French Toast with Roasted Rhubarb

This plant-based French toast is as close as you'll get to the real deal. I've given the basic recipe for the toast, and included the recipe for a rhubarb topping, which here is roasted with vanilla, orange, and star anise.

I find the best bread for this recipe is a day-old loaf, cut into thick, one-inch slices – none of your thin, floppy slices here, please! – sourdough being my favourite.

You can add any toppings or combos you fancy to the toast: fresh berries, fruit sauces, a drizzle of chocolate or – one of my favourites – blueberries, pecans, and maple syrup.

SERVES:
4

Ingredients
Instructions

Ingredients

For the rhubarb

400g rhubarb, cut into 2-inch pieces

3-4 tbsp syrup – maple, rice or agave

Zest and juice of half an orange

2-3 star anise

1 vanilla pod, split

For the French toast

¾ cup gram flour

1 cup plant-based milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

2 tbsp maple syrup

4-6 thick slices of slightly stale bread

To serve

Coconut or other plant yogurt

Handful pistachio nuts, roughly chopped

Maple or stem-ginger syrup

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/Gas 4.
Place the rhubarb in a baking dish, drizzle over the syrup and orange juice, then add the zest, star anise and vanilla – if you like, you can remove some of the vanilla seeds with a knife to give it a little helping hand. Stir to combine.
Cover tightly with foil, and place in the oven for 15 minutes. Rhubarb can vary in thickness, so if it's not completely tender, place it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. When it's ready, remove from the oven and set aside.
Meanwhile, make your toast: place the gram flour, milk, vanilla extract and paste, cinnamon, ginger, and syrup in a high-powdered blender, and blitz until silky smooth.
Pour the liquid into a wide dish, and add your slices of bread. Let the bread soak up all the liquid, flipping them to fully soak – you might need to do this in batches.
Place a large nonstick frying pan on a medium-high heat, and add a little coconut or other light oil. Add the slices of bread, and fry until golden brown on each side – again, you might need to do this in batches. If so, keep the toast warm on a baking tray in a low oven while you cook the rest.
To serve, top each slice of toast with some dollops of yogurt, a few rhubarb pieces along with a tablespoon or two of their syrup, a sprinkle of pistachio nuts, and a drizzle of maple or stem-ginger syrup.