Savory Vegan Breakfast Ideas (Easy + Healthy!)

Hey everyone, it's Caitlin and welcome to another video. In this video, I'm going to be showing you not one, not two, but three different vegan savory breakfast ideas. Personally, I am totally sweet person when it comes to breakfast. I prefer to eat sweet foods, but I know when I film a lot of meal prep videos or breakfast related videos, you guys seem to ask me for more savory vegan breakfast ideas. So that's what this video is going to be about. To be honest, when I think of savory breakfast, I typically think of like bacon and eggs and none of those things are very vegan. So I had to get a little bit creative, but I came up with three different ideas for you guys. All these recipes can be made ahead of time if you want to have them for the school or work week as well. So without further ado, let's get into them. First up, we are going to be making some root vegetable pancakes. These are kind of like potato pancakes, but they're going to be a little bit different. You'll see why, but first things first, we're going to start with a flax egg. If you don't know how to make a flax egg, it's mixing ground flax seeds with water. I've shown it several times on my channel before, so I just decided to make it in advance to save myself time in this video. And then next, we're going to be using some gluten-free flour. I used brown rice flour for this recipe, though I do think another gluten-free flour blend would work. We're also going to add some spices up next. All of the spices will be linked in the blog post, but it's some rosemary, some thyme, some black pepper, and some salt. We're also going to add some non-dairy milk to thin things out a bit, and then you're going to whisk this until it forms a nice and thick batter. Then we're going to add in our veggies, and these are root veggie pancakes because not only is it grated potatoes, there's also some grated sweet potatoes and carrots in there as well. I used a store-bought mix that is frozen, but if you don't have access to that, you could also just grate some potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots. We're also going to add in some shallots, and then we're going to fold the shallots and veggies into that batter and just mix everything together until it's all evenly incorporated and well coated. So once you're done with that, you're going to take a scoop and scoop about half of a cup out. I actually pack the half cup in pretty well. This makes kind of mini-sized pancakes, but I think it's a really good serving size, and it makes about nine of these total. So you're going to add that scoop to a non-stick skillet, and then press it down. You're going to cook it for about five minutes on the first side, and then you're going to flip it and cook it for another three to five minutes. The full instructions are in the blog post, which is linked below, and I'm using a non-stick skillet, so I didn't need to use any oil, and the pancakes did not stick to the pan, but if you don't have a non-stick skillet, you will need a little bit of oil, otherwise it's going to be a hot mess. But after your pancakes are done, they look nice and beautiful and are golden and crispy on both sides, and I think they have so much more flavor than potato pancakes, too, because you get that goodness from the sweet potatoes and carrots in them. So you can serve them however you'd like, but I decided to whip up a rosemary garlic cashew cream to top mine with, kind of like sour cream over potato pancakes. So you're going to start with some soaked cashews and add those to a blender, and honestly, I just use my Nutribullet type blender. I think it works perfectly fine, especially if you soak the cashews. We're also going to add some nutritional yeast, some lemon juice, some fresh garlic, salt, black pepper, and again, we're also going to add in some fresh rosemary and thyme, and just a little bit of water to help thin that out, and then you're going to blend that up until it becomes a nice and silky cream. This is kind of like the texture sour cream, but it tastes so freaking good, guys. It tastes like fall. I've been obsessed with this and literally putting it on everything, not just these pancakes, but you can tap your pancakes with it and dig in and enjoy. And yes, this recipe does take a little bit more effort, but I do want to say I've also frozen these pancakes and defrosted them, so you could totally do that if you wanted to make them for meal prep too. Next up, we're going to be making some vegan tofu egg salad. So I've tested this recipe a lot, and I have found that medium firm tofu is the tofu that you want. Firm tofu is like too dense. Silken tofu is too liquidy and mushy. You want medium firm tofu, guys. Trust me. So you're going to, you know, open the tofu box however you see fit, and then we're going to press our tofu. And I have this little handy-dandy tofu press that randomly came with my juicer, but you could also just put it in a towel and weigh it down with some books or use whatever other tofu press you have. But basically, when you press the tofu, a lot of the liquid comes out. So just from me briefly pressing on it there, you can see there's some liquid at the bottom of the pan. So I just put a heavy object on the press and let it sit for a few minutes in order to drain the tofu. And then after you press it, you're going to put it on a towel, wrap the tofu in the towel, and then press it down a little bit more. You really want to get as much liquid out of this tofu as possible. So after the tofu is pressed and pretty dry, we're now going to cut it. And I didn't want to crumble my tofu egg salad, which I've seen before, because when you hard-boil eggs and chop them, they're chopped. They're not crumbled. So I sort of randomly cut my tofu on diagonal to make chops, sort of like it would be vegan eggs. I actually did cut them up a little more finely, as you can see here. So the consistency and the size and the texture is very similar to eggs. So again, I'm just putting another towel on top of these and pressing out extra liquid. We really want to get as much liquid out of this as possible. And then now we're going to make our dressing. So this dressing is based off of a vegan mayo recipe that I already have on my blog, but I modified it a bit to make it more eggy, which you will see. But the base is soaked cashews. We're also going to add a mixture of lemon juice and distilled vinegar. I would recommend a mixture, not just one or the other, because it helps balance it out more. We're also going to add some Dijon mustard, a tiny bit of nutritional yeast for some subtle umami flavor, and then this is a secret ingredient, guys. It is called black salt. And yes, I know it is not black, but it's called black salt or kala namak. It has a very sulfur type taste to it, which actually tastes like hard-boiled eggs. So this is going to make our egg salad taste super realistic. So we're going to add it to our mixture and then blend it all together until it is smooth and creamy again. And then I forgot to add the turmeric and the black pepper to it when I blended it in my blender, which is why I'm adding it to the bowl now and mixing it in. But you could totally just add that to your blender with the rest of the ingredients. Honestly, the turmeric is just there for color and the pepper just adds a nice little bite. I also decided to keep it pretty simple for this recipe and just add some chives for subtle oniony flavor, but that's pretty much it. And then you're going to add in your chopped medium firm tofu and then just gently fold everything together until it is all well incorporated. And the tofu egg chunks are going to somewhat break down a little. Some will remain intact and some will get more mush, but I think this is also more authentic to the true egg salad flavor. You know, it's like kind of mushy but kind of textural and you have that nice bite from the eggs. So you can serve this salad however you like. And I know egg salad could typically be like a lunch thing, but I would eat it for breakfast when I was a kid, so I think it is totally acceptable. I do think it tastes really realistic due to pressing the tofu using medium firm tofu and using black salt. And you can serve this egg salad however you would like. I just decided to make some open-faced sandwiches with some toasted bread and some tomatoes and then I topped it with the egg salad and some black pepper and more chives. You could also just eat it plain. You could also just make it into an egg salad sandwich. So this could be a great breakfast recipe or a lunch recipe as well. Last but not least, we're going to be making some savory oatmeal. And to be honest, guys, when I first heard the concept of savory oatmeal, I was like, what the f, that sounds disgusting. But then I made this recipe for my blog a while ago and I was like, holy crap, this is actually kind of tasty. So here we're just sautéing a clove of garlic in some water or vegetable broth or you could use oil if you want to until it's translucent. Then we're going to add in some grated carrot, some roasted red peppers, some nutritional yeast, a little bit of turmeric and black pepper to activate the turmeric because, you know, that's all the health rage these days. Plus a tablespoon of vegan cream cheese. This really helps it get nice and creamy and get that savory cheesy flavor that I'm going for with these savory oats. But if you don't have the vegan cream cheese, you could use tahini and a pinch of apple cider vinegar instead. Then you're going to add in your oats and your vegetable broth. Last but not least, we're going to add in some fresh herbs. I had basil in my pantry when I made these, but I've also made them with dill and it was yummy. You could also use rosemary or thyme like from the other recipes. You can really experiment and also you can add in different veggies as well. This recipe is pretty basic and pretty easy to switch up and make versatile. But basically at this point, you're just going to bring the mixture to a boil over high heat and then once it starts boiling, you're going to reduce the heat to medium and just simmer it until it gets to the desired consistency that you want. I like my oats to be kind of runny and they also thicken a lot as they cool, so especially if you're making this for meal prep, I would leave it kind of runny when it's finished because if you're reheating it the next day, it is going to get thicker. But once you're ready to serve it, you can plop it into a bowl and then top it with whatever veggies you want. I had some extra roasted red pepper and some carrots that I decided to top my bowl with as well as some fresh basil. And then last but not least, I like to drizzle it with a healthy serving of tahini. It makes it so, so good. You guys really need to try this recipe, okay? I said it before, but I used to think savory oats were gross and disgusting, but I actually really, really enjoy this. And there you have it, my savory loving ladies and gents. Let me know in the comments below which one of these recipes was your favorite or if you have another savory vegan breakfast idea that you personally love and make all the time. Let us all know in the comments below too and we can help each other out on this savory train. Honestly, I don't know why we have to assign food to certain labels like, oh, this is a breakfast food, this is a lunch food, this is a dinner food. I feel like at the end of the day, just eat whatever the heck you want for whatever meal you want. You could totally just eat beans and rice for breakfast. And in some parts of the world, it's normal to eat beans and rice for breakfast. But hopefully you guys enjoyed these. I do think they are a little bit more American breakfast themed. And all the recipes, as always, will be linked in the description of this video. If you like this video and you want me to film more of them, give me a thumbs up, leave a comment below, and you can feel free to subscribe down there as well. I post two new videos every single week. Other than that, thank you all so much for watching. Hope you have an awesome rest of your day, whatever time of day it is for you, and I hope to see you in the next video. Bye.