Best Breakfast?

[Pipsqueak]

What's your favourite veggie breakfast?

Weekdays it's usually muesli or bran flakes with soy milk, or a couple of pieces wholemeal toast and Marmite for me. But at the weekend we like to have a more tasty breakfast. Often one of the following:

1. Veggie Fry-up including:
Fried mushrooms, tinned whole tomatoes, tinned baked beans with mini veggie sausages, scrambled eggs and bread & butter/marge. Sometimes instead of baked beans with mini veggie sausages in, we have plain tinned beans along with some fried slices of Fry's Vegetarian Polony - it's the best bacon substitute I've tasted. This is my O/H's favourite weekend brekkie.

2. Drop Scones (with butter and maple syrup):
Mix 8oz Wholemeal Flour with 3 tsp Baking Powder, 1oz Brown Sugar, 2oz Raisins or Currants in a bowl.
Beat together 1/2 a pint of Milk (I use Soya) and 2 Free-Range Eggs.
Pour milk mixture into flour mixture and beat together to make a batter.
Add 1 - 2 tbs oil to a frying pan and heat.
When hot, drop largish (I use a small ladle, but a tablespoon would work just as well) spoonfuls of batter mix into the pan, three or four at a time. Keep them separate, as the mixture spreads out.
Cook for a few minutes until bubbles rise and pop on the surface of the drop scones, then flip over - be careful or the wet mix on the top will splodge.
Cook for two or three more minutes, until golden brown on the bottom (check with spatula).
Lift scones and put in a teacloth under a warm grill to keep hot while the rest of the mixture is cooked up. Add more oil as needed. Mixture should make about 12 drop scones altogether.
Serve with butter (or dairy free margarine) and maple syrup or honey.
Very moreish and great if you have guests. My OH also loves it when I make these on a Sunday morning.

3. Eggs Florentine approximately anyway:
Toasted muffins (English ones!) with steamed spinach and poached eggs on top. I just love this, my fave for the weekend.

[juker]

I usually stick with fruit for breakfast, I am not a big breakfasty person

Today I pushed the boat out and had crumpets with beans and tomato on, nice and healthy, filling, warm and quick to make! I just chopped the tomato and put into a pan, lightly heated until they were soft, added the baked beans on top and cooked through. Put them on top of 2 toasted crumpets

I have really taken a liking to the quorn best of british sausages, they make really nice sausage butties!

[Pipsqueak]

If we've had spuds and green veggies for yesterday's dinner, then another weekend breakfast favourite for us is bubble and squeak with fried eggs. Just mash up leftover spuds and greens, heat some oil in a pan and press the veggie mash into pan. Leave to cook for several minutes on a highish heat before turning, the bottom should be golden brown - if not then leave for longer. I cook and turn two or three times, so there's crispy bits throughout. Other people like to make it into a 'cake'. We serve it with fried eggs and (he has) brown sauce.

[Pipsqueak]

Three more ideas:

Scrambled Tofu - I'm a big fan of scrambled tofu, though not so much treated as a substitute for eggs with a fry up - I prefer to treat it as a hearty late-breakfast / early-lunch meal in it's own right. I like it cooked up with fresh veggies like spinach and mushrooms, and I often use Garam Masala to give it a warm spiciness. This is how I do it:
How do you cook tofu?

Crispy Potato Cake (served with Poached Eggs and Grilled Tomatoes) - Potatoes made into a golden crispy cake or rosti, is divine for breckie. We like it served in wedges with eggs and grilled tomatoes. Or anything really. Not a million miles away from bubble and squeak in theory, although you don't need pre-cooked potatoes to make rosti. I like mine lightly minted: Grate 1lb potatoes into a bowl add 1 finely chopped onion, 1 egg, 2 tbsp flour, 1-2 tsp dried mint and plenty of salt & pepper. Mix well. Heat some oil in a frying pan. Put the mixture into the pan, press down so it's evenly distributed. Cook 8-10 minutes, or until deep golden brown on the bottom (check by gently lifting with a spatula). Once browned (don't try to turn before it's brown or it will fall apart), carefully turn over and cook the other side for a further 8-10 minutes. Serve with tomatoes, mushrooms and eggs, or whatever you fancy.

Veggie Kedgeree - Kedgeree is a super old fashioned bit of Anglo-Indian cuisine, involving boiled rice, smoked fish and boiled eggs. In his veggie cookbook 'VEG Every Day' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall swaps the smoked fish for roasted aubergine. As a lover of savoury rather than sweet breakfasts, I really fancy this idea, so I think I'm going to try it one day next weekend. Hugh's recipe for 'Vegeree' is printed here (scroll down):
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's spelt salad and vegeree recipes from Veg Every Day! | Life and style | The Observer

[Pipsqueak]

One I read on Ocado reviews for veggie haggis which we're going to have soon as I have a veggie haggis in the freezer:

Grill slices of veggie haggis till crisped on the outside. Serve with poached eggs and hash browns.

I love veggie haggis, bit cheaper to get from Waitrose (£3.55 - it's the only supermarket that stocks it* ) than from health food stores. I'd never thought of having it for breakfast before though - definitely sounds promising!

* http://www.waitrose.com/shop/Product...etarian+haggis

[Pipsqueak]

*Gasp* I almost forgot a long standing favourite of mine (pre my dairy-free days anyway), Devilled Mushrooms on Toast.

It seems as though all kinds of mysterious animal innards used to be 'devilled' back in the fifties, though it's not a word you see used much in food journalism these days. It basically means 'spicy', 'hot' or 'piquant' and unsurprisingly, the root of this old fashioned cookery term lies in the word 'devil' itself!

Anyway, beelzebub and offally things aside, mushrooms are gorgeous when devilled. A great warming start to a cold Winter's day. I just thickly slice mushrooms, fry them in a little butter, add paprika or chili powder, some cream or creme fresh, some mustard and worcester sauce (V) and bung them on chunky slices of buttered toast from a nice seedy bloomer. The recipe here from Nick Nairn also adds a little wine, which I reckon would work great to lift the dish into the sublime:

BBC - Food - Recipes : Devilled mushrooms on toast

[Pipsqueak]

Veggie Kedgeree - Kedgeree is a super old fashioned bit of Anglo-Indian cuisine, involving boiled rice, smoked fish and boiled eggs. In his veggie cookbook 'VEG Every Day' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall swaps the smoked fish for roasted aubergine.

Another fish-free Veggie Kedgeree recipe that I made the other day here (pretty good actually, though I still fancy the roasted aubergines):

Cook 7oz Basmati rice till tender.
Meanwhile saute 2 finely sliced leeks in 1oz marge or oil for a few minutes.
Add 9oz sliced mushrooms and 4oz frozen peas, cook till vegetables are tender.
Stir in 1tbsp curry powder and cook for a further minute or two.
Add more oil or marge, melt, then stir in the rice and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Season with salt and pepper, mix well and heat through.
Serve garnished with 2 to 4 boiled free-range eggs, quartered.
Serves four.