A classic recipe you won't even know is vegan
French toast is a brunch staple. One that vegans miss when they adopt a plant-based lifestyle.
This recipe substitutes eggs with the newest superfood, aquafaba (we’ll explain below).
Most importantly, with this vegan french toast recipe, you get:
- Perfect texture.
- Perfect taste.
- Perfect look (especially when you add blueberries and granola on top!).
Make some this weekend, you won’t be able to tell the difference!
No eggs, no problem: Introducing Aquafaba
Aquafaba is new to us, but also pretty new to the plant-based community.
The literal translation is “bean water.”
More specifically, aquafaba is the water from a can of chickpeas.
Yep, that water you pour down the drain.
Well stop doing that!
This protein-packed water is an excellent replacement for eggs.
Aquafaba has that same slimy consistency as an egg white and is therefore a vegan miracle.
People are making meringues, mousse (our recipe here), and even mayo out of this chickpea brine.
I know, I know. It sounds kind of gross. And I’d be lying if I said it didn’t freak me out a little at first.
But it doesn’t really taste like anything. Kind of like tofu, it has a mild protein-like taste, but it really takes its flavor from whatever you serve it with.
Meaning… I can make french toast (even after veganizing our kitchen)!
With a little help from our Vitamix, this recipe was just as easy as using real eggs. It’s earned a spot in our weekend brunch rotation. Add it to yours!
Recipe
Vegan French Toast
Classic french toast recipe substituting eggs for aqaufaba (chickpea brine).
Aquafaba, Cinnamon,Ingredients:
- aquafaba (chickpea water) - 1 can's worth
- almond milk - 1/4 cup (60 mL)
- cinnamon - 1 tsp. (2.6 g)
- bread - 6 pieces
- coconut oil - for grilling
Instructions:
BLEND
- Add you aquafaba to your Vitamix container
- Blend on high for 90 seconds (should fluff up)
MIX
- Add you fluffy aquafaba to a bowl with almond milk and cinnamon
- OPTIONAL: add vanilla extract for more flavor
- Dip your bread in the mixture until both sides covered
GRILL
- Grill both sides of bread until browned and crispy
TOP
- Top with fancy toppings (we used pure maple, blueberries, and granola)
- Snap a pic and tag #lifeisNOYOKE
- Have a great morning!
Useful tips for Vegan French Toast
Make one of our hummus recipes so your chickpeas don’t go to waste. We used our chickpeas and refrigerated our aquafaba until we were ready to use it.
A high-powered blender, like a Vitamix, helps you get the correct “egg-white” texture. We blended our aquafaba for 90 seconds to get a fluffy texture.
P.S. In England, french toast is called eggy bread. Thinking if you make this recipe there, you’ll have to rename it beany bread 🙂
P.P.S - Serve with coffee!
I usually don’t leave comments – but this recipe! I made the base recipe, added Ronald’s tips, then added 1 tbsp of arrowroot powder. THEN I cooked soaked pieces of sourdough bread in my waffle maker on medium heat for 4 minutes. OMG! Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. Best vegan french toast ever. Thank you!
Waffle maker, so smart!
I accidentally found out about bean water, when our stove broke, I was cooking beans in our giant coffee urn I didn’t want to waste the bean water so I reused it for our noodles and our boiled potatoes,while I was getting everything on the table I noticed that the water had congealed in the coffee urn, me and my husband tasted it, I asked him what he though it tasted like he and I agreed it taste like gravy, I added some beef style seasoning and we ate it with our mashed potatoes and that was over 30 years ago
You should have bottled it up and sold it! We go through tons of aquafaba, I even have my neighbors collecting theirs for us 🙂
I don’t use non-stick pans and the aquafaba is not dealing with the stainless steel very well…. I can fry them in coconut oil and they’ll still stick so I have a great little metal cake spatula that is working well
We’re trying to phase out non-stick pans too. Thanks for the tip on the spatula, we’ll give that a try.
I have canned chickpeas in two different sized cans. Could you please give a can size OR an actual liquid measurement for the aquafaba (chickpea water) since I am unsure what “1 can’s worth”
is.
Thanks
Yes, thanks for pointing out the lack of clarification. It’s about 1/2 cup. Luckily with french toast it doesn’t have to be exact, just kind of a ratio that tastes best.
This recipe worked really well for me.
I added a tablespoon of coconut oil to the mixture to add fat flavor to the toast.
I used olive oil in the pan for the cooking, but still needed to spatula under the toast as it cooked to make certain a crust would form under the toast. Once that crust is formed the toast will stick vert little to the pan while cooking.
It took longer than non-vegan French toast to cook due to the higher water content, but the results were indeed very comparable to non-vegan French toast.
This recipe is indeed a true winner.
I think I’ll try the oatmeal pancake recipe tomorrow.
The four real tricks to great French toast (vegan or non-vegan) are:
1. Use high quality bread. The higher quality the bread the better the results. Ezekiel/sprouted grain bread, or good quality Italian bread, or French bread makes the best French toast.
2. Saturate the bread well. You will find that this will result in a kind of custard that is much more flavorful than dry French toast.
3. Cook it slowly on low heat so that the the center of the toast becomes a stiff gel or custard, rather than just mooshy.
(Getting this balance is the trickiest part I think.)
4. Add fat to the mixture. Bread likes to be oiled one way or the other. A tablespoon of any neutral tasting fat will do.
EXTRA TIP: Add a pinch of salt to the mixture.
Extra Extra tip: Add 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla to make that toast epic.
This may be the most helpful comment ever left on our site. Thank you for taking the time, Ronald 🙂
I wonder if using the brine of other white beans than chickpeas makes a difference. I used Romano and white kidney bean water. It did become fluffy when I whipped it up, but when I added the almond milk, it deflated completely. Still turned out well! Just wished it was slimier (more like real eggs)!! Will try with chickpea water next time.
Haven’t tried with other bean water, but chickpea is a dead-ringer for slimy egg white.
This was the BEST French roast recipe. The best one I’ve tried so far! Tastes even better than “regular” French toast! Aquafaba is such a vegan dream come true. Lol!
Aquafaba is seriously what dreams are made of! So glad you enjoyed the french toast, we’re going to experiment with aquafaba macarons soon 🙂
1. They stuck to the grill really bad even though it was well oiled.
2.I could not get them to become brown or crispy
3. Tasted pretty good, but were a little soggy
4. I was careful not to leave them in the mixture so as not to let them become soaked.
5. I have tried other recipes and they turned out well.
6. Not sure where I went wrong with this one!
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that, David 🙁 We’ve tested this recipe on several occasions all with success. Maybe higher heat on the pan?
I make my own beans so – will the water that I cooked them in be just as good as the water in the cans of beans? Also, how much water is the water in a can of beans? thanks!
We’ve never made our own, but this blog has some good tips: http://siftandwhisk.com/blog/aquafaba/. For this recipe, you’re using about a half a cup of the liquid aquafaba.