No eggs? No problem. This vegan French toast recipe is easy to make with simple ingredients. Fluffy, light, and crisp, it's a delicious breakfast.
This vegan French toast recipe is just as good as the classic kind! It’s fluffy on the inside, crisp around the edges, and has a lightly sweet cinnamon flavor. You might think that it takes fussy ingredients to make French toast without eggs, but this recipe is secretly simple. Made with 9 pantry basics and ready in 20 minutes, it’s an easy, comforting, and delicious breakfast.
I first tried vegan French toast years ago (like…25) at the Pick Me Up Café in Chicago. Jack and I went there regularly when we had just started dating long distance and he would come into town to visit. Their vegan French toast was so yummy that it inspired me to make my own version at home.
I originally shared this vegan French toast recipe in 2013. Through years of making it on lazy weekends, I’ve gradually tweaked it to use even simpler ingredients and have a lighter, fluffier texture. I’m sharing an updated version today along with new recipe photos (my 2013 pictures were due for a refresh!). Whether you’re vegan or just out of eggs, I hope you love this recipe as much as I do.
Vegan French Toast Ingredients
You need 9 simple ingredients to make this easy vegan French toast recipe:
- Bread – I like to make this recipe with soft, thick-sliced bread. I try to use a sturdy bread like sourdough, French bread, ciabatta, or vegan brioche rather than flimsy sandwich bread. If you have to use sandwich bread, handle it carefully so that it doesn’t tear after dipping. Stale bread is ideal, as it will soak up the batter like a sponge. In a pinch, fresh bread works too.
- Unsweetened almond milk – It makes up the base of the batter. If you don’t keep almond milk on hand, feel free to substitute another non-dairy milk, like soy milk, coconut milk, or oat milk.
- Cornstarch – The secret ingredient in this vegan French toast recipe! It thickens the batter and helps it coat the outsides of the bread, giving the French toast delicious crispy edges.
- Baking powder – It helps the vegan French toast become light and fluffy as it cooks.
- Nutritional yeast – It adds a savory, “eggy” taste to the French toast batter.
- Maple syrup – For sweetness. You’ll mix a little into the batter and serve the French toast with more on top.
- Cinnamon – For warm depth of flavor.
- Coconut oil – For cooking.
- And sea salt – To make all the flavors pop!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Vegan French Toast
This recipe has three simple steps:
- Making the batter
- Dipping the bread
- Cooking the French toast
Start by making the batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, nutritional yeast, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Add the almond milk and maple syrup and whisk until smooth.
Then, dip the bread. Transfer the batter to a shallow dish and dip in the bread slices one at a time, turning to coat both sides.
Pan fry the slices until golden brown on both sides, for about 2 minutes per side over medium heat. If the outsides of the bread start to brown too quickly, reduce the heat to medium-low.
Recipe Tip
Depending on the size of your skillet or griddle, you might need to cook this French toast in batches. If that’s the case, spread cooked slices in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Tent them with foil and hold in a 200°F oven to keep them warm until you’re ready to serve.
Topping Ideas
This vegan French toast is delicious with just a drizzle of maple syrup, but it’s great with other toppings too! Here are a few more options we love:
- Fresh berries, like blueberries, raspberries, or sliced strawberries
- Other fresh fruit, like sliced bananas or these soft cinnamon apples
- Nut butter, like peanut butter or almond butter
- Strawberry compote, blueberry compote, or apple butter
- A dusting of powdered sugar
- Coconut whipped cream
What are your favorite toppings for this recipe? Let me know in the comments!
More Vegan Breakfast Recipes
If you love this recipe, try one of these vegan breakfast ideas next:
- Vegan Pancakes
- Tofu Scramble
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Or any of these 30 Vegan Breakfast Recipes!
Vegan French Toast
Ingredients
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Sea salt
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup, plus more for serving
- Coconut oil, for the pan
- 4 to 6 thick slices bread, slightly stale
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, nutritional yeast, cinnamon, baking powder, and a tiny pinch of salt. Add the almond milk and maple syrup and whisk until smooth. Pour into a shallow baking dish.
- Heat a nonstick griddle or skillet over medium heat and brush with coconut oil.
- Dip each slice of bread into the almond milk mixture, turning to coat both sides. Place into the skillet and cook for 2 minutes per side, or until golden brown. Reduce the heat to low as needed to cook thoroughly without burning. Work in batches if necessary, brushing the skillet with more coconut oil between batches.
- Serve with maple syrup.
I just made this. I can’t say it rocked my world but the end result was still decent enough. I’d try again with a softer bread. And at least I now know vegan french toast is possible! 🙂 Giving up animal products is so much easier than many people can imagine. I once was one of those “no way, no how” people.
Just made this and it was soooo good! Used plain soymilk and still delicious! Thanks for the recipe!
This is such an incredible recipe – thank you!! My fiance made this for me for my birthday breakfast with cinnamon roasted apples on top. He isn’t vegan at all, but he turned to me and said “I don’t know why all French toast isn’t vegan.” So delicious! I will be using the batter to make baked pumpkin French toast this year 🙂
ha! I love it! What a sweet fiance you have 🙂
I missed grocery shopping day yesterday and had run out of our normal breakfasts for my 2.5 year old son and I. We did have half a leftover baguette in the fridge and a little single serve box of soy milk, plus the other staples, so french toast it was! So glad Google brought up your recipe, it was really delicious but even better, it was SO easy. I think I see more french toast in our future!!
Hi Gina,
I’m so happy to hear, thanks for sharing!
I just made this with left over vegan challah. Amazing – so easy and so yummy. I had unsweetened vanilla almond milk and I wasn’t sure what type the recipe called for so I doubled the maple syrup in the recipe. (I like to err on too sweet!!!) It was a big hit!
I found you by looking for vegan french toast, and just tried this yumminess!! The nutritional yeast was a little strange at first, but once I added some syrup and fruit it definitely did add a little balance to all the sugar. I recently had some v. french toast with orange extract in it, and I think that would go AWESOME in this too, maybe hide the nutritional yeast a bit but also still let the flavor be there?? Thanks so much for sharing!
Hi Christina, glad you liked! If you felt like it was too nutritional yeast-ey, you could also just add less (or omit and add a little salt to balance…). I think the extract idea sounds wonderful!
I’m vegan and made this for my girlfriends birthday today! It was amazing, best french toast I’ve ever had. Thanks so much for the recipe!
I cannot tell you how excited I am to have found your amazing site! I am what I call a half vegan (very strict vegetarian, no eggs, but still eat cheese) and my boyfriend is a meat eater but likes to experiment with health food with me. I made him this vegan french toast for his birthday yesterday and he loved it so much we made it again today. So happy I found all your beautiful, healthy, unique, but somewhat easy recipes! Sometimes it’s hard keeping variety in vegetarian meals (especially with little time) and these are awesome… Thank you!
Thanks! So glad you’re finding some inspiration (and some variety!). So funny, I’m the opposite – limit cheese, but I eat tons of eggs. But I try to bake without eggs just so I can post things everyone can enjoy.
This is a very good recipe. Thank you for posting it. I just made it this morning, with vegan cinnamon-raisin bread. It was delicious.
ooh that sounds delicious, glad you liked it!
oh my goodness this was amazing (as with all of your recipes!). I even made a little post celebrating it! thank you for the vegan recipes–i love them!
graceblumberg.blogspot.com
thanks Grace! So glad you liked it 🙂
This is a great vegan recipe! I have made some vegan french toast without applesauce and fruit juice, it is delicious. Check it out.
http://free-vegan.com/vegan-french-toast-recipe/
Love to see vegan recipes on your beautiful blog – keep ’em coming! This looks incredible, btw.
Love the container of the almond milk on the picture. Thanks also for having so many vegan recipes lately, so I don’t have to veganize them.
Grüße aus Berlin
Thanks, I really love it too :). I’m trying to bake less with eggs, which I find to be the hardest part.
This looks amazing! I think I’ll be requesting it for Mother’s Day brunch. 🙂
I love this! Thanks so much for posting, looks delicious
I’m not vegan but it’s always nice to have an alternative, especially when you don’t have certain ingredients on hand. Can’t wait to try this when I’m off my self imposed starchy carbs ban.
I’m not a vegan but your picture looked so delicious that I want to have French toast for breakfast this weekend. It’s been a while since last time!
I like French Toast any way I can get it! This looks delicious for the vegan or non vegan eater 🙂
I love this idea! So many of my readers are not only gluten-free, but dairy-free or vegan. I think I’ll try using tapioca gel (a mixture of tapioca flour/starch and water) along with gluten-free bread to create a dairy-free gluten-free version. Thanks so much for the inspiration. I love your blog! I found you via Huffington Post’s article on Food Bloggers: The top 10 of February.
What a cute story, it’s no wonder he was ‘madly’ in love. I can’t imagine you ever being late to anything, you’re way too detail oriented. It must have been the train’s fault, right? Right? Great looking breakfast spread!
oh you have no idea… me and airports… I’m always running 🙂