If you’re looking for delicious and popular vegan breakfast foods, I’ve got tons of fantastic possibilities for you.
So, what do vegans eat for breakfast anyway? Let’s start with the easy stuff, and work our way up to more elaborate meals.
Breads, Bagels, & Muffins
Breads of various types are among the most commonly-served breakfast items. Many varieties are vegan. Plain old toast, or—if you want to get a little fancier—English Muffins, are excellent choices. As always, breads made primarily from whole grains are the healthier choice. Here are a few excellent spreads:
- Fruit preserves or jam
- Vegan butter with Marmite or Vegemite
- Vegan cream cheese
- Nut butters
Bagels—usually halved, toasted, and smeared with cream cheese or butter—are incredibly popular in New England. It’s even widely believed that New York City’s water supply makes for a better bagel than you can get elsewhere. If you’ve got a slot toaster and some vegan cream cheese, vegan butter, or jam, you can buy bagels at your grocery in bags of six and there’s no cheaper breakfast to make at home.
Bagel shops are also beloved fixtures in college towns throughout the United States. Many bagel shops offer vegan cream cheese or butter. Nearly all bagels are vegan—just watch out for yellowish “egg bagels” and also honey added to the whole wheat varieties.
You may also be able to find vegan muffins locally, although this is a less healthy choice since muffins usually contain lots of sugar. Croissants are another wonderful breakfast food, but they’re traditionally made with butter. While you may have a tough time finding vegan croissants available for purchase, you can always bake your own. Here’s a recipe with helpful photos.
This short section hardly begins to cover the possibilities. For more, see my lengthy guide to vegan bread.
Vegan Yogurt
Yogurt is a delicious and super-quick vegan breakfast option, and your local natural food store should carry many dairy-free yogurt brands. Soy is the most popular base for commercially-produced vegan yogurt, but you can also find products made from almond, cashew, or coconut milk. As breakfast dishes go, it’s tough to beat chopped fresh fruit stirred into unsweetened vegan yogurt.
You can also make your own yogurt from scratch using your favorite vegan milk and some yogurt starter. Many multi-cookers (Instant Pots are the most famous brand) have a yogurt setting, and you can also buy an inexpensive yogurt maker. In summer months, you can even go old-school using nothing more than a mason jar and a warm window sill.
Cold Cereals
Many breakfast cereals are vegan, so just add a little soy milk or oat milk and you’re in business. Choosing an unsweetened vegan milk will cut your sugar intake dramatically. In order to keep blood sugar levels steady, it’s especially important to avoid sugars early in the day. I’m a big fan of organic puffed brown rice, which is basically Rice Krispies without the junk. Served with soy milk I consider this one of the tastiest of all simple breakfasts.
When it comes to cold cereal, Nature’s Path deserves a special shout-out. While some of their products contain honey, all their cereals are whole-grain and organic.
Hot Cereals
If you want a hot, simple, and filling vegan breakfast, oatmeal has you covered. Steel cut oats take longer than rolled oats to cook, but many people consider the improved texture worth the added time. Kathy Hester has devoted an entire cookbook to vegan oatmeal recipes. And oatmeal is just the start of your hot cereal options—be sure to also try farina and Bob’s Red Mill Organic Creamy Buckwheat. And for a nice change of pace, muesli is delicious served hot or cold.
Hot cereals offer a great opportunity to add in chopped walnuts or chia seeds, both of which contain plenty of omega 3s—an important type of fat that is abundant in very few vegan foods. Also try adding chopped dates, cinnamon, or maple syrup to your whole-grain hot cereal.
Mexican Breakfasts
Practically everyone loves Mexican food, and breakfasts from this cuisine are uniquely satisfying.
You can make a tofu scramble with Mexican spices. Vegan enfrijoladas feature corn tortillas stuffed with mashed potatoes and veggies served in a refried bean sauce.
One of my favorite vegan breakfasts is a Mexican dish called molletes. Made traditionally, this dish involves topping slices of bread with refried beans, meat, and cheese, and then putting it in the oven. But you can make a fantastic vegan version with refrieds, vegan cheese, chopped onions, and a spoonful or two of salsa. Avocado slices added after baking will further elevate this wonderful dish. I have yet to find a more satisfying or delicious breakfast, and it’s so easy to make. Since vegan molletes are rich in protein, complex carbs, and healthy fats, they’ll easily carry you through the morning and to lunch. They’re ideally made with bolillos, a single-serving baguette-style Mexican bread.
I’ve written an extensive guide to vegan Mexican food that features the breakfasts mentioned here.
Vegan Breakfast Meats
When it comes to breakfast, bacon and sausages are probably the two most widely-eaten meats in Western countries. Vegans who like these foods are in luck, since there are a number of excellent vegan brands.
In Mexico, a moist and spicy type of sausage called “chorizo” is commonly added to eggs and other breakfast foods. Unlike most sausage varieties, chorizo’s casing isn’t edible. Instead, you squeeze it from its (usually plastic) casing prior to cooking. Check the refrigerated section of your natural food store to see if they carry vegan chorizo, which makes a sensational addition to tofu scramble.
Special Vegan Breakfasts
Want a fancier way to start your day? My vegan brunch page offers all sorts of delicious possibilities that are a little too time-consuming (and gut-busting) for daily eating.
There are countless recipes for vegan pancakes, french toast, and waffles. For a nutritious alternative to conventional syrup, make a fruit syrup by blending peaches or berries with a little water. In winter months, frozen fruit yields excellent results.
If eggs are more your style, consider making a tofu scramble. You can also make scrambled eggs or an omelette using popular vegan egg alternatives like Just Egg. Tofu scrambles and omelettes offer the perfect opportunity to boost your nutrient intake by adding vegetables like browned onions, grilled peppers, and shredded greens.
Another satisfying and ambitious breakfast option makes use of the vegan bowl concept. By nature, this meal offers a diversity of flavors by virtue of containing several different foods. Vegan breakfast bowls can be prepared from fruit, nuts, and granola, as well as from beans, grains, and vegetables.
Breakfast Beverages
Coffee, tea, and orange juice are the most popular breakfast beverages. If you enjoy cream in your coffee, your local natural foods store doubtless carries outstanding vegan coffee creamers in its dairy case. Keep in mind that, like orange juice, many vegan milks contain lots of sugar—which is especially unwise to consume first thing in the morning—so consider choosing an unsweetened variety.
Vegan milks, if made from soy or peas, will dramatically boost your meal’s protein content.
One of the easiest breakfasts is a smoothie made from frozen fruit and your favorite unsweetened vegan milk. You can make these in your blender in less than a minute and it’s a terrific way to start the day. Just understand that if you are concerned about your blood sugar level, sweet foods like smoothies tend to spike blood sugar a lot more in the morning than if they are consumed later in the day.
Breakfasts and Blood Sugar
Most of the breakfast recommendations we’ve just reviewed keep sugar content to a minimum. You don’t have to be perfect, but a little attention can yield big benefits. Avoiding sweetened breakfast foods when possible, as well as abstaining from putting sugar in your coffee, makes great sense.
Many people are prone to high blood sugar upon awakening. So compounding the problem by eating sugary foods for breakfast can, over time, screw up your pancreas and lead to diabetes.
Unfortunately, many popular breakfast foods contain loads of sugar: doughnuts, muffins, pancake syrup, jam, and even fruit smoothies. Orange juice is the quintessential breakfast beverage—and a glass of it contains as much sugar as a candy bar.
By avoiding sugary foods first thing in the morning, you’ll probably find your energy during the day remains more stable—plus you’ll appreciably reduce your risk of developing diabetes.
Vegan Breakfast Cookbooks
While many vegan cookbooks devote a section to breakfasts, several titles focus entirely on this meal:
- The Ultimate Vegan Breakfast Book, by Horn and Mayer
- Vegan Brunch, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
- The Global Vegan Waffle Cookbook, by Dave Wheitner
- Easy Vegan Breakfasts & Lunches, by Maya Sozer
So get your day off to the best possible start by trying some of the ideas suggested here. Many of these breakfasts take just a few minutes to make, so they’re a perfect starting-point for new vegans who don’t yet have much cooking experience.
