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Collection — Breakfast

Vegan breakfast ideas that hold up on a weekday morning.

8 tested plant-based breakfasts from this catalogue — toast you can make before the kettle boils, fermented South Indian batters worth planning ahead for, and overnight puddings that are waiting for you. Every one lists exactly what it contains, so if you are avoiding gluten, soy, peanuts, tree nuts or sulphites you can filter the list down to what is safe for you rather than reading the small print on each recipe.

How to build a vegan breakfast you'll actually repeat

Pick a base that keeps. Cooked grains, a jar of soaked chia, or a fermenting rice-and-lentil batter all sit in the fridge and turn into breakfast in minutes. Most of the ten-minute recipes here are really assembly jobs on top of something you prepared once.

Add a pulse or a seed. This is what stops a plant-based breakfast falling apart by eleven. Lentils in idli and dosa, chia and nut butters on toast, chickpea flour in a savoury pancake — a grain plus a pulse is the whole trick.

Swap milk, don't skip it. Oat milk is the closest match for batters and coffee; coconut milk carries fruit and spice well; almond is thin but useful. If you are avoiding tree nuts, oat and rice milks keep every recipe on this page open to you.

Know your labels. Sulphites hide in dried fruit, soy in bread and spreads, gluten in semolina as well as wheat flour. Every recipe here spells out what it contains, and the filter above does the reading for you.

Vegan breakfast questions

What is a good vegan breakfast if you are in a hurry?
Smashed avocado toast and vanilla chia pudding both come together in about ten minutes, and the chia pudding can be soaked the night before so it is ready when you wake up.
Which vegan breakfasts are gluten-free?
Dosa, idli and the chia recipes are naturally gluten-free — they are built on rice, lentils, chia and fruit rather than wheat. Use the allergen filter on this page to see the current list.
Can you eat a vegan breakfast with a soy allergy?
Yes. Soy shows up mainly in tofu scrambles and soy milk, both of which are easy to swap. Oat or coconut milk works in every drink and batter on this page, and none of these recipes depend on tofu.
How do you get protein into a vegan breakfast?
Lentil and rice batters such as idli and dosa, chia seeds, nut butters and legume-based fillings all carry real protein. Pairing a grain with a pulse in the same meal is the simplest habit to build.

Five recipes for the week, every Sunday

The weekly newsletter plans your week for you — breakfasts included, allergens always listed.

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