10 Vegan Breakfast Ideas (Compilation #66)

This breakfast compilation is all about fall, which I made sure to lean hard into this year. It also includes some of what I made as pantry challenge foods. All in all, it's a really satisfying round-up.

1. Fall Harvest Breakfast Grilled Cheese Sandwich

This is from a recipe I found at Kale Me Maybe and veganized. I used whole grain white bread because that's what I had, though I think sourdough might be more appealing in some respects. I spread the outside with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter vegan spread, which grilled up nicely for this pretty browning effect on the bread. The filling consists of scrambled Just Egg, apple, non-dairy Parmesan, and arugula. I didn't have sage, so I didn't use that; I can imagine sage would add new dimensions of flavor. It's not pictured here because I wasn't sure of it and wanted to try it first before using it, but I also drizzled some vegan honey over the top. Eggs and arugula and honey, you may be asking? Well...yes! All these things actually work well together, strangely enough. (Well, the vegan versions anyway. I can't speak to actual eggs and honey.) I really enjoyed this sandwich for a special treat on weekend morning.

2. Banana Cornmeal Pancakes with Cranberry Pear Chutney (Gluten Free, Nut Free Option, Soy Free Option)

This is a recipe from Tasty of all places. I made it when I had forgotten to freeze some bananas and they were a bit too ripe for freezing. Fortunately, I had everything else on hand, too, and soy milk was an easy swap to veganize this recipe. I cooked the pancakes in some vegan butter, but you could use coconut oil if you wanted, too. To top them, I added some leftover cranberry pear chutney I'd made and some whipped coconut cream. Although I should have cut the recipe in half (so I wouldn't have to stand there flipping pancakes for an hour), I otherwise have no complaints. I love cornmeal pancakes and the banana was a nice addition.

3. Brownie Baked Oatmeal (Gluten Free)

This deep, chocolatey oatmeal really does remind me of brownies! The recipe is at The Garden Grazer. I made it with soy milk, but you could make it with some other plant based milk if you need to avoid soy. Sometimes you just need chocolate for breakfast, am I right? I had this with sliced bananas and non-dairy yogurt with herbal tea, and it was so delightfully soothing on a chilly morning.

4. Banana Tahini Chocolate Chip Muffins (Soy Free, Nut Free)

Panaceas Pantry has a recipe for banana tahini chocolate chip bread that I cut in half and made into muffins. As you can see, a half recipe made seven muffins. I had a real craving for banana bread but wanted to try something a bit different, and I know how much I love tahini, so of course I had to make this! As always, a muffin is a great breakfast with a latte and some fruit, possibly with yogurt if I'm especially hungry.

5. Ginger Apricot Energy Bars (Gluten Free, Soy Free)

I ran across this recipe on Plant Based News a long while ago, and I wanted to make it as soon as I saw it, but I had to figure out how to convert the recipe to imperial measurements, as well as to gather all the required ingredients, which took a while (hazelnuts and raw pistachios are both a bit challenging to find around here). Once I did have the ingredients, I realized I didn't have enough chocolate to dip them in, so I just went with a thick drizzle. These were really good, if a bit on the greasy side--be prepared to need to wipe your hands while you eat these. They're full of goodness--dried apricots, oats, pumpkin seeds, pistachios, and hazelnuts all give their diverse benefits to the mixture, which is well-seasoned with ginger and held together with maple syrup and coconut oil. Having this bar with a soy latte made for a perfect breakfast. I want to experiment with these flavors in an energy ball form, though so stay tuned!

6. Roasted Pumpkin and Apple Cranberry Sauce Breakfast Bowls (Gluten Free, Soy Free)

A co-worker gave me a pumpkin recently. She had one and didn't want it and was looking for someone to adopt it. And then a friend gave me an apple, saying she wanted to contribute something fresh to my pantry challenge (and I think get some entertainment from my blogging about it). So this was the inspiration for this breakfast bowl, which I made using the roasted pumpkin base for the bowl from this recipe at the Roasted Root and the apple cranberry sauce recipe from Jessica Gavin. I added some non-dairy coconut yogurt and pumpkin spice granola as additional toppings. This is a lot like a sweet potato breakfast bowl with a different texture and pumpkin-y flavor notes, and it was lovely. It screamed fall. And the cranberry sauce, made with both apples and apple juice? Amazing. If I had any more cranberries and apples I'd make more. I did find I enjoyed the bowl more with a bit more nut butter, so if you try it and it needs something, I'd try that. It could also be because the pumpkin was larger. I genuinely don't know what a "medium" pumpkin is, not being someone who tends to buy pumpkins in favor of canned pumpkin puree. You can make this with canned pumpkin, but it won't be the same!

7. Veggie Breakfast Casserole (Gluten Free, Nut Free)

This is half of a recipe from My Pure Plants that doesn't look like the pictures on the original site, probably because the eggy mixture needed to be thinner, but still tastes good. It used up a lot of veggies I had around--a potato, an onion, some garlic, some mushrooms, bell pepper, peas, and grape tomatoes. I also added some vegan sausage crumbles, and I made the chickpea flour eggy mixture with soy milk (likely why mine is so thick--almond milk would have been thinner) to boost the proteins. I added some non-dairy cheese before baking for some added flavors, and enjoyed a wedge of this with some toast.

8. Apple Pie Bread Pudding (Nut Free)

I found this recipe at Rabbit & Wolves, and cut it in half to use up three whole wheat English muffins that needed it. Because this is a relatively light bread pudding--no added oils or anything--it was fine to have some of this as a breakfast with some spiced spirulina soy milk and non-dairy yogurt and I didn't feel overly full. I used soy milk rather than almond, which is why my header says "nut free," but you can probably use any non-dairy milk you like. If you're fond of apples, this is a definite option to consider! The juices of the apples drip into the bread as it cooks, infusing the bread with apple flavors alongside the applesauce in the custard mix.

9. Banana Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips (Nut Free)

Zucchini is readily available year round now, and as I don't have the oven on in the summer, that means that now is the time I finally get to have zucchini bread. I found this recipe at Radiant Rachel's. It may be more of a cake than a bread, but hey, we make our own rules around here and if we want a breakfast studded with chocolate chips, we'll have it! Plus this has some whole wheat flour, bananas, and zucchini. It has bonus points, for me, for not requiring things that are generally only in vegan pantries--this could be made by almost anyone anywhere because the bananas are the egg substitute. It does require non-dairy milk (I substituted soy) but I feel like that's a lot more normalized these days. It had been way too long since I had something like this, and I loved every bite from every slice. Some margarine spread over the bread and a soy latte to go with it rounded things out for breakfast.

10. Stuffing Waffles (Nut Free)

If you take my recipe for stuffing dumplings, thin the mixture out with a bit of soy milk, and cook it in a waffle iron, you can have leftover stuffing for breakfast! It's best with some gravy. I added a side of veggie sausage when I had this for the protein. It was amazing!

Do your breakfasts change with the seasons, or do you have the same things year round?