Who doesn’t love french toast piled high with fresh fruit, drizzled with hot maple syrup, and the smell of cinnamon wafting out of the kitchen on a lazy Sunday morning? Yum, count me in! This Vegan French Toast is quick and easy to whip up, and doesn’t have to be an unhealthy way to start the day!
We all grew up with the idea that eggs are required to make french toast, but this isn’t true at all! Eggs (or butter or cow’s milk for that matter) aren’t necessary for cooking or even baking, everything can be done without animal products.
What’s wrong with eggs?
For the majority of my life, I viewed eggs as a health food item. This couldn’t be further from the reality.
Body builders were chugging raw eggs. My active days were started off with a plate full of fried eggs, a scramble, or an omelet. Go to any breakfast restaurant and nearly every single menu item is egg-based. Eggs, it’s what’s for breakfast! Since eggs are loaded with protein, what better way to fuel the body?
Where do I start? Egg white is essentially pure animal protein — which is not a good thing even if you are a bodybuilder! Animal protein is hard on your kidneys; it creates more acid in the blood and puts pressure on the kidneys to filter and process all those substances. And the yolk? A powerhouse of cholesterol. A single egg has around 213 milligrams of cholesterol, which is more cholesterol than an 8-oz steak and double the amount of cholesterol in a Big Mac. In one single egg! Eggs have no fiber to blunt the effects from all that cholesterol.
Our body makes cholesterol so we don’t need any from outside sources, otherwise our health takes a toll. A study done in 2021 found that consuming half an egg per day was associated with more deaths from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and all causes. “For every 300 milligrams of dietary cholesterol consumed per day, mortality risk increased by up to 24%.”1. Scientists are measuring in increments of half of an egg, not even a whole one. Who is eating half of an egg? If someone is regularly having 3 eggs for breakfast, that’s over 600 milligrams of cholesterol from the eggs alone! That’s not even taking into account the bacon or sausage that’s lying alongside the eggs on the plate.
Eating just a single egg a week appeared to increase the odds of diabetes by 76%. Two eggs a week appeared to double the odds, and just a single egg a day tripled the odds.2
60% of the calories in eggs are from fat, and much of that is saturated fat. A diet too high in fat can increase your risk for diabetes, and eggs certainly fit the bill. It’s not the carbs that’s the problem, it’s the fat.
What type of bread is best?
Nothing soft! Make sure the bread you use is sturdy and not too thickly sliced, otherwise the french toast will be soggy in the middle. Slightly stale bread is great, that’s traditionally how it’s made!
Why add flaxseeds?
Flaxseeds add a slight thickness to the batter and are also loaded with nutrients!
Flaxseeds are small but mighty, packing an impressive amount of omega-3s (1 Tbsp contains 1,597 mg!), lignans, and fiber as well as vitamins and minerals. Make sure you’re consuming ground flaxseeds (flaxseed meal) as the whole seeds will just pass through before the body has a chance to extract the nutrients.
What are lignans?
Lignans are a phytoestrogen and antioxidant. Flaxseeds contain 75 to 800 times more lignans than other plant foods!3
Everyone’s heard the speculation that phytoestrogens may increase hormone-related cancers, but that is not the case! Phytoestrogens are not the same as mammalian estrogen; they are significantly weaker and don’t behave the same in the body.
Phytoestrogens have estrogenic and anti-estrogenic effects in the body, which means when you consume phytoestrogens your body produces less active forms of mammalian estrogen. This reduces breast cancer risk and can also help with menopausal symptoms!4
I sneak flaxseeds into everything! You can’t even tell they’re in the french toast batter, but I also put them into my green smoothies, oatmeal, cereal, and sprinkled on top of pastas or burritos!
Is French Toast French Food?
Nope! It didn’t come out of France at all. It seems that French Toast may have originated as early as the Roman Empire! The Romans referred to it as Pan Dulcis, they would dip slices of bread in milk and sometimes egg, then fry it. The original recipe is found in the ancient cookbook, Apicius.
During the Medieval Period, cooks would dip stale bread into the milk and egg mixture and then cook it as a way to prevent food from being wasted.
In France, French Toast is called “pain perdu,” meaning lost bread, because the bread that’s used is stale.
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Sunday Morning Vegan French Toast
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 Pieces 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This delicious Sunday Morning Vegan French Toast is quick and easy to whip up , dairy and egg-free, with all the same cinnamon-spiced flavors from childhood!
Ingredients
- 1 cup Plant milk (I prefer soy)
- 3 Tbsp Cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp Flaxseed meal (ground flaxseeds, not whole)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Maple Syrup
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp Nutmeg (optional)
- pinch of Sea salt
- 8 Slices of bread (Sturdy/firm bread)
Optional toppings for serving
- Fresh or defrosted frozen fruit
- Maple syrup
- Vegan butter
- Nut butter
- Hemp Seeds to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- If you’re using frozen berries as a topping, pull these out beforehand so they have time to defrost in a bowl on the counter!
- In wide shallow casserole dish or bowl, whisk together: cornstarch, plant milk, flaxseed, vanilla, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a pinch of sea salt until all clumps are gone. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Heat large skillet (I like to have two skillets going at once so the operation moves faster) on medium heat with a drizzle of olive or avocado oil if pan isn’t non-stick. Careful not to cook too hot otherwise the bread might stick to the pan and burn rather than cook to a golden brown!
- Dip bread in batter quickly, one side and then the other, and place on skillet. Cook first side for several minutes and flip once it’s golden brown, then cook second side until it’s also golden.
- Serve immediately with choice of toppings: fruit, maple syrup, vegan butter, and/or nut butter.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: American, European, Roman
If you enjoyed this Vegan French Toast, I’d love to hear! Leave me a comment below. 🙂
- https://www.pcrm.org/good-nutrition/nutrition-information/health-concerns-with-eggs?gclid=CjwKCAjw7vuUBhBUEiwAEdu2pHaDdEmF9fNII7HdOtNYyWHCf4xjwU30v2KefhFZPsBoBBoz0p1HBxoCJs4QAvD_BwE
- https://nutritionfacts.org/questions/why-are-eggs-bad-for-you/
- https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/benefits-of-flaxseed#1
- https://www.oncologynutrition.org/erfc/healthy-nutrition-now/foods/flaxseeds-and-breast-cancer
Such a tasty treat and fun with different toppings!
Glad you enjoyed! I never used to put peanut butter on french toast, but paired with the fruit and maple syrup it’s my new favorite topping!