Vegan breakfast/brunch

I have to start this off with a bad review, unfortunately -- I had been really excited to visit The Coupe, a few blocks from our house, since I'd looked at their menu and seen vegan pancakes and french toast. We went up there last weekend when some friends were in town, and within like weeks of me looking at it, the menu had changed -- the only vegan brunch option was a tofu dish. Super, super disappointing, since I prefer sweet to savory brunch, and they just didn't have anything that fit the category. But, to try and make up for it, I ordered buffalo seitan tacos, which were on the lunch menu. They were awful! I don't know if it was badly made seitan or terrible buffalo sauce, but something was extra salty in there and they were just inedible. I really hope no non-vegans try them, as I'd admittedly be put off from seitan and its capabilities by that one dish. Dan had the vegan tofu dish on the brunch menu, and it was OK, but really not worth returning for when Meridian Pint is down the street offering curried tofu scramble and vegan french toast. Sorry, The Coupe. You should have kept the vegan pancakes on the menu--it's SO EASY to veganize pancakes! I don't have a photo of my food, but maybe that's for the best...

OK, rant over--now, for some happy thoughts of vegan breakfast foods that everyone can make at home instead of going out to get terrible seitan tacos!

I have a sweet tooth, so I usually for stuff like this:

Sorry, was hard to show the filling in a good photo, but yum!

These are jelly filled muffins from this recipe. The batter was like cake batter, it turned out really moist and nice, and the jam-filled centers were great. We filled some of them with jam plus vegan cream cheese, which is totally indulgent but really good. Filling the batter seems hard, but even when I did a crappy job, they came out OK, so don't fret. Anyway, I definitely suggest making these if you like to indulge on a sweet breakfast during a weekend!

But, if you like savory breakfast & don't want to work too hard for it, try some 'fried eggs' using Vegg powder (or, some combo of black salt, nutritional yeast, & water for the yolk if you can't find Vegg powder) -- Vegan Crunk has tips on that here. We just made some for breakfast sandwiches with Gimme Lean sausage. 

Crépes, the big hit in our household

Or, if you're cooking breakfast for a mix of sweet and savory folks... how about starting with plain crépes and adding either jam & cream cheese frosting  for the sweet or sautéed mushrooms and vegan cheese sauce for the savory? Here's the recipe we use for crépes!

Breakfast/brunch foods are some of the most fun foods to veganize for me (when the 'classic' recipes aren't vegan, at least), and I like taking some time on a Saturday or Sunday morning to explore new breakfast recipes. Pancakes are a regular fall-back for us (we like these peanut butter flax seed pancakes) and muffins are also a good option -- we made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins the other weekend, which were glorious -- and when we go savory, like today, tofu-eggs or vegan sausage is usually the way to go.

OK, enjoy your breakfast... it's never too late in the day for brunch, right?