Is Corner Bakery Tomato Soup Vegan?

The tomato soup at Corner Bakery is a popular dish. It gives you a relaxed, cozy feeling. A warm bowl of tomato soup is an American classic and tastes like home. Anyone who is vegan should be able to enjoy it too, and we have good news for all the vegans out there! If you visit Corner Bakery Café, you can order the tomato soup. It appears to be vegan, but just to be safe, let us go through the ingredients and any possible replacements. 

The dish as such seems vegan, but depending on the store and what ingredients they have on hand, they might add something non-vegan. The tomato soup is accidentally vegan, not intentionally. Nowhere does Corner Bakery state that it is vegan, so they will not be responsible for it. It is up to you to check the ingredients and help yourself. But we have made your task a little easier. So, you will not need to question the employees and feel awkward about it. It is okay to question them though, because vegans are a force for good in our majorly carnivorous world. 

Ingredients

Let us go through the ingredients now. It is not a recipe, so we will not be mentioning any measurements. 

The ingredients of Corner Bakery tomato soup –

Diced/canned tomatoes Olive oil Black pepperOnion GarlicVegetable stockCarrotCelerySugarOreganoBasilSalt

This list of ingredients is vegan. But there are a few things to consider. Tomato soup usually contains milk, and though milk is not mentioned here, this is a general list. If not milk, cream could be added, which will also make it non-vegan. They could add vegan milk replacements, such as soy milk or almond milk, but that would be highly unlikely, as it is not an exclusively vegan chain. It would be great if they could introduce wholly vegan options, such as vegan burgers or vegan pastries, but they have not. So it is not safe to assume they would aim to make the tomato soup vegan.

Other than milk and cream, a dairy product that many people use in their soup is butter. Butter cannot even be tasted well, so if there is butter in your soup, you will not know. Now, there is vegan butter, but we can assume Corner Bakery will not be using that. Some people do add cheese, but Corner Bakery doesn’t, so you will not have to worry about that. 

The next thing is chicken stock instead of vegetable stock. Usually, Corner Bakery does not use chicken stock, but they might. Like butter, it is not easily detectable either, but it makes your dish non-vegan. 

If you get bread or croutons with the soup, they most probably will not be vegan. Most brands of croutons have milk in them, so it is better to reject croutons in the first place. Bread is usually vegan, but the bread given with soups is often toasted with butter, which is a dairy product. On the off chance that it is toasted with oil, you can enjoy your bread and tomato soup, cruelty-free. 

What to do?

Anyone who is vegan will know how frustrating eating out can get because you simply do not know what is in your food. As stated before, Corner Bakery is not a vegan café chain, and neither do they have a vegan section so you can order hassle-free. If you are eating alone, with other vegans, or with someone who does not mind eating vegan food, going to Corner Bakery will not be the best idea. Go to a vegan place or at least places that have explicitly vegan options. Getting your food without worry and guilt is the most important thing. Most people feel stressed out while ordering, and having to ask and review each ingredient is not easy. 

Conclusion 

However, if you unavoidably end up at Corner Bakery, don’t worry. Maybe you have a work dinner with your colleagues, or your family loves going there. Take a moment to ask the employee if the tomato soup is vegan, and tell them not to add croutons. If you know you will be going there, you can go there in advance and ask them for the details. You will need to worry about four things only- butter, milk, chicken stock, and bread. Once you have been to their place and found out how it goes, you will have an easy experience next time. Have a nice time changing the world, one step at a time, and Happy Eating!