Vegan Breakfast Ideas: 20 Sweet and Savory Recipes

Hello lovelies,

in our house, breakfast is the meal with the most negotiating: sweet or savory, warm or from a jar, quick or slow.

On weekdays I reach for jars that were ready the night before, and on weekends I love standing at the stove. In this guide you'll find my vegan breakfast ideas sorted by the kind of morning, with tips straight from the recipes, a table of how long everything keeps, and a festive breakfast for the holidays.

Vegan breakfast ideas: what do vegans eat for breakfast?

Pretty much everything: oatmeal, millet or quinoa porridge, bircher muesli and chia pudding from the fridge, granola from an airtight jar and granola bars from the fridge, egg-free pancakes and waffles, and savory chickpea flour pancakes. All 20 recipes in this guide are vegan.

So the real question is less what works and more how much time the morning has. I sort the ideas like this: warm bowls, overnight jars, granola from a jar and bars from the fridge, pancakes and waffles for the weekend, savory pancakes for anyone who doesn't want sweet first thing, and a holiday breakfast to finish.

If protein is your main goal at breakfast, my guide to breakfasts with 25 to 30 grams of protein has its own set of ideas. This one is about the whole range, from a quick jar to a slow Sunday.

Warm bowls: oatmeal, millet and quinoa porridge

Warm breakfast bowls made with oats, millet flakes or quinoa are ready in 15 to 30 minutes in my recipes, and both the tiramisu porridge and the millet porridge can be cooked the night before.

How long oats take depends on how they're processed. According to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Nutrition Source on oats, less-processed oats such as steel-cut generally take 25 to 30 minutes to cook, while instant oats take 1 to 2 minutes.

My creamy tiramisu porridge with espresso and cocoa is ready in 15 minutes, made with fine rolled oats, plant milk, espresso, cocoa powder and cinnamon. Whisk in the cocoa right at the start, then there won't be any lumps. For kids I leave out the espresso and use the same amount of milk instead. You can also cook it the evening before, spoon it into a jar and keep it in the fridge overnight.

For my millet porridge with orange and cinnamon, you don't need to rinse the millet flakes, just stir them straight into the warm liquid. It is ready in 15 minutes, and if you cook it patiently over low heat it turns really creamy, almost like semolina porridge. I add the orange juice at the very end to keep it fresh, and leftovers reheat well the next morning with a splash of plant milk.

For the oats-to-liquid ratio and how to make oatmeal for the whole week, see my oatmeal guide with ratios and cooking times. Three more bowls from my kitchen show how much variety fits into one pot.

Fine rolled oats make my chocolate banana porridge with cardamom really creamy, and with coarse oats it takes 2 to 3 minutes longer and stays chewier. For the coconut quinoa porridge, use canned coconut milk, not the thin drinking kind from a carton, or the porridge loses its creaminess. And for the creamy porridge with cashew milk, I often make the toppings or an apple compote the evening before and cook only the porridge fresh in the morning. Here are all three:

Coconut Quinoa Porridge with Tropical Fruit

Chocolate Banana Porridge with Caramelized Banana

Creamy porridge with cashew milk

Make it the night before: bircher muesli and chia pudding

Bircher muesli and chia pudding set overnight in the fridge. The same goes for overnight oats: N.C. Cooperative Extension says the mixture belongs in the refrigerator overnight, not out on the counter.

In an N.C. Cooperative Extension article on overnight oatmeal safety, both professors it cites call keeping overnight oats at room temperature risky, but say there is no problem if the mixture is stored in the refrigerator overnight. The article adds that refrigeration can help mitigate the development of the bacterium B. cereus. So if you cook oatmeal to reheat later, cool it quickly and store it in the refrigerator.

My bircher muesli with apple, pear and cinnamon gets mixed in the evening, covered and left to soak in the fridge overnight, and by morning it's lovely and creamy. Without toppings, the base muesli keeps covered for 2 to 3 days in the fridge. A small squeeze of lemon juice keeps the grated fruit nice and bright.

My black chia pudding with fresh berries takes just 4 ingredients and 5 minutes in the evening, and the fridge does the rest overnight. Let it soak for at least 2 to 3 hours, and give it another good stir after the first 10 minutes so it thickens evenly. In a sealed jar it keeps for 3 to 4 days in the fridge. For more on soaking times, see my guide to soaking chia seeds.

From the jar and the fridge: granola and granola bars

In my recipes granola stays crunchy for 2 to 4 weeks in an airtight jar, and the granola bars stay fresh for at least a week in an airtight container in the fridge.

My crunchy chunky granola with chestnut puree bakes in 30 minutes with oats, nuts, seeds, coconut oil and maple syrup. For really big chunks, press the mixture firmly into the dish and let it cool fully before breaking it apart. In an airtight jar it stays crunchy for a good 2 weeks, but let it cool completely before filling the jar, otherwise the clusters go soft.

Let my blueberry granola bars with cashews and almonds cool completely in the pan before you cut them, that's when they hold together best. Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, they stay fresh for at least a week. Cut them first and freeze them with a little parchment paper in between, so you can grab a single bar for the lunchbox each morning.

Weekend pancakes and waffles

Pancakes and waffles are what I like to make on weekends, when there is time for the stove. Leftover waffles freeze well and crisp right back up in the toaster.

My mini banana pancakes with vegan caramel sauce take 35 minutes and make about 20 little pancakes, 3 servings. I always cook the caramel sauce first, so it has time to thicken while the pancakes are in the pan. Use bananas that are just ripe, softer ones fall apart in the hot oil. In a screw-top jar the sauce keeps about 1 week in the fridge, and leftover pancakes I warm up the next day in a dry pan.

My vegan pumpkin waffles with cinnamon, clove and nutmeg only taste faintly of pumpkin, it's mostly the warm autumn spices that come through, so add more cinnamon, clove and nutmeg if you like them bolder. Once cooled, the waffles keep in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days in the fridge. The pumpkin puree keeps for several days in the fridge, so it's great to prep ahead. They also freeze well: take out as many as you need and pop them in the toaster or waffle iron to make them lovely and crisp again.

Savory vegan breakfast: chickpea flour pancakes

If you'd rather start the day savory, go for chickpea flour pancakes filled with mushrooms, or buckwheat pancakes with spinach.

For my chickpea herb pancakes with a mushroom filling, be sure to let the batter rest for 15 to 30 minutes, then it cooks far more evenly. The mushrooms need room in the pan: sauté them undisturbed and they turn golden instead of watery. The savory pancakes are popular with kids too, and cold they make a nice lunchbox idea.

For the buckwheat pancakes with spinach, let the batter really rest for 10 to 15 minutes so the buckwheat flour can swell, which makes the pancakes nicely supple instead of crumbly. You can mix the batter the night before and keep it covered in the fridge, and leftover pancakes keep for 2 to 3 days in the fridge and reheat beautifully in a pan.

What to make for a vegan Christmas breakfast

For Christmas morning, anything that's ready the day before is a good fit: a chocolate orange granola, a porridge from a jar and a speculoos chocolate spread.

On Christmas morning nobody in our house should be stuck in the kitchen for long, so breakfast is ready the evening before.

Stored in an airtight jar, my crunchy chocolate orange granola with buckwheat stays lovely and crunchy for 3 to 4 weeks. Don't stir it while baking so you get big clusters, and fold in the chocolate drops only once it has cooled completely, otherwise they melt. The speculoos chocolate spread keeps for 2 to 3 weeks stored airtight in the fridge, and always use a clean spoon.

If the big dinner is happening that evening, my guide to prepping Christmas dinner ahead has a timeline for it. Three more ideas for the holiday breakfast table:

Speculoos-Chocolate Spread

Chocolate Granola

Crispy Vegan Apple Chia Waffles

How long does a make-ahead breakfast keep?

How long a make-ahead breakfast keeps depends on the recipe: in mine it ranges from 1 to 2 days in the fridge to 4 weeks in a jar. As a general rule, USDA FSIS says leftovers keep in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days and must be refrigerated within 2 hours of cooking.

The USDA FSIS guide to leftovers and food safety also says leftovers can be frozen for 3 to 4 months, and that reheated leftovers should reach 165 °F (74 °C) on a food thermometer. The table shows what my recipes say. When in doubt, go with the shorter time.

The pumpkin waffles and the blueberry granola bars also freeze well, and both creams of the speculoos chocolate spread freeze for about 3 months.

Fruit, nuts and color for your breakfast bowl

Harvard's Nutrition Source says variety is as important as quantity when it comes to vegetables and fruits. At breakfast, fruit on your porridge and nuts in your granola are an easy start.

The Nutrition Source page on vegetables and fruits recommends eating a variety of types and colors of produce, and breakfast makes that easy. Nuts go into my chunky granola, and almonds into my chocolate orange granola. In the photos of my recipes, the millet porridge is topped with blood orange, kiwi and pomegranate, the bircher muesli with berries and nuts, and the coconut quinoa porridge with mango, papaya, pineapple, passion fruit and toasted coconut flakes, so every bowl looks different.

Warm from the pot, cold from a jar or fresh off the waffle iron, a good breakfast doesn't have to be complicated, it just has to suit the morning. If you're trying Veganuary 2027 for a month, you already have 20 breakfasts lined up. Now it's your turn: what's your favorite breakfast, sweet or savory?

Yours, Verena

Recipes to try

Lemon-Ricotta Pancakes

Chia Coconut Pancakes

Apple muesli buns

Buckwheat pancakes with spinach