10 Vegan Breakfast Ideas (Compilation #14)

Life is too short to eat the same things for breakfast every day, and self-isolation is far too monotonous if I greet each morning with a bowl of cereal. Thus, in the interests of your sanity and mine, I present ten more new ways to start your day.

1. Peachy Farina

I told you last time around that you'd see more Cream of Wheat, but that's a name brand for farina, and there's no reason not to call it farina, because there are a several brands out there and I am most assuredly not sponsored. When I was growing up, I loved the instant Cream of Wheat with peaches that came in a packet you added boiling water to (I think that's not my imagination--though I grant you it could have been oatmeal; I ate a lot of both things in just-add-hot-water packages). This feels more adult, with the porridge made on the stove with a cinnamon stick in the soy milk and chopped fresh peaches stirred in, and also unlike the old instant packets it's vegan. A garnish of sliced peaches and cinnamon finished it off.

2. Strawberry Chia Watermelon Smoothie (Gluten Free)

Though my version of the Minimalist Baker recipe for this smoothie turned out more pink than red--possibly too many bananas found their way into it--I have no complaints! It didn't taste very strongly of watermelon, but it wasn't the usual strawberry-banana smoothie, either.

3. Fluffy Sweet Potato Bowl with Seeds and Fruit (Gluten Free)

This recipe is from Caitlin Shoemaker's From My Bowl blog. She recommends this be eaten hot; I was in the mood for something cold. I could see it being great either way! After using a hand blender to whip up my leftover slow-cooker roasted sweet potato with soy milk, almond butter, cinnamon, vanilla, and ground flax seeds, I put them in a bowl and topped them with chia seeds, cacao nibs, pumpkin seeds, and goji berries. I found after taking the photo that I enjoyed this more, at least when cold, if I added a splash or two of some vanilla soy creamer, but altogether I loved it.

4. Chia Pudding with Blackberries and Bananas (Gluten Free)

I finally got some white chia seeds (more pandemic shopping that bizarrely gives me access to things that used to be too hard for me to get), so I put them in this recipe for Overnight Chia Seed Pudding with Blackberries and Bananas from Yay! for Food. I used soy milk in the pudding and blended the chia seeds up with it (as is my usual method, to avoid the odd texture of chia seed pudding). Though I followed the directions for mashing up the macerated berries, I found that I liked the whole ones better. This was pretty and tasty layered together like this.

5. Caramelized Pineapple Yogurt Bowl (Gluten Free)

This recipe from Delish Knowledge is easily veganized. Use non-dairy yogurt and either leave out the honey or (as I did) swap it out for some bee-free honey. With an English muffin and a cup of lemon-ginger tea, this was one of my best breakfasts! The caramelized pineapple is such a wonderful flavor.

6. Avocado Toast with Pickled Onions

Sure, avocado toast is great as is, but it's also great with some pickled onions! Making pickled red onions is pretty easy--they're a basic fridge pickle--and they can go in lots of things.

7. Lemon Poppy Seed Oatmeal (Gluten Free)

This recipe at Emile Eats is inspired! I would never have thought to make lemon poppy seed oatmeal without it but doesn't it seem so logical? I now want to try all my favorite muffins as oatmeal, because it is definitely not time for having the oven on yet. The powdered sugar glaze and lemon zest toppings were an especially nice touch.

8. Mini Bagels with Blueberry Chia Jam

Of all the things I've ever discovered as a vegan, I may have gotten the most excited about chia jam. It's protein--in jam form. I used the recipe on the back of the Bob's Red Mill chia seeds package for this jam, which I've made before, just cut down to 1/4 recipe.

9. Peanut Butter Banana Nice Cream (Gluten Free)

I should come clean on all the banana nice cream you've seen lately--it's in part because I can either get 8-10 bananas or no bananas, and nothing in between, so I end up having a lot to freeze and do something with later. But that's okay, because it means nice cream! This is literally just frozen bananas and peanut butter blended up to the consistency of soft serve ice cream (think 1 tablespoon peanut butter per 1 banana, and that's one serving), which I topped with sliced bananas, a makeshift chocolate drizzle (chocolate-hazelnut spread thinned with bit of chocolate syrup and a bit of water), chopped peanuts, and cacao nibs. This is lovely on a hot day.

10. Raspberry Vanilla Almond Quinoa Porridge (Gluten Free)

When raspberries went on sale and I saw this recipe at Cooking and Beer, it was kismet! It was really easy to make this vegan. I did note that there was a lot more liquid than was probably needed--I could have used half the spiced soy milk that the recipe suggested (well, they said almond milk, but you know what I mean--and I used soy)--but I really enjoyed it nonetheless.