Vegan French toast is surprisingly easy to make. All you need is soya milk, sugar, flour, and any spices you like (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.). Mix those ingredients together and soak your bread in it and you’re good to go. But sometimes your regular old French toast won’t do — maybe you have company you want to impress, or just feel like treating yourself. In those cases, I recommend chai French toast. It sounds and tastes fancy, but it’s actually quite simple to make!
Chai concentrate
makes 3 cups
Ingredients:
7 chai tea bags
3 cups water
3/4 cups sugar
Add the tea bags to the water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow the mixture to simmer for 5-10 minutes (don’t let it go for too long or the tea bags might rip open). Take off the heat, let it sit for a minute, remove the tea bags, and add the sugar and mix to dissolve. Now you have chai tea concentrate, which you can mix with equal parts soya milk to make chai.
If you live in the UK, I recommend Natco brand chai tea bags, which you can buy fairly cheaply in bulk (they have them at the supermarkets on Brick Lane).
Chai French toast
Ingredients:
Bread, preferably stale (white or wholemeal/whole wheat both work)
1/2 cup chai concentrate
1/2 cup soya milk
2 tablespoons flour
Vegetable oil or vegan margarine
Heat your oil or margarine in a frying pan or wok on medium heat (I recommend vegetable oil because when I tried to use margarine it spat at me when hot). Mix the chai concentrate, soya milk, and flour together in a large bowl. The mixture should be slightly “gloopy.” If it seems like it needs more thickener, add a bit more flour (I don’t really measure these things). Dip the bread in the mixture and then put in the frying pan/wok and cook on each side until browned slightly. Serve with powdered sugar, maple syrup, and/or fruit. Yum!
