Banana French Toast (V, GF)

Post by Megan Stulberg

French toast makes me think of the happy, sleepy Saturday mornings from my childhood. Whisking eggs myself to impress my mum, reading the comic strips in the newspaper, and inevitably taking a nap in front of the TV as the result of a sugar coma.

I figured this was something that’d be hard to veganize, but it was actually really easy! The hardest part was getting the gluten-free bread to stay together, TBH. Banana makes an excellent egg replacement and adds some extra flavour.

Watch the video to accompany this recipe filmed and edited by Zachary Risinger below, then get cooking.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 slices gluten-free bread (I used Food For Life)
• 3 small/medium bananas, mashed
• 2 cups unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup organic maple syrup + additional for topping
• 2 heaping tbsp organic vanilla extract
• 1 tsp black chia seeds
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Coconut oil, for cooking
• Fresh fruit of your choice

DIRECTIONS:

1. In medium mixing bowl, mash banana.
2. Add almond milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Whisk together until 100% liquid in consistency. You may need to keep mashing to get rid of all the banana chunks.
3. Taste test batter at this point — you might want to add a splash of extra vanilla for a more prominent taste.
4. Add two pieces of bread to bowl. Soak in batter approximately 2 minutes, then flip over and let soak again. If you can wait longer then do so — you really want the bread to soak up the batter as much as possible.
5. Heat a splash of coconut oil in frying pan at high heat. Once it sizzles, lower heat a tad.
6. Add both pieces of soaked bread to pan. Let cook in coconut oil. While bread is frying, let two more pieces soak. Flip bread every minute or so to ensure both sides are evenly browned and to prevent burning. Remove cooked pieces from pan, set aside, add additional coconut oil to pan and add next set of soaked bread slices to bowl. Repeat with remaining slices.
7. Stack french toast evenly between two plates. Top with maple syrup, fresh fruit (I chose bananas and strawberries) and chia seeds — and any other toppings of your choice! Chocolate chips and coconut-based whipped cream would also be great with this.

Serve warm. Makes 2 servings.