Savoury French toast

I don’t know why, but French toast popped into my head the other day.

French toast for lunch

I’ve only ever had French toast once, in my pre-vegan days, and while it was yummy, I prefer savoury to sweet. So I decided to experiment. The first time I made some for a weekend lunch, and despite some equipment failure it worked out really well.

The batter itself it quite simple, just ground flax seeds and non-dairy milk. Then it’s really up to your taste buds as to what flavours you might like to add. Soak each slice of bread in the batter for a few seconds on each side – the thicker and drier the bread the longer you’ll want to soak it.

The first time I tried cooking it in my super sticky frypan (yes I need a new one – any recommendations?), which didn’t work out well. So I actually ended up cooking it under the grill, which worked fine and served it with some fresh baby spinach and chopped tomato. Yum!

I’ve made it a couple of times since using the oven and that works a treat! Just line your pan with some baking paper to stop it sticking.

Most recently we had it for dinner, with hash browns, sausages, corn and oven roasted onion, mushroom and tomato.

Savoury French Toast

French toast for dinner

Ingredients

1 heaped tbsp. ground flax seeds
1 cup non-dairy milk
1 ½ tbsp. savoury yeast flakes + extra for coating (optional)
½ tsp dried basil
½ tsp dried oregano
½ clove minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
4-6 slices of bread

Mix all the ingredients together and set aside (in the fridge if you like) for 15-20 minutes for the flax to do its thing and thicken the mixture. It should be quite thick. Dip each slice of bread in the mixture, coating both sides and letting it soak up a bit of the batter – around 20 seconds in total should do it.

Then place in a pre-heated oven on a lined baking pan. I like to sprinkle some extra savoury yeast on the baking paper first, and then some more on top of the bread. Turn once when the underside is cooked and browned a bit. The temperature is fairly flexible but I find 200 – 230°C works well. The bread toasts and browns without drying out. Eat, and enjoy!