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These vegan breakfast sandwiches are absolutely delicious and super satisfying! Made with “eggy” chickpea flour patties, smoky tempeh bacon, and spicy cashew cheese, they’re loaded with flavor and great for make-ahead breakfasts.
A vegan breakfast sandwich sounds like one of those things that can be really good, or really, really terrible.
So which are these? Well, I’ll say this: I served them to my family for brunch a while back, and I was pretty nervous. Plant-based breakfast sandwiches (even the really, really good variety) can be weird to non-vegans, and we’ve got a few in the fam.
But you know what? They LOVED them. I was pleasantly surprised when every plate of sandwich fillings was picked clean. These vegan breakfast sandwiches were absolutely scrumptious.
Jump to:
- Ingredients You’ll Need
- How They’re Made
- Leftovers & Storage
- Meal-Prep Options
- More Savory Vegan Breakfasts
- Eggy Vegan Breakfast Sandwiches
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Raw cashews. These are going to be the base for our vegan cheese spread that goes on the sandwiches. Make sure your cashews are raw, and not roasted, or the cheese will taste funny.
- Hot sauce. Use a milder, vinegar-based hot sauce, such as Cholula.
- Water.
- Salt.
- Chickpea flour. Chickpea flour has a naturally savory flavor that works well for eggy recipes. It also can be whipped into a batter and cooked up into little vegan egg patties that fit perfectly into an English muffin. Chickpea flour might also be labelled as gram or besan flour. Look for it in the natural foods or international foods section of your supermarket.
- Nutritional yeast flakes. You can’t substitute baker’s yeast here — they’re two totally different things. If nutritional yeast is a new ingredient to you, you can learn more about it here. It will give your vegan egg patties a savory, cheesy flavor. Look for it in your supermarket’s natural foods section.
- Baking powder.
- Spices. We’re using cumin, paprika, turmeric, and black pepper.
- Kala namak. This ingredient is also known as black salt. It’s a variety of salt with a high sulfur content, so it’s great for making things taste eggy. You can usually find it at Indian markets, or online.
- Soy sauce. Tamari or liquid aminos can be substituted if needed.
- Olive oil. Feel free to substitute with any high-heat oil.
- English muffins. Be careful, as many English muffin brands are not vegan. Try Trader Joe’s, Dave’s Killer Bread, or Ezekiel brand. Or try my homemade vegan English muffin recipe. And feel free to use toast, bagels or pita bread instead!
- Vegan bacon. The recipe calls for tempeh bacon, but feel free to substitute tofu bacon, coconut bacon, or your favorite store-bought brand of vegan bacon.
- Baby spinach. You can substitute lettuce, arugula, baby kale, or another green if you’d like.
- Additional toppings of choice. Whatever you like on your breakfast sandwiches works here! Try ketchup, mustard, vegan mayo, avocado…or even all of the above!
Tip: Want to make gluten-free vegan breakfast sandwiches? Substitute gluten-free tamari for the soy sauce. As for the bread component, I’m not sure if vegan gluten-free English muffins are a thing. If you can find them, use them! If not, feel free to substitute vegan gluten-free toast, bagels or pita bread.
How They’re Made
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you’d like to skip right to the recipe!
Make the Cashew Cheese
Make this first so it’s ready to go when you’re ready to assemble the vegan breakfast sandwiches.
- Soak your cashews in water overnight to soften them up, then drain and rinse them.
- Stick them into a food processor, along with some hot sauce, water, and salt. Blend until smooth!
Tip: This recipe makes more cashew cheese than you’ll probably need. I don’t recommend cutting down on the batch size, unless you have a very small blending device. If you have leftovers, try it as a dip or sandwich spread, or freeze it for later!
Make the Eggy Patties
- Whisk your dry ingredients together in a bowl: chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder, spices, salt, and pepper. Whisk in some water and soy sauce.
- Heat up your oil in a skillet, then drop the batter in by about ¼ cupfuls. You want to make your patties just about the same diameter as an English muffin.
- Cook the patties for a few minutes on each side — just like pancakes!
Assemble
- Now just assemble your sandwiches and dig on in!
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover vegan breakfast sandwich patties will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Reheat them in the microwave or in a 350°F oven.
Leftover cashew cheese sauce will keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for about 4 days, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
Meal-Prep Options
Depending on how much time you have, try one of these meal-prep options for your vegan breakfast sandwiches:
- Assemble the sandwiches without greens and store them in sealed containers in the fridge (up to 3 days) or freezer (up to 3 months) then thaw (if needed), zap or heat in the oven (around 350°) until hot. You can add greens before serving if you like.
- Store each of the components for these sandwiches separately, then heat and assemble the sandwiches when you’re ready.