An Old Favorite

For those of you transitioning from meat and dairy to a vegan-friendly diet, there are a few meals out there that are particularly hard to avoid. English Breakfast is one of them. Usually made with sausages, beans, eggs, black and white pudding, roasted tomato, hash browns and maybe a slice of toast, this dish is a favorite for breakfast across the world.

Changing this dish into a vegan meal means that there is a lot more effort to put into this dish but it is worth it! Fry some asparagus instead if you do not want to use a vegan sausage. Once you taste the dish, you will see that the importance is in the spices, herbs, oil and vegan butter! The rest is texture and this can easily be replaced with vegan alternatives.

English Breakfast Roots

The full English breakfast, also known as a fry up, dates back as far as the 1300s, making it one of the longest standing traditional dishes in English history. Back then, a breakfast of this sort was often deemed a luxury and therefore was reserved for only the richest in society.

During the Middle Ages, breakfast for most was thick porridge or ale and bread, and this often had to fend off hunger until dinner in the evening. Grim, right? Those who were better off might stretch to adding cheese, cold meat or dripping to their ale and bread.

Moving through Society

By the time of the Industrial Revolution, the traditional English breakfast was slowly moving away from the richest and becoming a more wide-spread dish enjoyed by many manual workers who wanted a hearty meal to set them up for a long day’s labor.

Breakfast was still seen as the most important meal of the day by the wealthy as it would set them in good stead for a day of hunting. This tradition would continue for years to come, and by the time Queen Victoria took the throne in June 1837, the meal was more popular than ever.

Vegan Fry Up Recipe

Try this vegan take on the classic English breakfast that boasts vegan sausages with hash browns, mushrooms, tomatoes, scrambled tofu and baked beans from  BBC Good Food.

For the hash browns

• 1 large potato, unpeeled

• 1 ½ tbsp peanut butter

For the tomatoes and mushrooms

• 14 cherry tomatoes

• sunflower oil
• 2 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp  soy sauce
• ¼ tsp smoked paprika
• 1 large Portobello mushroom, sliced

For the scrambled tofu

• 349g pack silken tofu
• 2 tbsp  nutritional yeast
• ½ tsp  turmeric
• 1 clove  garlic
• , crushed

To serve

• 4 vegan sausages (we used Dee’s leek & onion)
• 1 x 200g can baked beans
  
  

Instructions

1. Cook the potato whole in a large pan of water, boil for 10 mins then drain and allow to cool. Peel the skin away then coarsely grate. Mix with the peanut butter and season well. Set aside in the fridge until needed.
2. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put the cherry tomatoes onto a baking tray, drizzle with 2 tsp sunflower oil, season and bake for 30 mins or until the skins have blistered and started to char. Cook the beans and sausages following the instructions on the pack so they're ready to serve at the same time as the scrambled tofu.
3. Meanwhile, mix the maple syrup, soy sauce and ¼ tsp smoked paprika together in a large bowl, add the sliced mushroom and toss to coat in the mixture. Leave to stand while you pour 2 tsp sunflower oil into a  non-stick frying pan and bring it up to medium high heat. Fry the mushroom until just starting to turn golden but not charred. Scoop onto a plate and keep warm until serving.
4. Put 1 tbsp oil into the frying pan and add spoonfuls of the potato mixture – you should get about 4. Fry for 3-4 mins each side then drain onto kitchen paper.
5. Crumble the tofu into your frying pan and sprinkle over the remaining ingredients and a good pinch of salt and pepper. If the pan looks a little dry add a splash more oil. Fry for 3-4 mins or until the tofu is broken into pieces, well coated in the seasoning and hot through.
6. Divide everything between 2 plates and serve with a hot mug of tea made using soy milk.