Five vegan breakfasts

Breakfast is one of my top three meals of the day. Without a doubt, it's up there with lunch and dinner.

But out of those three meals, breakfast is the one that strays towards monotony. It's porridge, porridge and more porridge.

Don't misunderstand me, I do like a bit of porridge, but how many permutations can you devise for porridge? The best I managed recently was adding in some frozen cherries I found at the bottom of freezer. Not only did was it sweet and juicy, it was delightfully pink. That was enough to make me enjoy welcome porridge again.

But when I have a bit more time to spare, I want to step up breakfast from porridge, pink or no pink.
The other day, we had tofu ranchero for dinner. Happily, there was some left over the next morning, and it made a rather pleasing bagel filling.

I might call it fusion food and claim to have discovered the next big food trend, but I'm pretty sure that most things are good in bagels. If you've ever found something that doesn't suit being put in a bagel, you let me know. It could be the next big scientific discovery. When they open the bagel category for the Nobel Prize, we'll be all over it.

In the pregan days - those ones, those long ago - I hated yoghurt. I really didn't - too sour, too plain, too boring. After switching to veganism - that decision, that smart decision - I never felt really bothered with the vegan equivalent. But when friends of the non-vegan persuasion started to sing the praises of coconut yoghurt, I thought maybe I should see what all the fuss was about.

Since then, I've been flitting back and forth between CoYo and Coconut Collaborative pots - the latter's mango and passionfruit in particular makes me very happy.

And if you're not already sick of seeing avocado on toast, here's some more. It's your normal smashed avo but with dry-fried linseeds on top and pepperdew peppers inside. I only recently found pepperdew peppers without cheese inside, so when I saw a jar, I snapped some up to experiment with. I also like to top it with the linseeds, because when they cook a little, they start crisping up and oozing oil, and it reminds me of something a little Southern-fried.

Lastly, but not leastly, in praise of the humble English muffin. I always keep a few in the freezer in case of breakfasty emergencies. 

For jam, there's often a jar of something homemade knocking around, but sometimes for a real treat, I dip into my hotel stash. Whenever I go to a hotel, or Mr Flicking the Vs does, we pick up a jar or two of those tiny jams that they put out at breakfast. There's something really pleasing about cracking open one of those Lilliputian pots at my own breakfast table, especially if they're something I don't have at home - case in point marmalade. A couple of muffins, a bit of marmalade, a cup of tea - there just isn't a better start to the morning.