10 Vegan Breakfast Ideas (Compilation #8)

Ah, quarantine, sequestration, self-isolation, exile for the good of the realm--whatever you call it, it has the benefit of inspiring a lot of people to make more of breakfast. So here are some of my nicer isolation breakfasts.

1. Oat Biscuit Sandwiches

Some--not all, but some--of the belVita breakfast biscuits are vegan. These are the Golden Oat ones, which are. I think they have a bit of a weird taste on their own, so it's important to have some tea for dunking (there is a cup behind the biscuits there) and sometimes I like to make them into sandwiches with peanut butter, chocolate hazelnut butter, or (as seen here) both. The good news is, all these things--the oat biscuits, the peanut butter, the hazelnut butter, and the tea--are shelf-stable, so they make for good options for our currently apocalyptic lives.

2. Scrambled Polenta and Veggies (Gluten Free)

If you're a vegan, you probably have already tried tofu scramble, chickpea flour scramble, and maybe some packaged vegan egg mix. You might even have had a mung bean omelet scramble or scrambled chickpeas themselves (rather than flour). But chances are good you haven't yet tried scrambled polenta! I got the idea from this recipe at The Breakfast Drama Queen, but given my sequestered state I didn't follow it closely at all. (This meal came 22 days after a trip to the grocery store.) I used polenta leftover from a meal the day before, cut into cubes, along with green bell pepper, onions, garlic, carrots, and mushrooms. I served it with some quick breakfast potatoes (I microwaved red potatoes, then sauteed them with onions in a little oil) and sauteed grape tomatoes (my last wrinkly ones).

3. Strawberry-Lemon Breakfast Pizza (Gluten Free)

An early-in-sequestration discovery, I shared this strawberry-lemon breakfast pizza recipe with you a while ago. If you want to try something different with oatmeal, this might be right up your alley.

4. Cinnamon Apple Yogurt Parfait (Gluten Free)

I veganized this recipe at Monica Swanson's blog, but you don't really need a recipe. Just cook some chopped, peeled apples in vegan butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and a bit of salt, then layer it with yogurt and granola. It's not your usual berry yogurt parfait, but these flavors are lovely together, and apples are sturdier than berries, so you're more likely to have them on hand if you are spreading your grocery shopping trips out to a once-a-month basis. Plus, even when an apple isn't at the stage where I want to eat it raw anymore, I'm usually happy enough to eat it cooked.

5. Canadian Bacon and Cheese Crescent Rolls

I took some Yves veggie Canadian bacon and Daiya cheddar shreds, rolled them up in crescent roll dough, and baked them as usual. It worked super well! You could even do this when not quarantined; it's pretty easy and requires almost no hands-on time. I had a V8 over ice with a twist of lemon juice with this breakfast, because I was running low on veggies and this was one way to get my vitamins and minerals.

6. Carrot Cake Oatmeal (Gluten Free)

There are a lot of recipes for carrot cake oatmeal online, some vegan, some not. I chose this vegan one at Oh She Glows. Getting veggies in the morning doesn't always mean something savory!

7. French Toast with Blueberry Syrup

One good thing about being home all the time is that I finally got to make some French toast! I started out by making some French bread, then the next day, because French bread is fantastic but goes stale practically instantaneously, I made vegan French toast from the recipe at Nora Cooks. Because I was extremely low on maple syrup, I had this French toast with some homemade blueberry syrup (recipe from Laura Fuentes). It was a bit heavy as a way to start the day, but it was a Sunday morning, and I still want my weekends to feel a bit different than my work life, so I dived in without looking back.

8. Strawberry Cream of Rice (Gluten Free)

I really think more people need to get into cream of rice, but until you do, I'll be hogging it over here by myself. I made this cream of rice according to package directions with soy milk instead of water and added 1/4 cup of chopped strawberries when I boiled the milk. Then, when the porridge was done, I topped it with some extra macerated strawberries and a drizzle of vegan honey (I use Bee Free). This had a really nice depth to it. If you don't have fresh strawberries, frozen berries would work just fine for this.

9. Tomato and Asparagus Quiche

Though you may recognize this photo as a recent lunch, I also ate very similar fare for breakfast with the leftovers, and it worked out nicely. I don't always want something sweet. Tofu quiches can be so versatile, too--I'm still often amazed at what I can prepare that doesn't include eggs! Asparagus and tomatoes make for such a lovely pop of color, as a bonus.

10. Puff Pastry Apple Turnovers

Another special Sunday breakfast: I cut this recipe from Taste of Home in half and veganized it (I just swapped Earth Balance for the butter--everything else was already vegan). This is pretty easy if you have some puff pastry in the freezer, and it's a great use for apples that have edged somewhere slightly beyond the point at which you want to eat them raw.