Friends, I’ve changed my mind about breakfast. For the last couple of years, I’ve been calling myself “not a breakfast person” – simply because I’m not hungry until 12 pm or so. I have my coffee (sometimes black, sometimes with soy milk), and my stomach doesn’t talk to me until later. But like I said, I’ve changed my mind, and I’m making a point to eat breakfast before 11 am.
Chocolate Protein Power Smoothie
This one is for the runners, the gym bunnies, the climbing nuts. A delicious, milkshakey chocolate smoothie with a whopping 29 grams of protein to power your workout.
Berry Breakfast Smoothie
My best days are the ones that start with a smoothie. Really, I function so much better with this boost of nutrients! (In winter, I chase it with hot tea so my body temperature doesn’t take a dip.)
Chocolate Sourdough Pancakes
Over the last few months I’ve been trying my hand at making my own sourdough – first in Cape Town with great success, and more recently in Berlin with mixed success (I used rye, which totally changes the bread obviously, something I need to get used to). Anyway: the one thing about homemade sourdough is the darn sourdough discard that just goes to waste unless you get creative!
Tofu Scramble
You could fool many an egg-lover with a couple blocks of tofu, a some turmeric, and kala namak (black salt from volcanic rock, with a sulphurous taste). I’ve made variations of this scramble so many times over the years, for vegans and meat-eaters alike, and it’s always a hit. Depending on the type of tofu you use and what you add to it, you can really get a very eggy scramble going: but without the cholesterol and saturated fat.
Simple Banana Bread
There are many ways to make banana bread, but here’s a super simple one. Feel free to use this as a base, and add some fancy stuff like chopped walnuts, choc chips, or a long slice of banana on top to please the eye.
Savoury Chickpea Pancakes
When I was thoroughly into my “veganising everything” phase, one of the holy grails of vegan cuisine that I was trying to crack, was a vegan ‘omelette’. As you can imagine, there are a bunch of recipes online and I tried a few: some were cool, some not so much, but all were a bit complex with a long list of ingredients. So when I realised that the most important ingredient of a vegan omelette is chickpea flour (besan), and that there’s actually a very old Indian tradition of savoury pancakes made with besan, I was like, damn—that’s all I need.
Overnight Chia Pudding
I don’t know who first came up with the idea of “chia pudding”—my guess is that it stems from some ancient food tradition in Central America (since chia seeds originate in Mexico). Either way, I’m grateful! Chia seeds have a beautiful way of soaking up the liquid they’re mixed into and getting a jelly-like texture, making for a perfect little treat, with berries and some liquid sweetener. Plus, they’re a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids, protein and fibre.
Piña Colada Smoothie
Smoothies have become a regular feature in my daily meals when the weather’s warmer, I like making one in the late morning (I’m a coffee-no-breakfast kind of person). I always keep frozen banana chunks in my freezer, and often other fruit, too. When pineapples are in season, I’ll buy a couple, chop one up and freeze it for smoothies. The rest are all easily available pantry items that keep for months.
Vegan Blueberry Yoghurt Muffins
I’ve been getting into a rhythm of making my own homemade soy yoghurt every other week or so, which my flatmate and I have been absolutely loving. And then the other day I remembered that as a child, I used to help my mom bake muffins with buttermilk or yoghurt (dairy of course, since I barely knew what vegan meant then). So, since I had a full two litres of soy yoghurt on hand, I figured I’d try my hand at some blueberry yoghurt muffins. These are a bit indulgent, with both sugar and oil, so maybe keep these as a weekend treat! I made a batch and froze most of them to limit the temptation!
