This blog is dedicated to all my vegan, vegetarian, and ethics-conscious brethren out there. As you start planning your trip to OU or anticipate Sooner Saturday, keep this guide handy so you can stay well-fuelled for all the fun!

This is an uncensored, unapproved look at vegan options at OU – let’s begin.

The Oklahoma Memorial Union is my least-frequented dining area simply because if I’m that close to Campus Corner and hungry, I’m probably craving The Earth or Pad Thai rather than on-campus fare. The best confirmed vegan-friendly eatery is the Laughing Tomato in the Union Food Court.

Designed to mimic the convenience of fast food, everything is pre-made and therefore not customisable. The Golden Potato Soup with a side of hummus, carrot sticks, and pita bread is my favorite meal. They also offer vegan baked potatoes, wraps, and a wide array of fresh fruit. Every Friday there is a farmer’s market featuring produce from local growers.

If you’re looking for an afternoon pick-me-up, check out Crossroads where you can buy fresh vegetable sushi* and edamame. I usually go with the edamame because, while many people absolutely love the sushi made on campus, I can only stomach it about once a year.

Next door, Frëshens’ offers eight vegan smoothies (be careful though, the protein boost is dairy-based!) that make a great breakfast or light lunch. My personal favourite is the Açaí Energy which incorporates açaí berries, strawberries, and bananas – it’s a medium sweet smoothie with richer, more savory undertones and a bit of tartness that kicks off my day quite well.

Closer to your future home, Cate Food Court’s main attraction is Roscoe’s, a coffee shop named after some influential alum or another. They also offer sushi and edamame, in addition to chai soy lattés, fair trade coffees, and Alternative Baking Company cookies.

Let me be clear, they sell GIANT VEGAN COOKIES. These are probably the best non-homemade cookies you’ll ever come across, and Roscoe’s stocks most of their flavors. If you’ve never had that sheer bliss of consuming one, I recommend the Colossal Chocolate Chip, Luscious Lemon Poppy-seed, Mac the Chip, and Double Chocolate Decadence. Add a cup of soy milk or hot tea and enjoy a picnic in the crisp fall air.

O’Henry’s offers a vegetable sandwich, but I’ve never established whether the breads are vegan or not. They also sell fresh fruit and salads.

Xcetera is the requisite convenience store-style establishment, located on the first floor of Walker tower. The mark-ups on most of the products are ridiculous, but the “au naturale” section does feature some vegan goodies. The sell five flavors of soy ice cream, frozen meals, bottled smoothies, hummus, sushi, edamame, soy milks, fair-trade dark chocolate, all natural nut butters, granola, dried fruit, instant rice bowls, and healthier chips. You can also find vegan-friendly microwavable popcorn, bread, cereal, and fresh fruit.

Couch Restaurants is my favorite place to eat. For one meal exchange, you gain access to the widest array of vegan and vegetarian options on campus and you’re only steps away from the towers (Adams, Couch, and Walker). Another plus is that (along with the Laughing Tomato) many of the ingredients used in Couch are locally sourced. Here I’ll detail the most vegan-friendly restaurants.

The Breakfast Club located on the east side of the building, houses not just an extensive cereal bar and the only soy milk in the cafeteria, but also bread for toasting and fresh fruit. There is another Frëshen’s location in Couch and the Huston-Huffman Center (the gym).

Casa Del Sol is Subway meets Tex-Mex. Choose your tortilla, taco shell, tortilla chips, or bowl and start getting creative! Top warm, homemade mini-tortillas with refried beans, rice, tomatoes, and guacamole for soft tacos; fill a whole wheat wrap with beans, veggie taco meat, potatoes, roasted peppers and onions, and red chili sauce; build your own nachos with refried beans, vegetables, corn salsa, chili sauce, and guacamole. You will need napkins.

Shanghai Stirfry – here you can have a stir fry made to order before your eyes! Choose your noodles (or rice), vegetables, tofu, and sauce (they’re all vegan). My favourite combination is Mongolian noodles with spinach, onions, broccoli, carrots, garlic, and tofu. You can even eat with chopsticks, if you want to feel cosmopolitan.

La Roma is an old friend for a light meal. The offerings here aren’t incredible for those on the non-meat, non-dairy track – but three kinds of pasta and a solid tomato sauce can’t really go wrong. To make things more interesting I add red pepper flakes and a scoop of the veggie taco meat from Casa Del Sol and mix it all together. Pair with a green salad from the beautiful salad bar, and you’ve got a well-balanced meal for right before your night class.

Athen’s Café offers solid vegan options daily. Mediterranean food makes a nice change from the more traditional fare and is quite healthy. Cauliflower simmered with tomatoes and herbs, lentils and rice with sautéed onions (mujadarrah), hummus, and fresh olive-oil glazed pita bread are quite lovely, especially on a cold day.

Vegetation Station is the first place I check when my tummy starts to rumble. The menu changes daily: everything from veggie dogs with meatless chili to vegan “beef” enchiladas to roasted vegetable pizza to tofurky sandwiches make up the main dishes. These are always accompanied by rice, couscous, beans, steamed vegetables, soup, and desserts (their vegan chocolate cake is delicious).

Vegetation Station also serves up two kinds of soup and some (passable) vegan whole wheat bread. Every Thursday you can find vegan biscuits, scrambled tofu, and sometimes even vegan pancakes or French toast! With so much menu variation,  some days the vegan options are rather lacking – but as students continue to offer feedback, suggestions, and even their own recipes things keep looking up.

Lastly, I encourage you to mix and match from all these places during your meals (like the pasta and taco “meat” idea that I love so much), to keep them interesting: nothing is worse than boring food!

I have excluded the campus franchises (Starbucks, Burger King, Taco Mayo, Sbarro, and Quiznos), with the exception of Frëshens, because most of that information is already available online and I wanted to give you a look at things unique to OU.

My next project will be a guide to eating vegan off campus, so keep an eye out! If you have any questions about eating vegan or if you have any questions about campus life in general feel free to e-mail me at wordful@ou.edu.