10 Vegan Breakfast Ideas (Compilation #9)

Well, I'll say this for social distancing: It's definitely helped me keep my 2020 resolution to eat more varied breakfasts! These are all sweet breakfasts; I guess this time around I wasn't in the mood for anything savory. Maybe I should have called this "Compilation #9: Fruit Edition (Guest Starring Sweet Potatoes)."

1. Yogurt, Grape Nuts, and Berries Parfait

I am a big fan of parfaits--so pretty!--but sometimes one grows weary of granola. Other times, one runs out of granola and is in one's fourth week of isolation. Grape Nuts to the rescue! This cereal is in a class by itself, I think--you can have it hot, or cold, or make a parfait out of it, which I wouldn't do with most boxed cereals. These little crunchy things are vegan, and you can use them similar to how you'd use granola. They're not sweetened at all, so you may want to sweeten your yogurt if, like me, you've only got some plain non-dairy yogurt to work with. This was blueberries and raspberries layered with Grape Nuts and some Kite Hill almond yogurt which I'd slightly sweetened with some vegan honey (you could also use agave nectar if you can't get Bee Free or something similar).

2. Sweet Potato Smoothie Bowl (Gluten Free)

I found a recipe for a sweet potato smoothie bowl at Mina Rome's blog, made it according to her specifications, and loved it! I used raspberries as a garnish here alongside the recommended almond butter and chia seeds, but you really don't need berries and honestly it is probably better to garnish with bananas or something else that matches the flavors better. It combines fruit and veggies, which is always great, with the feeling of getting to eat ice cream for breakfast, which is awesome. If I knew how many ways there were to eat ice cream for breakfast I might have gone vegan much sooner!

3. Pear and Almond Crunch Bar (Gluten Free)

The breakfast of the worn out, hurried, frazzled, or on-the-go (if only!) everywhere: a bar from a package. But your bar from a package can be all sorts of things. This one is the Pear Almond Crunch Orchard Bar from Liberty Orchards, which can be ordered by mail. (That really sounds like an ad, but they have nothing to do with me putting this here--it was just something I happened to have.) When I can, I try to order from smaller companies, because I don't think a world with only the options given to us by the likes of Amazon and Wal-Mart is one I want to live in. Liberty Orchards has a lot of different fruit and nut bars, and they do work out well for times I don't have it in me to cook, or don't have fresh ingredients available. However, they do cost more than I usually want to spend on this sort of thing, so I only have them once in a very blue moon.

4. Fruity English Muffin Breakfast Pizzas

I ran with an idea I saw on The Comfort of Cooking here when I had produce again. This is an easy idea that has a huge aesthetic payoff if you have an assortment of fruit: Spread English muffins with chocolate hazelnut spread, a non-dairy cream cheese spread, and/or peanut butter. My non-dairy cream cheese spread is Daiya cream cheese, orange juice, and bee free honey, but you could do a bunch of different things. Top them in whatever way makes sense to you. Raspberries, bananas, kiwi, blueberries, and cacao nibs all make an appearance here, but the possibilities are endless.

5. Yogurt with Spiced Orange Compote (Gluten Free)

Plain non-dairy yogurt can be topped with all sorts of things, and one of my new favorites is spiced orange compote. I was inspired by the recipe from the Kitchn website, but I only had oranges, so instead of their citrus compote, it's just orange compote. Also, I cut the recipe down because I really only needed to use 1/4 of an orange, not two. (We do what we can!) I found this paired really well with an English muffin (not itself gluten free, though the yogurt with compote is), which you see here with some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter vegan spread and some raspberry-cocoa-chipotle conserve waiting in the wings.

6. Mango-Dragon Fruit Smoothie (Gluten Free)

I'd never had dragon fruit before I realized you could get it in the frozen fruit section. I had seen the strange, spiky fruit only occasionally at a high price in the supermarket before then. It may be called pitaya in the frozen fruit section. It has a melon-like flavor and either white or shocking pink flesh and makes really lovely smoothies. In this one, taking inspiration from Sun Kissed Kitchen, I used an assortment of frozen fruits--dragon fruit, mango, and banana--with some soy milk, hemp seeds, and a splash of lime juice. I topped this blend with fresh kiwi chunks and flakes of coconut and had it with a side of hot tea and toast. (It was probably too cold for a smoothie, really, but I was in the mood for one.)

7. Fruit Salad with Hemp Seeds (Gluten Free)

Though I like to give myself a solid, substantial breakfast most of the time, sometimes I wake up and I have zero interest in food. But I still have to eat breakfast, or else I will feel worse. On the most recent morning I woke up feeling like this, my neighbor had recently dropped off some produce. So I had a lot of different kinds of fruit, and I made a salad: Banana slices, orange slices, halved red grapes, chopped kiwi, and raspberries. I added some hemp seeds for fat and protein so it wouldn't digest too fast and give me a blood sugar crash. This is good on its own for those zero appetite days, or accompanied by some toast and hot cocoa on the days I have more interest in eating.

8. Sweet Potato Oatmeal (Gluten Free)

So you made the sweet potato smoothie bowl and have a half a sweet potato left? Make sweet potato oatmeal! This one is roughly based on the recipe I found at Connoisseurus Veg.

9. Soft Cheese and Red Grapes on Toast

In this case, I used Violife feta, but you could use almost any soft vegan cheese for this: Spread soft cheese on toast (tip: allow your toast to cool first or your cheese will turn into an oily puddle), then top with halves of red grapes. I had this with a small bowl of tomatoes and cucumbers and a glass of orange juice.

10. Orange Cream of Rice (Gluten Free)

I'm seriously so bewildered by the fact that I can never find recipes using cream of rice! It's so quick and easy! So I have to make my own. To make this orange-infused version, check out my recipe. Though this is what I did with my leftover orange compote, you could also just put sliced oranges on top.