Best Vegan Breakfast Cereal: 5 Excellent Options

When you choose to become a vegan, you are giving up a lot of different foods. Not eating meat, dairy, or eggs can make breakfast a little bit more complicated in the morning. Cereal is an all-time favorite of people everywhere. Fortunately, you don’t have to give up cereal when you go vegan. Almond milk goes a long way!

For those who are new to being vegan, finding foods like cereals can be hard. There are a ton of different brands out there. We took it upon ourselves to do the research for you.

In the following article, we’ll go over some great options among vegan cereals. There is no shortage of options and flavors, so we’ve narrowed the choices down to our favorite five. Keeping reading to find out what they are!

Vegan vs. Regular Cereal

As you read through our recommendations, you will see that our vegan choices are primarily granola. While many popular “regular cereals” are vegan, they aren’t necessarily healthy. They usually contain excessive sugar or little to no nutritional value. You can salvage some benefit with some healthy almond milk, but why not make the whole meal healthy?

The vegan cereals we are recommending are all-natural, packed with vitamins, nutrients, and more that help make vegan cereal a healthy choice. Even better, they’re so good you can eat them by themselves as a snack. No milk necessary!

Our Top Choices

Here are our choices for vegan cereals you should consider. They come in a variety of flavors and are incredibly healthy. Being vegan doesn't mean you have to eat boringly! Give one – or all of them – a try.

Élan Nut Based Granola

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Élan is a snack company that focuses on making packaged snacks healthy again. They have a variety of products that emphasize simplicity with natural ingredients. They contain no fillers like sugar, are nutritious, and allow you to eat vegan & healthily without sacrificing much.

Features

Élan’s healthy breakfast granola can be eaten as a snack or as cereal. It comes in two flavors/mixes you can choose from. This includes an original mix that is whole grain and gluten free with almonds, walnuts, pecans, and oats.

If you’re going paleo, you can get a mix that has cashews, macadamia, and brazil nuts instead of grain oats. Both mixes have a touch of honey for some natural sweetness without artificial sweeteners, are high in protein, and low in calories.

The Good Stuff

  • Healthy: It doesn’t get much healthier than all-natural nuts, oats, and grains. It doesn’t hurt that you get 5 grams of protein a serving with nothing but natural honey for sweetness.
  • Fits All Diets: Paleo, vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and more. No need to worry about the quality – this is as natural as it gets.
  • Cereal or Snack: Pour it into a bowl for breakfast or bring it with you on the go. The granola comes in a bag for easy transport and pouring, so you can enjoy it however you want.

The Not So Good Stuff

  • Costly: Eating healthy is not always cheap, and Élan granola cereals are definitely not cheap. They are about as pricey as they get for what we cover here.
  • Flavor: If you buy Élan, you better like nuts! With the majority of the ingredients being nuts, with just some honey for flavoring, there is not much variety available.

Erin Baker's Homestyle Granola

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Erin Baker’s is a health food and snack company. They make all-natural cookies and granola that are great for breakfast or snacks alike. They offer vegan and non-vegan options, and a variety of flavors are available. What’s even better is that they will donate some of their products to hungry children for every purchase. Not only are you eating healthy, but you are also helping a child eat healthy as well.

Features

Erin Baker’s homestyle granola is a non-GMO and vegan granola that comes in an easy-to-carry bag. You can also find bulk options if you find that you enjoy the flavor. With big clusters of vanilla almond or coconut chia seed, chances are that you will enjoy them! The granola comes with a variety of nuts, fruits, and seeds depending on the flavor, and can be eaten with almond milk, in yogurt, or sitting watching Netflix.

The Good Stuff

  • Affordable: Despite being chock full of goodness, Erin Baker’s granola is surprisingly cheap.
  • Locally Sourced Ingredients: Erin Baker’s takes their ingredients seriously. They source everything from as close to their Washington location as possible, so you know you’re getting quality granola.
  • Choices: There are a variety of flavors available that are vegan. You can choose from flavors like coconut chia, tri-berry, vanilla almond, peanut butter, and more.

The Not So Good Stuff

  • Not Certified as Gluten Free: Despite being inherently gluten free due to a lack of wheat, the products are produced in a factory that creates wheat products. If you have an allergy, be careful!

Go Raw Sprouted Granola

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As their name states, Go Raw is all about raw ingredients for the highest quality products. Their products are organic, vegan, non-GMO, and more to make them a great option for anyone. You won’t find added sugars or artificial sweeteners to improve taste, just natural sweeteners from fruits and other ingredients.

Features

Go Raw does things a little bit differently than the other granolas we’ve mentioned so far. They don’t use nuts, and dry their granola, fruits, and oats rather than baking them. This helps to retain more flavor, and when you use fruits for sweetness you want to retain as much natural flavor as possible. The granola is also sprouted, meaning the grains have opened and are more easily absorbed by the body, and provide better nutritional benefits and are easier on the stomach.

The Good Stuff

  • Affordable: Go Raw falls about right in the middle of the pack as far as cost is concerned, and its worth every penny. 
  • Nut-free: One of the primary benefits of Go Raw’s granola is the lack of nuts. Those with allergies can still enjoy this organic granola mix, while still reaping the benefits.
  • Superfood-full: Being that the granola is based around seeds, fruits, and oats, it contains a ton of antioxidants, vitamins, and more that make it the perfect healthy snack or morning breakfast.

The Not So Good Stuff

  • Little Variety: While they do have multiple flavors of granola crisps and granola crunch, there are not many vegan choices for your cereal. You are limited to apple cinnamon and raisin crunch primarily.
  • High Calories & Carbs: At 220 calories and 43 grams of carbohydrates per 1/3 cup, this is the most carb and calorie-dense of our selections.

Wildway Grain Free Granola

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Wildway are a health food company that focuses on fueling athletes and those who live active lives. They offer a variety of products like instant oatmeal, smoothies with probiotics, and vegan granola. Everything they make is grain, gluten, artificial sweetener, and GMO free. They have different flavors for every product, so you’re certain to find one that works for you.

Features

Wildway’s grain-free granola is paleo and vegan approved. It contains no oils, extracts, artificial sweeteners, and claims to be the only granola on the market to be truly 100% raw and natural. Many of their flavors include dried fruits to add a chewy and soft consistency to the granola. Soften them more with some almond milk, pop them in some vegan yogurt, or eat them by the handful.

The Good Stuff

  • Fits All Diets: Paleo, vegan, gluten-free, you name it. The only dietary limitation is for people allergic to nuts.
  • Flavors, Flavors, Flavors: Apple cinnamon, banana nut, coconut cashew, gingerbread, and vanilla bean espresso. Need I say more?

The Not So Good Stuff

  • Expensive: It is the second highest priced granola on this list.
  • High in Fat: Compared to the other granola, this brand has a higher fat content. This could be because they contain nuts, while some of the others don’t.

Gr8nola Vegan Granola

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Created and approved by an ex-Olympian, Gr8nola was made to be an all-around health boost in snack form. They have created products that taste great and give you energy, improve your health, and more thanks to their high-quality and carefully sourced ingredients.

Features

Gr8nola is vegan granola with a twist. Not only can you satisfy your cravings for sweet, but you can also improve your heart health, cholesterol, and immune system just by snacking or making a bowl of cereal. This product contains pure coconut oil, which can provide all the benefits listed above while still being all-natural, GMO-free, and great tasting. You can choose between cacao, original (honey sweetened), matcha green tea, and more.

The Good Stuff

  • Detoxifying & Immune System Boosts: It contains pure coconut oil for immune system, mental, heart, and metabolism improvements.
  • Stays Crunchy in Milk: Gr8nola is super crunchy, making it great for cereal without getting soggy. It also makes a great snack on the go. Who needs chips and pretzels?

The Not So Good Stuff

  • Costly: Gr8nola vegan granola is another relatively expensive granola when compared to other choices.

Conclusion

When you choose a vegan cereal over a processed and sugar-filled cereal, you can’t really go wrong. However, not all granolas are created equal. Of the vegan cereals we’ve listed, the best value is likely Erin Baker’s homestyle granola. It is one of the cheaper options, with locally sourced ingredients and a variety of flavors to choose from to stop cereal from getting boring. You can pair it with some almond milk, or eat it alone. However, as with most foods, everyone’s preferences are different so if you don’t like one, give another a try!

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