These vegan savory muffins are stuffed with juicy tomatoes, sweet corn, caramelized onions, and are seasoned with Italian herbs. They are delicious and perfect to be served for breakfast, packed in the lunch box, or enjoyed as a quick snack at any time of the day.
I am an early riser and I love spending some time alone every morning before the world becomes chaotic.
My mornings are reserved for productive and positive things like yoga, meditation, writing journal, reading something motivational, noting down ideas, planning a productive day ahead, and sipping plain warm water.
Despite being a food blogger I don't like spending my beautiful mornings in the kitchen. That's the reason even after waking up very early (between 4:00-5:00 am), I prefer making a quick and easy breakfast. Make-ahead breakfasts are even better. They make mornings so less stressful.
Also, I prefer savory breakfast over sweet breakfast. Today, I am sharing one of my favorite vegan make-ahead breakfast recipes- Savory muffins with tomatoes, corn, and caramelized onion.
These delicious vegetable muffins are a great breakfast on the go option. On busy mornings when you don't have the time to sit down for a breakfast, just grab this breakfast muffin and enjoy on your way to the office or college.
No more excuses to skip your breakfast.
Jump to:
What's needed to make these savory muffins?
To make these savory muffins, you will need the simple ingredients given below:
1. Flour: I have used all purpose flour (maida) and whole wheat flour (aata) in equal quantity to make these muffins. You don't need to use both. These vegan muffins can also be made by using either of them. If you use only whole wheat flour the muffins will be denser.
2. Vegetables: Feel free to use vegetables of your choice in this recipe. I have used onion, tomato, green onions, and sweet corn. You can also use green beans, broccoli, cherry tomato, carrot, peas, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, fresh chives, spinach, etc. You can also add fresh herbs like cilantro, dill, or parsley.
3. Apple cider vinegar: Instead of apple cider vinegar, regular white vinegar or fresh lemon juice can also be used.
3. Seasonings: I have only used mixed Italian herbs, sea salt and black pepper to flavor these muffins. You can use seasonings of your choice like onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, etc.
4. Dairy-free milk: I have used soy milk, feel free to use any plant based milk like almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk etc.
5. Cooking oil: Use any cooking oil of choice like olive oil, canola oil, or avocado oil. If you like the taste of coconut oil, you can use that too. Melted vegan butter can also be used in this recipe.
Other ingredient details and nutritional information are shared in the recipe card.
How to make (step-by-step instructions)?
To make these savory vegan muffins, just follow the easy step-by-step instructions given below:
Step 1: Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a pan and add sliced onion. Add sugar, salt, and sauté until the onion gets caramelized.
Step 2: Put soy milk in a bowl and add apple cider vinegar. Mix and keep aside for a few minutes or until the milk curdles.
Step 3: Put curdled milk and oil in a large mixing bowl.
Step 4: In another bowl mix both the flours, baking soda, baking powder, pepper, salt, and Italian herbs.
Step 5: Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
Step 6: Add caramelized onion, tomatoes, corn, and spring onion. Mix.
Step 7: Put the muffin batter in muffin tray.
Step 8: Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for around 25 minutes or until they clear the toothpick test. Put the muffin tray on a wire rack and allow reaching room temperature before demolding.
Your delicious savory vegan muffins are ready to be enjoyed!
Serving savoury muffins
You can enjoy these vegetable muffins hot, warm, or at room temperature.
It can be served for breakfast, brunch, or packed in the lunchbox with a light salad or fruits on the side.
Enjoy them as a quick and healthy snack with a dipping sauce of choice.
You can also pair them up with a soup like this roasted tomato and quinoa soup or roasted pumpkin soup to make a cozy home cooked meal.
Storing, freezing, and reheating
Store these savory muffins in an airtight container and refrigerate. They will be fine for up to 5 days.
To freeze, wrap them individually in parchment paper or foil, then place in a freezer-safe bag or container. They will be fine for up to 3 months.
The best and easiest way to reheat them is in a microwave. To do that put them in a microwave safe container, cover with a slightly damp paper towel and microwave for around 30 seconds. If the muffins were frozen, thaw them before reheating.
Recipe tips, tricks, and variation suggestions
- To make gluten-free muffins, use chickpea flour also known as gram flour (besan).
- You can use vegetables of your choice in this recipe but I would recommend not skipping caramelized onion. It make these muffins delicious.
- Add nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor. Vegan cheese can be added too.
- Non-vegans may also add cheese of choice to make a vegetarian version of these savoury vegan muffins.
- For a healthier version add seeds like chia seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds. You can also add finely chopped nuts like walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, etc.
- To add a richer tomato flavor, add chopped sun-dried tomatoes in addition to fresh tomatoes.
- The baking time may vary depending upon the oven and quality of ingredients so keep an eye on the muffins after 20 minutes and bake until they clear the toothpick test.
Frequently asked questions
Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined. Overmixing will make the muffins dense.
How can I prevent muffins from sticking to the liners?
Use parchment paper liners or lightly grease the muffin tin. Let muffins reach room temperature before demolding.
They may be overbaked or lack enough fat/moisture. Adding non-dairy yogurt, applesauce, or oil will help.
Yes but thaw and drain them before mixing to the muffin batter.
More easy vegan breakfast recipes
Looking for more easy and quick vegan breakfast ideas? Don't miss to check the following delicious recipes for busy mornings:
Other easy vegan muffin recipes
If you enjoyed these savory muffins and looking for more easy vegan muffin recipes then don't miss to check out the following links:
If you liked this recipe, please leave a star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in the recipe card below. You can also follow me on Instagram, Youtube, and Pinterest.
Recipe
Vegan savory muffins
Equipment
- Muffin tray
- Oven
- 1 small bowl
- Knife and chopping board
Ingredients
Ingredients for caramelized onion
- 1 medium-sized red onion thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon cooking oil
- ⅛ teaspoon sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Other ingredients
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tbsp mixed Italian herbs
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
- 1 cup chopped tomatoes
- ½ cup sweet corn kernels fresh/ frozen/ canned
- ¼ cup chopped spring onion both white and green part
- 1+¼ cups soy milk or any non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon any cooking oil of choice preferably neutral-flavored
Instructions
- Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a pan and add sliced onion. Add sugar and salt. Sauté till the onion gets caramelized.
- Put soy milk in a bowl and add apple cider vinegar. Mix and keep aside for a few minutes or until the milk curdles.
- Put curdled milk and oil in a large mixing bowl.
- In another bowl mix both the flours, baking soda, baking powder, Italian herbs, salt, and pepper.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Add caramelized onion, tomatoes, corn, and spring onion. Mix.
- Put the muffin batter in a greased muffin tray.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C (350℉) for around 25 minutes or until they clear the toothpick test.
- Put the muffin tray on a wire rack and allow reaching room temperature before demolding.
Video
Notes
- To make gluten-free muffins, use chickpea flour also known as gram flour (besan).
- You can use vegetables of your choice in this recipe but I would recommend not skipping caramelized onion. It make these muffins delicious.
- Add nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor. Vegan cheese can be added too.
- Non-vegans may also add cheese of choice to make a vegetarian version of these savoury vegan muffins.
- For a healthier version add seeds like chia seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds. You can also add finely chopped nuts like walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, etc.
- To add a richer tomato flavor, add chopped sun-dried tomatoes in addition to fresh tomatoes.
- The baking time may vary depending upon the oven and quality of ingredients so keep an eye on the muffins after 20 minutes and bake until they clear the toothpick test.
- More recipe tips, tricks, and variation suggestions are shared in the post above.
These were delicious and perfectly moist. I found your recipe this morning because I had tomatoes and a craving for savoury, but no eggs. I did add some parm, olives and lots of fresh dill and basil and this came together in a delicious result. Thank you!
Hi Aileen. Thank you so much for letting me know that you enjoyed my recipe. I will also add olives, dill, and basil next time 🙂
Hi, Vandana! I am an avid vegan baker and was so pleased to find this recipe! The savory muffins were easy to make and turned out excellent! So juicy and flavorful. Loooove the inclusion of caramelized red onion! Yum. I used all spelt flour and added 2 T. chopped green chile and 2 T. shredded Violife vegan parmesan to the batter, and used the recommended 1 tsp. of salt, which was perfect. I am in the US and live in the mountains, so I increased the oven temperature by 25 degrees to 375F, then baked them for 25 minutes which was perfect. I will definitely make these yummy muffins again, and look forward to trying more of your recipes! Thank you! 💖 Franny
Hi Franny. Thank you so much for leaving such a lovely comment. I am glad to know that you liked the recipe. I also love caramelized onions in these muffins. I will also add green chili and vegan parmesan next time 🙂
Added mushrooms, spinach & green chilli. Used 1 cup chickpea flour instead of wheat flour. Used cumin and coriander powder instead of Italian herbs. So good!
Hi Arisha, thanks for sharing your feedback.
Hi can you recommend a good conversion from cups as that isn't a common unit of measurement in the UK. Every website I look at gives a different conversion.
Thanks
Hi Lana. Thanks for sharing your feedback. I will try to improve the measurement description on my recipe cards so that my readers in the UK don't face any problem. Which unit do you prefer?
Metric please with grams and kilos 🙂
Hi Lyanne, I am sorry for the inconvenience caused. Some of my other readers have also started requesting metric details. I have started incorporating that in my new recipes but this is an old recipe so those details are missing. I will have to make this recipe again to give you the exact measurements. Please give me some time for that. If you want you can use a website like https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/cooking/cups-grams.php . However, I am not sure if that will give you the required result or not.
Do you think vegan sausage would work in this recipe?
Hi Andrea, I am sorry but I have never tried vegan sausage so can't really comment on that.
Can you please give a rough guide for salt. No clue what 'salt as per taste' would be
Hi Jen, start with 1 teaspoon, mix, and then taste the batter. If required add more.
Loved by all -vegan and meat eaters!
Thank you Sarah, glad to know that 🙂
The video is great. It answered my question regarding whether you used dried or fresh Italian herbs. (I had forgotten which I used when I made these previously -- just remembered how much I loved them.) These are fabulous muffins, and I'm making them tomorrow to bring to my sister's for Thanksgiving weekend. I'm sure everybody will love them! Thank you!
Thanks Liz, hope your family liked them too 🙂
I love this recipe, Vandana, but I haven't made it in a while and can't remember whether I used a tablespoon of fresh Italian herbs or of dried Italian seasoning. Which do you use? Thank you!
Hi Vandana, I would like to avoid the 0.25cup + 1 tbsp of oil. Can I just leave it out or would you be able to suggest a substitute?
Hi Hazel. I have never tried this recipe without oil but have heard that oil can be replaced with applesauce or mashed bananas in baking recipes. Hope that helps.
This looks lovely, thanks for sharing. Few questions:
1. How should I store them? Outside or in the fridge or freezer?
2. How long will the muffins stay safe to eat?
3. Can I bake them as a cake instead?
Thanks, Rajoshi.You can store them at room temperature for 1-2 days. In the fridge, they will be fine for around 5 days. In the freezer, you can store them for around 3 months. Just keep them in air-tight containers.
Love these so much! They’re my go-to. I’ve made them multiple times, testing out different veg based on what I’ve got in the fridge. I swap 1 cup of whole-wheat flour for chickpea flour less gluten and a lighter texture - it’s definitely a win. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thanks a lot Pricila, glad to know that you enjoy these muffins, I love them too 🙂
Is it OK to use regular cow’s milk for this? What adjustments do I have to make if I want to do that? Thanks so much!
Hi Hannah. Sorry for the delayed reply. Yes, you can use skimmed cow's milk in this recipe. Keep the quantity same.
My favorite savory vegan muffins! Very easy to make—I do 2 sets of 12 mini-muffins—and very good texture + omni friends liked them. I've made these five times since I saw the recipe this summer:) I did swap for whatever veggies I had at hand, after following the original recipe the first time. And they keep relatively well in the freezer/reheat in toaster oven easily.
Hi Bette. Thanks a lot for your comment and feedback. I am very happy to know that you liked it.
Hello Vandana!
Can I substitute the flour for almond flour?
Thanks
Hi Naheed. I am sorry but I have never used almond flour in baking so can't really help you with this. I believe, you will need to make some other modifications too if using almond flour.