10 Vegan Breakfast Ideas (Compilation #33)

I stopped rebelling against stores when infection rates declined and I began to trust my N95 masks more. Still, it's the time of year for sturdy food, so a lot of these meals could have been made even if I had been avoiding the store for long stretches. What better way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than by giving you a breakfast compilation? (Especially since I have no Irish food to show you today anyway.)

1. Loaded Blackberry-Banana Sweet Potato (Gluten Free, Soy Free)

It had been a while since I took advantage of my slow cooker, but this is a great way to have a warm breakfast with little to no effort in the morning. I cooked a gigantic sweet potato overnight, then had half in the morning filled with almond butter, blackberries, bananas, granola, and some vanilla non-dairy yogurt. These flavors really go well together and the texture contrasts, especially with that added crunch from the granola, make it something extra special. If you want something hot but don't have the time to cook in the mornings, this could work well for you!

2. Apple Cinnamon Quinoa Breakfast Bowl (Gluten Free, Nut Free, Soy Free Option)

I don't often have quinoa, but I was excited to try this recipe from Calla's Clean Eats. I like to layer my proteins in the morning so I get a good boost, but quinoa is already a good source of protein so you wouldn't have to make this with soy milk like I did, probably, especially if you use a protein-rich non-dairy yogurt. This was really good! You just have to really watch your quinoa when you cook it in milk like this because it tends to boil over, so be forewarned--don't leave the kitchen while your quinoa cooks. I think next time I'd just use half an apple because this was a lot of apple! But it was delicious, especially with the vanilla yogurt (I used Siggi's plant-based vanilla cinnamon yogurt--always a treat).

3. Maple-Cinnamon Banana-Pear Baked Oatmeal with Walnuts (Gluten Free, Soy Free Option)

Someone gave me pears that were not only the variety I'm not as keen to eat "out of hand" (as it's called)--those Anjou pears that are as soft as bananas--but also were on the verge of rotting. So I found a few different things to make with them, and one of them was this baked oatmeal recipe. I veganized it by using soy milk and Bob's Red Mill egg replacer, but if you are avoiding soy, you can just use a flax or chia egg and some other kind of plant milk. Baked oatmeal is very forgiving.

To round out the meal, I had some fruit (blackberries, mango, and kiwi) with non-dairy yogurt, herbal tea, and a pat of Earth Balance. The butter was an impulsive addition but it seemed like the thing to do with such a low-calorie breakfast (without it, this would have clocked in for me at approximately 300 calories, maybe a little less, and I'm trying not to lose weight--this not being a typical American problem, you should follow your own doctor's advice with respect to food). It was delicious! I love buttery oatmeal.

4. Mango Banana Bread with Coconut and Macadamia Nuts (Soy Free)

When I first saw this recipe at Labeless Nutrition, I knew I had to make it. I made it with my own homemade mango puree, so that may be why mine isn't as vibrant as the original. But it tastes wonderful, both comfortingly familiar and also like a tropical vacation. I had this with a grain coffee latte (Postum this time--but more on Postum another time) made with soy milk to round out the meal.

5. Eggy Tofu Patty (Gluten Free, Nut Free)

You probably don't need me to tell you that you can have crumpets, fruit salad, avocado, tomatoes, and hash browns for breakfast. (And if you do need me to say it, I would point out that I've told you before!) And all those things together with a protein-rich drink (like soy milk or a Cafix latte) can make for a fine breakfast on their own. But sometimes we want a nice, savory, warm, solid protein, and we're tried of tofu scramble. The solution? Just make an eggy tofu patty! This one is from a breakfast sandwich recipe I enjoyed from Plant Well, but I wasn't in the mood for a sandwich, so I made this instead! Sprinkled with a bit of black salt, this tofu patty was perfectly eggy and delicious.

Please note that although the tofu patty is gluten free as indicated, the whole breakfast is not--there is gluten in my crumpet.

6. Gingerbread Sweet Potato Smoothie (Gluten Free)

Molasses is the dark horse of smoothies. I was guided by this recipe here, though I substituted more banana and more soy milk for the yogurt. I really liked this. It tasted wintery in spite of being cold. I had a hot buttered (margarined?) crumpet to round out the meal.

7. Crumpets with Peanut Butter and Banana (Soy Free)

While mostly we Americans never think of crumpets; many non-Americans seem to just as rarely think of putting peanut butter with fruit. Well, let's combine cultures and put it all together! This is perhaps the same principle as peanut butter toast but the crumpet is a really different experience--all crispy on top with lots of holes for peanut butter to sink in. This is definitely worth trying.

8. Blueberry Kale Spirulina Bowl (Gluten Free)

I'm not so often in the mood for smoothie bowls in the winter, but sometimes all I want is a bowl of creamy sweetness topped off with fruit and seeds and nut butter. This mixture, which I based on this recipe for a green spirulina smoothie but using 1 1/2 frozen bananas and 1/2 cup soy milk instead of the quantities written, turned out to look very sludge-like, but still tasted wonderful. (What did I tell you about the tastiness of stuff that looks like sludge?) I topped it off with chopped mango, blackberries, kiwi, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, and a generous spoon of peanut butter. I think the difference in color, aside from the change in the recipe, is that my spirulina powder is a deep green instead of the blue more popular among bloggers (because that's what Nuts.com sells). But hey. There is something kind of pretty about it in a way, anyway.

The peanut butter was sort of an accident--I confused my almond butter and peanut butter jars and realized after I'd already stuck my spoon in the peanut butter that I'd gone in the wrong place--but I think it was a happy accident, because peanut butter went surprisingly well with the flavors in the smoothie mix. I also forgot I had the blackberries at first so they kind of sat on top of the mango and that wasn't my intention. As smoothie bowl art goes, I give this a 7/10. But it was nice to eat with a cup of hot herbal tea.

9. Creamy Mushroom Toast (Soy Free)

For all you savory breakfast lovers out there, a new idea I loved, based on a recipe at BBC Good Food. I used Miyoko's non-dairy cream cheese and almond milk and roughly followed the recipe based on what I had in hand. There are scallions here instead of chives; that's what I more commonly have on hand. I loved the way the whole grain mustard gave a bit of sharpness to the creamy mushrooms. I love mushrooms any time and I would definitely have this again. I had this with a grain-coffee-based latte (Postum instead of my usual Cafix) made with soy milk, so my own breakfast wasn't soy free, but the toast is! I found this a really comforting way to start my day. It looks a bit like sludge, but we've already established that some of the best foods look like sludge.

10. Tropical Mango Oatmeal (Gluten Free, Soy Free)

Because I still had some mango puree left over from the banana bread I made, I used it in this recipe for tropical mango oatmeal that was easy to veganize with soy milk and some almond oil-based margarine instead of milk and butter. I topped it with sliced banana rather than dried cranberries because cranberries do not belong in something called "tropical" in my opinion. Though my homemade mango puree doesn't seem to make anything the expected yellow, it still had the mango flavor I was going for. This was a hearty, satisfying breakfast.

I hope you're all warm and having good breakfasts out there! Let me know if you've tried anything new recently.