by Katie Johnson

Created on: November 08, 2008

It's difficult to find vegetarian restaurants that offer take out and that are not costly. Fortunately many major fast food chains have introduced vegetarian options on to their menu.

McDonald's offers very little vegetarian food. Your options are limited to french fries, a side garden salad, or apple slices. For a brief period McDonald's offered a veggie burger, but I guess there wasn't enough demand because it was discontinued quite quickly. It is unfortunate that the most popular and readily available fast food restaurant has so few vegetarian options.

Harvey's offers quite possibly the best veggie burger of any fast food chain I've tried. Even my meat-eating friends agree that it tastes just like the real thing. Unfortunately Harvey's is uniquely Canadian, so you probably won't find any restaurants in the US or other parts of the world. They also offer quality meat free caesar salad or garden salad, as well as the standard french fries and onion rings.

Burger King does offer a veggie burger, although it is not of the same quality as Harvey's at all. Even so, I applaud this popular fast food chain for making the effort to offer a vegetarian
option. They also offer french fries, onion rings, or a side salad. However, I noticed when visiting the US, that not all Burger King's carry the veggie burger. It seems that Canada is ahead of the rest of North America on the vegetarian front.

Kentucky Fried Chicken has recently made a step in the right direction and has added a vegetarian chicken burger to their menu. It consists of a soy chicken patty, lettuce, and mayonnaise. Kind of plain I know, but you can request the addition of tomatoes or onions. I enjoyed it a lot, and you have the option of adding lots of veggie sides, including fries, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, macaroni salad, potato salad or corn.

Wendy's doesn't offer a veggie burger, but they do offer a yummy baked potato, that can be dressed with broccoli, chives, cheese, or sour cream. It's a great snack if you're on the go and in a rush. Wendy's offers top quality salads as well, most of them come with mean but you can request that the meat be left off. The salads have lots of fresh veggies and cheese.

Subway is a great choice if you need food on the go. A vegetarian
sub is a healthy option, and subway's vast amount of topping choices give you lots of options. Subway also offers veggie salads and wraps. Recently selected retaurants introduced freshly made pizzas, which you can top with the veggies of your choice.

There are lots of healthy vegetarian choices out there, you just have to know where to look. Of course, it's always better health wise and cost wise to prepare your own meals at home, but if you must get food on the go, at least you know you have some options.

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