The best vegan French toast is crispy on the outside, tender on the inside and makes the perfect breakfast! You won’t miss the eggs at all.
When I was first thinking about making vegan french toast, I really had no clue how to make this happen. I mean french toast is just so…..eggy. Like…how would you do this without eggs?
Well the answer turned out to be a little chickpea flour with non-dairy milk and a few other ingredients to mimic the ‘eggy’ flavor. And wow, it works so well!
Chickpea flour works wonderfully to create ‘eggy’ dishes, we’ve used it for our vegan scrambled eggs and our vegan omelette.
Of course it’s not like what you’re used to, if what you’re used to is the regular (egg) version. But I tell you, it works. And it’s damn tasty.
How To Make Vegan French Toast
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
This recipe is super easy and takes only around 30 minutes or less from beginning to end, which is the way I like it.
Just whisk up the wet ingredients in a bowl and slice up some bread into thick sturdy slices.
Dip the bread in the wet mix (both sides) and then fry it in a hot frying pan with a little coconut oil.
The frying pan should be very hot and the combination of the mix that you dip the bread in, plus the coconut oil creates the perfectly browned result you see here. It’s crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, with a deliciously light flavor.
You will love this vegan french toast for its perfectly sweet taste and mix of subtle flavors, its texture, and how quick and easy it is to make.
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
Chickpea flour. We used chickpea flour but you can also make this with all purpose flour. I have tested this recipe with all purpose flour and I found it worked just as well. Chickpea flour is a little more suited to an eggy vibe, but it’s not a huge difference. So whatever you have on hand will be great.
Nutritional Yeast is a very versatile ingredient. It can be used to create cheesy flavors, buttery flavors AND eggy flavors! Of course it’s here for eggy flavor.
Black Salt: We used regular salt in this recipe but if you happen to have some black salt aka kala namak on hand, then you can use half black salt and half regular salt. Black salt isn’t actually black at all, but is a salt that has a very strong eggy taste. It’s quite miraculous. It’s not at all crucial in this recipe, but if you have some on hand you can use it.
Sturdy Bread: The first time I tried this recipe the only bread I had on hand was pre-sliced sandwich bread, and that struggled a bit to stay together. Soft, thinly sliced sandwich bread is an issue because as soon as you dunk it in the batter it will want to break apart. So you really need a sturdy sort of bread that you can slice thick. If it’s a bit stale too that’s even better.
I used a sourdough bread for this recipe that had also been sitting for a couple of days so it was a little stale. That was just perfect for this recipe.
Serving Suggestions
You can serve it plain or with some maple syrup, or if you want to get a bit fancy, some jams, vegan whipped cream and fresh berries! It’s a pretty fine breakfast no matter how you serve it.
Make Ahead & Storing
You can prepare the ingredients in advance and keep the dipping mix in the fridge until you’re ready to start. However, I would not fry the French toast in advance, because that needs to be served warm and crispy.
This recipe does not store or freeze well, so it’s best served hot and fresh.
More Delicious Vegan Breakfast Recipes
- Vegan Quiche
- Vegan Pancakes
- Vegan Banana Bread
- Vegan Waffles
- Vegan Blueberry Muffins
- Super ‘Eggy’ Vegan Tofu Scramble
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan French Toast
Ingredients
- 1 cup Soy Milk (240ml) or other non-dairy milk
- 4 Tablespoons Chickpea Flour
- 2 Tablespoons Nutritional Yeast Flakes
- 1 Tablespoon Maple Syrup
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Salt or ¼ tsp black salt / kala namak and ¼ tsp regular salt*
- 6 Slices Bread Thick sliced
- Coconut Oil For frying
Instructions
- Add the chickpea flour (or all purpose flour if you’re using) to a shallow bowl and add just a dash of soy milk and mix in until smooth. Then add the rest of the soy milk.
- Add the nutritional yeast, maple syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt and whisk together.
- Heat up a frying pan with some coconut oil.
- Soak a slice of bread in the batter for a few seconds on each side, and then place onto the frying pan to cook until browned on each side.
- Serve as is or drizzled with syrup or jam and topped with vegan whipped cream.
Video
Notes
- Black salt – if you have black salt aka kala namak on hand then you can use half black salt and half regular salt. Black salt adds more ‘eggy’ flavor to recipes.
- Coconut oil – I find coconut oil to be very helpful in getting the outsides nice and browned and the most similar to ‘regular’ French toast. I added a bit more coconut oil (around one teaspoon) with every slice of french toast.
- Stale, sturdy bread – I used a sourdough bread that was a little stale. Cut thickly it made the perfect kind of slices for making french toast. You will definitely get the best results if you choose a sturdy kind of bread (not soft sandwich bread) that you can slice thickly, and it’s also ideal if it’s a little on the stale side rather than ultra fresh.
- Nutritional information – is for one slice of French Toast, served as is, no additional toppings.
- This recipe was first published in February 2016 now updated with a few added tips and tricks!
- Recipe adapted from Peta.
I’ve tried numerous vegan French toast recipes since becoming vegan many years ago and this is the best by far! I blend everything in a blender to make it smooth and I tried adding a tablespoon of cornstarch just to make it a bit thicker. Everyone in my family loves this!
So happy to hear you enjoy the recipe Michelle! Thank you so much for your wonderful review!
Looking forward to making this soon! Are there any other flours you’d recommend besides chickpea or AP regular? Trying to make it GF, but chickpea flour gives some folks in our home issues.
You could try a gluten free all purpose blend.
I’ve tried a dozen different vegan French toast recipes, and this one truly is the very BEST! Even non vegan family members were shocked at how amazingly delicious it was and preferred it to a traditional chicken egg version. Sooo good!!!
Awesome! Thanks so much Tatiana!
This French Toast was amazing! It is the best I’ve tried yet! I did however have a hard time getting the flour to mix into the Almond milk. It was very lumpy. In my opinion, a “dash” is not enough to get it to mix right. I will add more in the beginning to mix it smoothly then add the rest. I also love my french toast to have that “eggy” taste…so next time I’ll omit the regular salt and just use 1/2 tsp of the black salt. Yum! Thank you!
Hi Vicki, yes the amount of non dairy milk should just be enough so that you can mix it into a paste and then mix it the rest of the way with the remaining milk. So glad you liked the recipe! Thanks so much for the great review.
This recipe saved my breakfast! Had bread but nothing to make with it other than plain bread lmao and I found this and will be using it in the future. I used water and brown sugar and it turned out great! So crispy and tasty! I struggle with asthma so I always skip eggs so this was a real treat! Thanks!
So glad it turned out great! Thanks for the great review Ellie!
I was so skeptical about the chickpea flour and nooch, but took a chance anyway because other recipes I found required a blender or used banana. How delicious! Tastes just like the French toast from my fave vegan brunch place. Thanks, Alison.
Yay! So happy to hear that Rochelle! Thanks for the great review.
So delicious! I didn’t have any vanilla extract so used almond extract instead, I also whisked up some leftover aquafaba and added a tablespoon of plant cream to the mixture and used vegan butter and coconut oil to fry them and it worked well. I didn’t have any stale sour dough only thin fresh sandwich bread, but it was still really delicious. I can only imagine how good it would be with your recommendations. Yum 🙂
Awesome Emma! So glad it worked out great! Thanks for sharing and the brilliant review!
Can I use vegan butter to cook it in instead?
Yes sure! 🙂
just a question, I had few pieces of bread soaked with the batter, it will be ok to save them for next day, of course stored in the refrigerator? or for next time is is better to just save the batter and use it next day.
It would be better to just save the batter for the next day. If the bread is already soaked then I would just go ahead and cook it.
I used plain bagels that I had leftover, and it was delicious!
Didn’t have chick pea flour so I used regular flour, and as you said it worked fine. Next time I will do it as per your recipe, Thanks! I will make it again!
Can I use agave nectar instead of maple syrup
Sure!
Absolutely amazing! Thank you so much. My daughter who is 8 and newly vegan adored these! I have never made French toast before but honestly think these are the best I have ever had. I used wholemeal sliced bread ( thats what we had ) I mixed all the wet ingredients first then added the dry whisking all the time as Stefan suggested. This will now become a staple for us. Genius!
Awesome! So happy to hear that! Thanks for the great review.
Do I have to add nutritional yeast?
You can leave it out if you prefer.