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 made French toast today with this concept and it was delish! I had so delicious sweet creamer and used that instead of almond milk. Sprinkled some nutritional yeast and ground flax into the mixture, then cinnamon and nutmeg. Used slightly stale cinnamon raisin loaf cut thick. You made my breakfasts!!!
Hi Melanie, I’m so glad you loved the french toast!!
This dish is delectable and it is inviting me to eat thank you for sharing.
I just made this recipe for the first time and it was great! I love how this recipe utilized nutritional yeast. I haven’t really used nutritional yeast for other recipe other than “cheesy” flavors. Two thumbs up for that. I’m also happy to use coconut oil; I usually make pancakes and french toast w/ vegan butter.
Just to share about the substitutions I made based on what I had available in my house:
I used this Nine Grain Tuscan loaf from the Target bakery that I’ve had for about a week. Its like a seedy bread, came out great. I was able to get about 8 slices out of the liquid, although the bread wasn’t super big or small. I used regular all purpose flour instead of what was listed because I didn’t have the others. For my milk, I used half Ripple (pea protein) milk and half of So Delicious Coconut milk, only because I ran out of milk and had to run to the store for more. I also added about a teaspoon of vanilla extract. I cooked it on a griddle and it came out just fine. It allowed me to cook it quicker, in 2 batches and it didn’t leave the others cooked earlier cold.
Thanks for this recipe!!
After watching “What you eat matters 2018 Documentary H.O.P.E.” Last night, today I (And my family, because I am the primary cook) begin a vegan diet. I googled “vegan breakfast@ and came upon this recipe. I’m running out to Whole Foods to restock my kitchen and am looking forward to making this my first recipe. Being a cook my entire life and finding lately meat and dairy turn me off I welcome the change and excited at the challenge of making vegan magic in my kitchen. I’m so excited and feel better just thinking about it! After breakfast I plan on finding out who these “famous vegan chefs” are and their recipes!
Good luck! This happened to my family and I recently as well when we watched “What the Health” on Netflix. We all became vegan around October 2017- my husband, 3 yr old, 5 yr old and myself. I am also currently 8 months pregnant and was able to get through my pregnancy so far without reverting back. My kids do really well too; they even refuse to eat some things including dessert people offer them b/c its not vegan! I wish you guys just as much success!
Tried this recipe and it turned out really good. Thanks for sharing it.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
This looks like the perfect french toast! Amazing!
Wonderful recepie! Just made it this morning and loved it. I actually used it with killer daves brand organic bagles due to not having any bread :p and it actually turned out fantastically!
ha, so glad it worked just as well with bagels! Thanks for coming back to share!
I’ve been craving french toast lately, especially since I found some vegan, gluten free “Texas” toast. This sounds much better than the way I’ve been making it. Thanks!!
I guess you already heard that this recipe is great, but I want to say it as well.
OMG OMG OMG! this was so delicious!! I served it with powdered sugar, maple syrup and a homemade raspberry&blackberry sauce. I shared a link to your recipe in our facebookgroup for Dutch vegans, cuz they need to eat this as well. thanx for sharing!
yay!! I’m so happy to hear that you loved this!! Thank you so much for sharing too!
This was delicious! I was worried about the nutritional yeast as it can sometimes be an overpowering flavor, but it was perfect in this recipe. I made it exactly as written (using spelt flour) and sourdough bread. So good! Thank you!
I can’t find nutritional yeast anywhere can I use something else
sorry this one didn’t work out for you.
esas son las Torrejas españolas…
salio cualquier cosa en el comentario. Dije que esa receta son las TORREJAS ESPAÑOLAS
Had made some fresh almond milk and so used it and the almond pulp instead of flour. So delicious! Thanks!
Hi does anyone know if I can use normal bread?
hiya!
i was just going to start maintaining a vegan diet and was wondering if you knew any other healthy breakfast ideas? and i was wondering if this was considered ‘healthy’?
Where would the best place to grab these ingredients be ? Safeway? Trader Joe’s? Whole foods ? Hope to make this for my vegan girlfriend soon !
Hi Anthony, you should find everything at Whole Foods and probably also at Trader Joe’s.
Thanks! I actually went to safeway last night and managed to find everything there. Except the nutrional yeast. But I made it for her and I this morning and we both loved it. I surprised her with it. It was good without the yeast but I do wanna try with it :). Thank you for the recipe !!
Aw, that’s so sweet! Glad you both enjoyed it 🙂
Thank you :). She began the transition to becoming vegan 3 weeks ago and she’s been making a lot of vegan meals. I just wanted to show her that I support her as well.
Thank you again for your time and the recipe 🙂
Not as good a flavor as vegan French toast with a banana base. The flavor isn’t bad, but it’s kind of bland. Cutting the bread extra thick seemed to help keep the bread from staying soggy, too. I didn’t really care for the nutritional yeast after taste, either. I loved the use of the coconut oil for cooking, though. I’m notorious for burning oil in the pan when I make pancakes or French toast. The higher smoke point (?) of the coconut helps prevent that–plus the flavor is great! Thank you for the recipe!
Hi is there a substitute for the yeast? Where I live in England we don’t have any health food shops, nor do I have much money to order it online. Hoping to make it for Valentines Day though!
Hi Ellen, some other readers have told me that they’ve skipped it and it’s turned out fine. It doesn’t affect the texture as much as it helps replicate the (slightly eggy) taste. There’s really not an ingredient to substitute it, so I would just try skipping it…
I just used your recipe and it was soooo delicious. Thank you for sharing. This will be a stable in my weekend meals.
Hi Paula – yay, I’m glad you liked it! Happy Sunday to you 🙂