Easy plant-based meals: three vegan breakfast recipes

Are you new to veganism? Or just trying to be healthier and do your little bit for the planet? Creating vegan meals can seem quite daunting at first: what do vegans actually eat? Do I need to stock up on quinoa and seaweed? Well, the answers to those questions are: more than you think and no (unless you want to!).

Read on for three simple breakfast recipes that are super easy, as in being-able-to-operate-a-toaster level of easy. This is the first post of my easy-plant based meals series, so stay tuned for more!

Vegan breakfast #1: Five-a-day smoothie

A vegan smoothie recipe? Groundbreaking! But hear me out: this is a great way to start your day, because it ticks a lot of the boxes in one go. It’s also ridiculously purple, so you could probably have it in a bowl and make it Instagram-worthy if you wanted to.

Ingredients

• ½ cup of frozen berries
• An apple
• A carrot
• A cup of leaves (I used lettuce because that is what I had, but you could use spinach or whatever you have at hand)
• ½ tin of pineapple chunks (leftover from a vegan Hawaiian pizza… which will appear in an upcoming post)

Instructions

1. Cut the apple and the carrot into bite-sized chunks
2. Rinse the pineapple chunks – this is to get rid of most of the gooey juice that they swim in
3. Chuck everything into a blender, along with a large glass of water, and blend! East peasy.

Daily Dozen score: Six (seven if you add flax seeds). This video explains the logic behind the Daily Dozen – check it out!

Note: Breakfast is an important meal in my day and I would rarely only have a smoothie. This would go well with a slice of toast, with either Marmite, or my favourite spready “cheese” with herbs sprinkled on top.

This recipe makes about two large glasses worth of smoothie. So sometimes I’ll have a glass of it before a run and the second one afterwards.

Vegan breakfast #2: Peanut butter and tomato toast + berry yogurt

This is very easy to put together and quite yum!

Ingredients

• One slice of wholegrain bread (if you eat the white stuff we can’t be friends haha)
• Peanut butter
• Flax seeds (optional)
• A medium-sized tomato
• Salt, pepper and herbs (oregano or basil) to taste
• Vegan yoghurt – I really like coconut and it seems to keep longer than soy. This can hopefully be found in your local supermarket or in a “health” / organic shop
• Chia seeds (optional)
• ½ cup of berries (I used blueberries, but you could use anything you can get your hands on)

Instructions (again, easy peasy)

1. Put bread in toaster
2. Slice your tomato
3. Pour some chia seeds and the berries onto your yoghurt (my pot only had a third left so I poured the seeds straight it and ate it out of the pot)
4. Spread peanut butter on toast
5. Sprinkle a tablespoon of flaxseeds, as well as the salt, pepper and herbs onto the peanut butter
6. Put the tomato onto the toast
7. Enjoy! You might need to eat it with a knife and fork to save yourself from a tomato-y mess. To avoid such a hazard, or if you’re quite hungry, add another slice of toast and make it a sandwich.

Daily Dozen score: four to seven (+1 with the herbs, +1 if you add flax seeds and +1 for the second slice of toast)

Vegan breakfast #3: Peanut butter and berries sandwich

Do you sense a theme here? Berries are yummy and good for you, which is why they are included in all three recipes. I know they can turn pretty quickly, so I keep a stash of frozen ones, as well as buying fresh berries.

This is my breakfast “to go” when I head out early in the morning. Between the time I make it and the time I actually eat it, frozen berries have a bit of time to thaw!

Ingredients

• Two slices of wholegrain bread
• Peanut butter
• Flax seeds (optional)
• ½ cup of berries

Instructions

1. Toast bread
2. Spread peanut butter on both slices of toast
3. Sprinkle flax seeds on one slice
4. Plop your berries onto the bottom slice
5. Place the other slice on top, cut into quarters and go!

Daily Dozen score: four (five with the flax seeds)

I don’t have any photos for this one – it’s literally a sandwich, so that’s what it looks like. 🙂

You may also like: 16 vegan alternatives to eggs 🌱 With easy conversion tables

There you have it – three no-excuses, easy and satisfying ways to start your day the plant-based way!

Please share your own recipes in the comments, or your Instagram handle if you want to show off your vegan creations. Mine is @thejessicagoodenough – follow me for fuss-free food inspiration (now say that ten times)!

Jessica