Fuel Your Morning: Healthy Vegan Breakfast Cereals

Surreal is a plant-based low-carb cereal. High in fibre and protein but low in sugar, you can indulge in this safely if you get the midnight munchies! It’s endorsed by Luke Stoltman (Britain’s strongest man) who says this keeps him fuelled, without him thinking that he’s eating cardboard! Granola is not gluten-free and Honey Hoops are not vegan. 

It’s sweetened with small amounts of natural sweeteners stevia and erythritol. You get five portions per box, and due to nuts, should not be eaten by younger children or those with allergies.

You don’t have to be a saint if you like a bit more sugar (you can always bulk up fibre later in the day). But a way to check if a cereal is healthy is to check the nutrition box (by 100g). It should have over 5g of fibre and less than 5 of sugar (carbs section).

Also read how to make a proper bowl of porridge.

The best-selling brand of cornflakes has just 3g of fibre. You’d be better off eating an apple. The same brand’s cocoa pops up the sugar to 17g and their most sugary cereal (advertised by a tiger) is a whopping 37g sugar. No wonder children’s teeth are rotting.

Recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your council does not recycle. Keep these cereals away from young children and pets due to nuts, dried fruits, chocolate etc. Read more on food safety for people and pets.

Flavours include:

• Strawberry milkshake
• Salted caramel
• Chocolate and chocolate hazelnut (Nutella)
• Cinnamon
• Mixed berry granola
• Peanut butter
• Tiramisu
• Cookies and Cream

Doves farm organic breakfast cereals

Doves Farm is a company (from the North Wessex Downs) better known for making organic and gluten-free flours and baking powders.

But it also offers a tidy line of organic breakfast cereals, many of them the ideal alternatives to English favourites (like cornflakes, bran flakes and cocoa pops), but this time from a local ethical company that isn’t owned by a corporate giant.

Doves Farm offers a balanced alternative. The range includes:

• Ancient Grain Breakfast Flakes are made with buckwheat (a seed related to rhubarb), quinoa (an Andean superfood packed with protein and calcium) and teff (the world’s smallest grain, and packed with protein).
• Ancient Grain Fruit & Fibre Flakes are a crunchy mix of buckwheat and wholegrain rice, with banana, coconut, sultanas and apple pieces.
• Organic cornflakes – the ultimate alternative to England’s favourite breakfast cereal. But these ones are a little more expensive, but that’s because they’re organic.
• Wholegrain Cocoa Rice Pops are the alternatives if you have to have chocolate for your breakfast. These are made with premium organic cocoa, to boot.
• smoothies

Spoon cereals

Spoon Cereals makes granola with a few big differences. Firstly, it’s made in the company’s own factory in Yorkshire (not in some distant faraway place you’ve never heard of). Secondly, all the packaging is easy to recycle.

This brand makes the tastiest granolas, and is sold online or in many grocery stores. All the flavours are vegan and use either organic (not certified) oats or oats from regenerative farming, which is good for the soil.

They are also sweetened with maple syrup or chicory root, rather than white sugar. Although less sweet and sugary, they are much tastier – and better for your teeth! And due to oats, they are also good for your heart (oats are full of soluble fibre which kind of ‘sweeps away bad cholesterol’ in your gut. Job done!

Flavours (some gluten-free) include:

• Cinnamon and pecan
• Apple and almond butter
• Peanut butter
• The Low-Sugar One (sweetened with chicory root)

Turtle cereals from Belgium

Turtle Cereals is a great breakfast cereal company just over the border in Belgium. One wonders why no-one can come up with something more interesting here, instead of the same-old, same-old flavours and unhealthy cereals that we’ve had for years on supermarket shelves.

Not only these cereals organic and Fair Trade, but the boxes are also recycled. This company was founded by a husband-and-wife team. He grew up in Belgium where he loved long forest walks, and she grew up in Spain and Denmark.

Both moved to Belgium, and named the company after the creature that goes slow, focusing on slow-release healthy breakfast options, rather than fast sugar cereals, as sold so much today.

The unique range includes:

• Carrot Cake Porridge (cake for breakfast?)
• Cocoa Pillows with Hazelnut (tastes like Nutella)
• Colour Loops (more nutritious than Cheerios)
• Granola Nuts & Seeds
• Date, Fig & Apricot Porridge
• Chocolate & Banana Porridge
• 6-Seed Porridge
• Multi-Grain Flakes with Chocolate
• Dark Chocolate Cornflakes
• Oat Crunchy Dark Chocolate

You can shop in bulk online. But it’s better really to ask your local stores to stock this brand, as they will get cheaper rates. A good reason to shop at community shops and co-operatives, as they will be more likely to order in what you want!

Deliciously Ella breakfast cereals

Deliciously Ella offers a nice line of quality organic cereals and granolas, found in most stores. They are expensive but order in bulk online as a member, for 15% off, which brings them down to everyday prices for premium breakfast cereals.

The range includes:

• Nutty granola
• Blackberry pecan deluxe granola
• Almond butter pecan granola
• Almond apple raisin granola
• Strawberry almond low-sugar granola

Cheeky Nibble (cereals that taste like dessert)

Cheeky Nibble is a wonderful brand of vegan granolas, a bit expensive but that’s because they are artisan-made, allergen-friendly, free from palm oil and sold in sustainable packaging. They also taste like dessert, so it’s like eating healthy cake for breakfast, and are absolutely delicious.

The founder created the brand as she has autism and Tourettes Syndrome and found that baking helped her anxiety. She also finds exercise helpful, so she combined her two passions to bake granolas that were chunky enough to take with her to the gym, yet had nostalgic flavours.

The granola is sold in boxes that are carbon-balanced with World Land’s Trust, so you can eat your breakfast with a clear conscience. The flavours include:

• Cherry Bakewell
• Victoria sponge
• Banoffee Pie
• Vanilla latte