These vegan breakfast sandwiches are absolutely delicious and super satisfying! Made with "eggy" chickpea flour patties, smoky tempeh bacon, and spicy cashew cheese, they're loaded with flavor and great for make-ahead breakfasts.
A vegan breakfast sandwich sounds like one of those things that can be really good, or really, really terrible.
So which are these? Well, I'll say this: I served them to my family for brunch a while back, and I was pretty nervous. Plant-based breakfast sandwiches (even the really, really good variety) can be weird to non-vegans, and we've got a few in the fam.
But you know what? They LOVED them. I was pleasantly surprised when every plate of sandwich fillings was picked clean. These vegan breakfast sandwiches were absolutely scrumptious.
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Raw cashews. These are going to be the base for our vegan cheese spread that goes on the sandwiches. Make sure your cashews are raw, and not roasted, or the cheese will taste funny.
- Hot sauce. Use a milder, vinegar-based hot sauce, such as Cholula.
- Water.
- Salt.
- Chickpea flour. Chickpea flour has a naturally savory flavor that works well for eggy recipes. It also can be whipped into a batter and cooked up into little vegan egg patties that fit perfectly into an English muffin. Chickpea flour might also be labelled as gram or besan flour. Look for it in the natural foods or international foods section of your supermarket.
- Nutritional yeast flakes. You can't substitute baker's yeast here — they're two totally different things. If nutritional yeast is a new ingredient to you, you can learn more about it here. It will give your vegan egg patties a savory, cheesy flavor. Look for it in your supermarket's natural foods section.
- Baking powder.
- Spices. We're using cumin, paprika, turmeric, and black pepper.
- Kala namak. This ingredient is also known as black salt. It's a variety of salt with a high sulfur content, so it's great for making things taste eggy. You can usually find it at Indian markets, or online.
- Soy sauce. Tamari or liquid aminos can be substituted if needed.
- Olive oil. Feel free to substitute with any high-heat oil.
- English muffins. Be careful, as many English muffin brands are not vegan. Try Trader Joe's, Dave's Killer Bread, or Ezekiel brand. Or try my homemade vegan English muffin recipe. And feel free to use toast, bagels or pita bread instead!
- Vegan bacon. The recipe calls for tempeh bacon, but feel free to substitute tofu bacon, coconut bacon, or your favorite store-bought brand of vegan bacon.
- Baby spinach. You can substitute lettuce, arugula, baby kale, or another green if you'd like.
- Additional toppings of choice. Whatever you like on your breakfast sandwiches works here! Try ketchup, mustard, vegan mayo, avocado...or even all of the above!
Tip: Want to make gluten-free vegan breakfast sandwiches? Substitute gluten-free tamari for the soy sauce. As for the bread component, I'm not sure if vegan gluten-free English muffins are a thing. If you can find them, use them! If not, feel free to substitute vegan gluten-free toast, bagels or pita bread.
How They're Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Make the Cashew Cheese
Make this first so it's ready to go when you're ready to assemble the vegan breakfast sandwiches.
- Soak your cashews in water overnight to soften them up, then drain and rinse them.
- Stick them into a food processor, along with some hot sauce, water, and salt. Blend until smooth!
Tip: This recipe makes more cashew cheese than you'll probably need. I don't recommend cutting down on the batch size, unless you have a very small blending device. If you have leftovers, try it as a dip or sandwich spread, or freeze it for later!
Make the Eggy Patties
- Whisk your dry ingredients together in a bowl: chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder, spices, salt, and pepper. Whisk in some water and soy sauce.
- Heat up your oil in a skillet, then drop the batter in by about ¼ cupfuls. You want to make your patties just about the same diameter as an English muffin.
- Cook the patties for a few minutes on each side — just like pancakes!
Assemble
- Now just assemble your sandwiches and dig on in!
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover vegan breakfast sandwich patties will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Reheat them in the microwave or in a 350°F oven.
Leftover cashew cheese sauce will keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for about 4 days, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
Meal-Prep Options
Depending on how much time you have, try one of these meal-prep options for your vegan breakfast sandwiches:
- Assemble the sandwiches without greens and store them in sealed containers in the fridge (up to 3 days) or freezer (up to 3 months) then thaw (if needed), zap or heat in the oven (around 350°) until hot. You can add greens before serving if you like.
- Store each of the components for these sandwiches separately, then heat and assemble the sandwiches when you're ready.
More Savory Vegan Breakfasts
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📖 Recipe
Eggy Vegan Breakfast Sandwiches
Ingredients
For the Spicy Cashew Cheese
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water 4 to 8 hours, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons vinegar-based hot sauce (such as Cholula), plus more, to taste
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened and unflavored non-dairy milk, plus more as needed
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the Eggy Chickpea Patties
- ⅔ cup chickpea flour
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon Kala namak (for eggy flavor, can substitute table salt)
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon olive oil (or high-heat oil of choice)
For the Sandwiches
- 4 vegan English muffins, split and toasted
- ½ batch tempeh bacon (optional)
- ½ cup baby spinach
- Additional fillings or sauces of choice, such as salsa, ketchup, sliced vegan cheese, avocado, etc.
Instructions
To Make the Spicy Cashew Cheese
- Place all ingredients into the bowl of a food processor fitted with an s-blade. Blend until smooth.
- Taste-test the mixture and adjust the seasonings to your liking. Thin the mixture with additional milk if it seems too thick. Blend again.
To Make the Eggy Chickpea Patties
- Whisk the chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder, cumin, paprika, turmeric, kala namak and black pepper together in a small bowl.
- Whisk in the water and soy sauce.
- Coat the bottom of a medium skillet with olive oil and place it over medium heat.
- Give the oil a minute to heat up, then pour about ¼ cup of batter into the skillet, making an approximately 3-inch patty. Repeat for as many patties as you can fit into the skillet without crowding.
- Cook the patties for 3 to 4 minutes, until bubbles form in the center, then flip and cook about 3 to 4 minutes more, until set and lightly browned.
- Remove the patties from the skillet and transfer them to a plate. Repeat the process until all of the batter is used.
To Assemble the Sandwiches
- Slather the inside of one or both halves of each muffin with the spicy cashew cheese, then layer and stuff with the eggy patties, tempeh bacon (if using), and spinach on the bottom halves, along with any additional fillings you choose.
- Serve.
Notes
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Thank you Alissa for a perfect “eggy” sandwich. I found your recipe when I was looking for a chickpea flour egg-like patty for me to make a copycat version of a delicious sandwich I’d had at a local vegan restaurant. Because of your genius recipe, my sandwich was as good as or better than the restaurant’s version. I made 2 large patties using the 6 serving version of the recipe. I’ve made it twice in 4 days because it was such a hit (and because I had extra cheese sauce to use)!
The patty: I followed the recipe exactly with only one exception. I avoid oil so I baked it. Initially I baked it in an 8” square Pyrex with parchment paper at 375 for 8 minutes. I cut the thin square into 4 pieces and used 2 for each of my 2 sandwiches. The next time I made it I used 2, 4” silicone molds that I bought for this purpose and baked the 2 patties for 12 minutes at 375. I’ll probably stop at 11 minutes next time, but these made very nice patties that popped right out of the mold.
The cheese spread: I basically followed your recipe but rounded up on the cashews a bit and then added 2 T water instead of milk and 2 T lemon juice. I used less hot sauce as the stuff I have is habanero and used just 1/4 tsp salt. I also used the quick soak approach by soaking the cashews in boiling water for 1/2 hour.
I adorned the patties with your cheese spread, arugula and roasted red pepper on sesame seed Ezekiel buns.
This recipe is definitely going in my regular rotation and I’m sure I’ll also use the cheese spread for other uses.
How does the protein count change if you leave out the cashew cheese and tempeh bacon?
Thank you, Alissa. This looks delicious. I've pinned it and am looking forward to making these egg sandwiches.
OMG. I'm enjoying a brief moment sans kids and decided to make this today. It is soooo amazing. I love how quick it all whips up. Looking forward to breakfast sandwiches the next few days... thank you!!
These are delicious!! So much flavor in the “egg” patty. Nothing beats a great egg sandwich.
Thank you! These look delicious! Have you tried freezing the “eggs”? I’d love to make these ahead and assemble quickly at breakfast.
I haven't frozen them, but I have kept them in the fridge in sealed baggies for a few days. I think they would freeze just fine! Enjoy!
This sounds delicious! Especially the tempeh bacon :)