dr. Praeger’s veggie patty made from a blend of sweet potatoes, black beans, corn, red bell peppers, onions, and carrots with a crispy brown rice crust, seasoned with smoky chipotle and sweet BBQ flavors. It arrives on their permanent menu nationwide on June 15, starting at $2.49.
White Castle, founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas, is widely considered the first fast‑food hamburger chain even predating McDonald’s by nearly twenty years and pioneering the modern slider. Now the brand that invented the original tiny burger is expanding its lineup again with this new Southwest Veggie Slider.
They conducted market research from their “Cravers” (the chain’s affectionate name for regulars, complete with a Craver Nation Rewards loyalty program and even a Cravers Hall of Fame) as to what they wanted to see in a non-meat option and settled on this flavor. It follows a trend of people choosing more whole food options as meat substitutes leaving more realistic meat options behind in recent years as that category continues to shrink.
It’s worth noting this isn’t a brand new relationship. White Castle carried a Dr. Praeger’s veggie slider back in 2015, then in 2018 pivoted to Impossible Burgers, which became genuinely beloved and even got named one of America’s best fast food burgers by Eater. That partnership ran for about seven years before White Castle quietly ended it and circled back to Dr. Praeger’s with this new Southwest version. They have even sold a frozen Dr. Praegers slider option in grocery stores although I haven’t seen it recently on shelves.
So when White Castle says this new slider is “permanent,” understand that they’ve been here before, twice, so their track record is mixed.
Is this new slider vegan?
As served, no. The slider comes default with a slice of jalapeño cheese (dairy). Ask for it without cheese and both the patty and the bun are vegan-friendly.
The bun ingredients are enriched bleached wheat flour, water, sugar, soybean oil, yeast, salt, vital wheat gluten, mono- and diglycerides, corn starch, calcium stearoyl lactylate, oat fiber, guar gum, and a handful of other plant-based stabilizers. No dairy, no eggs. Mono and diglycerides can be animal derived but it’s becoming more uncommon and in the last eight years, I’ve not had one brand tell me theirs were.
One note for concerned vegans: how the patties are prepared may vary by location. It’s worth asking at your local White Castle whether the veggie patties are cooked separately from meat items, since that could affect your comfort level with ordering. I personally don’t tend to make a big deal out of this as for me, it makes it difficult and could make restaurants less inclined to offer vegan friendly options in the future.
The Fast Food Vegan Saga and The Revolving Door Options
White Castle’s on-again, off-again veggie history is actually pretty typical of the fast food industry at large. The past decade has been a graveyard of exciting plant-based launches that generated buzz, then disappeared. Here’s a quick rundown.
KFC Beyond Fried Chicken: Sold out in five hours at its first Atlanta test location in 2019. That momentum never translated into a permanent national rollout and it’s been off US menus ever since.
Panda Express Beyond the Original Orange Chicken: Launched to serious fanfare in 2021 and went nationwide to 2,300 locations in 2022 before being discontinued. A Change.org petition to bring it back showed just how passionate the fanbase was, but how little that ultimately mattered it seems.
Chipotle Plant-Based Chorizo: One of the more genuinely exciting plant-based launches at a major chain, bold and smoky and actually worth ordering. It has since been removed from Chipotle’s protein options.
Taco Bell Vegan Nacho Sauce: Tested in 2023 with seasoned Nacho Fries and a Vegan Crunchwrap, made from chickpeas and soy instead of dairy. Customers loved it, but it has not returned.
Del Taco Beyond Meat: Del Taco was the first quick-service Mexican chain to offer Beyond Meat back in 2019. It was removed in 2023 due to low demand.
Dunkin’ Beyond Sausage: Launched in 2019 and gone by 2021.
The pattern is remarkably consistent. Launch with buzz, expand cautiously or boldly, then pull when sales likely don’t hit their projected internal thresholds. Vegans and vegetarians are an enthusiastic audience, but enthusiasm doesn’t always translate to the sales volumes these chains need to justify permanent menu real estate. We still have to realize that only about 3–4% of the U.S. population currently identifies as vegan but it’s more likely a larger number of those who eat plant-based or have dietary restrictions and eat dairy or meat free.
So, should we be celebrating?
While anything that potentially takes animals off plates is a win, it must be tempered with realism in my opinion. A Dr. Praeger’s patty at $2.49 at a fast food chain is truly an accessible, affordable option. The flavor profile of chipotle, BBQ, and six vegetables sounds more interesting than the average veggie burger, and White Castle has been more consistent about offering non-meat options than most chains, even through all the pivots.
Just maybe go in with eyes open that a “permanent” item in fast food means “until it doesn’t perform”, and ask for no cheese to make it vegan. Enjoy it while it’s here, because if history is any guide, the menu is always subject to change.
