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Loaded Vegan Hash Browns

Mmm there’s nothing like a warm, indulgent breakfast in the morning, especially when there’s no guilt!

Homemade hash browns topped with chili, vegan cheese sauce, sauteed onions, tomatoes, jalapenos and scallions

So I’ve been experimenting with a plant-based diet and I’ll tell ya, boy is it hard and if any meal takes the icing on the cake of difficulty, it’s breakfast!

Breakfast, it’s that meal that we all associate with bacon and eggs. Or on busy school days, a big bowl of sugary cereal drowning in milk. Well unfortunately, both of those options include some sort of animal product. In fact, just about everything breakfast-wise I can think of has dairy or eggs. So that got me thinking, how can I transform breakfast?

When I started to contemplate some quintessential breakfast foods that are plant based my all time favorite, hash browns, came to mind. But how can I turn this side into a meal? Load ’em up of course!

The essential ingredients

First step, the potatoes. You can certainly buy the frozen shredded hash browns for this recipe and they will work great, but I’ve found it is also super easy to just grate a potato while the pan heats up, the choice is up to you. The real key to getting those delicious, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside hash browns is a hot pan.

Here’s my 1 large russet potato after spending a few minutes meeting the cheese grater. Like I said though, you can certainly use the frozen kind too

Once your pan heats up, drizzle in some olive oil and crisp up your hash browns. I will say though, I struggled with this part of making hash browns for a long time. They’d either end up super crunchy like tiny french fries, or mush. I finally discovered the secrets though! Be sure to get that pan nice and hot and get an even coat of oil all around the pan. Once you add in the potatoes, let them hang out there for a while. That’s the second biggest tip, just leave them alone until the first side gets some nice color and then you can flip the whole thing over (or if you’re lazy like me, just flip over sections of the potatoes at a time). It’s really pretty easy, I think I had just been overthinking it for a while.

Oh man, the cheese sauce!

While those tasty potatoes crisp up, go ahead and make the cheese sauce. I used a super simple and incredibly quick recipe by ElaVegan (https://elavegan.com/easy-vegan-cheese-sauce-recipe/) that turned out quite amazingly, but feel free to use your favorite cheese sauce.

I also warmed up a small dish of chili in the microwave while making the cheese sauce. To be honest, I usually have loads of my homemade veggie chili leftover in the fridge, but I’ve also found that Hormel makes a pretty decent vegetarian chili when you’re in a pinch. Feel free to use whatever chili you like!

Also, saute up your favorite veggies for this. I found that some classic white onions worked really really well, but you can also add bell peppers, spinach, or whatever you like really. In addition, chop up some fresh tomatoes, jalapenos, and scallions for garnish.

Next step, assemble! This is the best part! It’s almost time to eat and the aroma of a delicious breakfast is in the air.

Start with your hash browns and then layer on the chili, cooked onions, cheese sauce, tomatoes, jalapenos, and scallions. Viola!

My plate, it’s sans the fresh jalapeno (I was a chicken)

I made these large portions of hash browns for 2 in about 30 mins, but if you’re not in a rush, take your time and get creative with your very own version of loaded hash browns!

Loaded Vegan Hash Browns Recipe

Prep: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Yield: 2 large portions

Ingredients:
  • 1 large russet potato, or 8 oz frozen shredded hash browns
  • 2 T + 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 medium white onion, sliced
  • 1 medium tomato, diced
  • 1 fresh jalapeno, sliced
  • 1 scallion, diced
  • 1/2 batch of ElaVegan’s cheese sauce (https://elavegan.com/easy-vegan-cheese-sauce-recipe/)
  • 1/2 can vegetarian chili such as Hormel
  • salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Dice tomato and slice onion, jalapeno, and scallion
  2. In a small saute pan add 1 teaspoon of olive oil and saute onion until soft and slightly browned
  3. Using a cheese grater, shred your potato, meanwhile heat up a large frying pan on medium-high heat
  4. Add 2 T of olive oil to the pan and then add the shredded potatoes and brown for 5-7 mins
  5. While the potatoes are browning on one side make the cheese sauce (note, it only takes about 3 minutes)
  6. Take cheese sauce off the the heat once finished and flip the potatoes to brown on the other side
  7. Heat up chili in a pan or microwave until warmed through
  8. Salt potatoes and divide among 2 plates
  9. Top potatoes with chili, cheese, onions, tomatoes, jalapenos, and scallions
  10. Enjoy!