Growing up in a Jewish house meant that bagels were a classic to show up at family events, lunches and more, piled high with not vegan friendly things. The classic was obviously lox and cream cheese but tuna and egg salad were also always options.

Once I became vegan I still craved the comfort of a delicious toasted bagel with creamy spreads and the likes but I couldn’t figure out what to use as my vegan bagel topping.

Since then I’ve come up with a few good options.

Tofutti cream cheese on a toasted bagel is pretty awesome but sometimes you want something a little heartier and delicious. Enter this awesome, loaded vegan bagel sandwich recipe.

This veg sandwich recipe would be great as a vegan breakfast bagel, or for brunch or lunch. It’s hearty and filling and incredibly yummy.

If you are looking for more vegan bagel toppings you can check out our 5 minute vegan egg salad or tuna melt recipes which would both be fantastic on a bagel for some quick vegan sandwiches.

You can also check out more recipes for our best vegan sandwiches here.

Vegan Bagel Sandwich Ingredients

This vegan/vegetarian bagel sandwich uses tofu as it’s main protein and is loaded with lots of delicious vegetables, creamy avocado, and a delicious dill sauce to top it off. The vegan bagel sandwich ingredients are:

• Vegan Bagels
• Tofu
• BBQ Sauce
• Flavorless Oil
• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Lettuce
• Creamy Dill Sauce

The creamy dill sauce is very quick to make and can be made several days ahead of time. To see the full recipe click here.

Making the Vegan Bagel Topping

To make this vegan sandwich filling, the first thing you need to do is slice your tofu.

To make two sandwiches you only need around 1/2 a brick of tofu, but no worries if you don’t know what to do with the rest of your tofu. Tofu freezes very well, so just wrap up your leftovers and pop them in the freezer.

Tofu Breakfast Sandwich – Pressing the Tofu

The first thing you’ll want to do is press your tofu. In case you’ve never pressed tofu, you can try two methods.

The first is to buy a tofu press which will do all the work for you. They are pretty affordable. You can check prices here.

The second method is to wrap it in some sort of thick absorbent towel and put something heavy that will evenly distribute weight on top of the wrapped tofu. Something like a book with a weight on top works very well.

Marinating the Tofu

Once your tofu is pressed you are going to want to slice it into roughly 1/2 inch slabs. Cover your pressed tofu in BBQ sauce and let it marinate for at least a 1/2 hour.

If you want to, you can even leave it overnight in the fridge and have it be ready to cook in the morning.

Cooking the Tofu

Heat some oil in a pan and when it’s nice and hot, throw in your marinated tofu. When one side gets browned and crispy, flip it over. This should only take a few minutes.

I like to brush a little extra BBQ sauce on it after I’ve flipped it over. This is especially helpful if you marinated it for a shorter amount of time.

Once both sides are nice and browned take it out of the pan and it’s time to assemble your sandwich!

Assembling the Vegan Toasted Sandwiches

In my experience, bagels always taste better toasted. While your tofu is in the pan you can pop your bagel in the toaster to give it a nice toasted crust.

To assemble the sandwich all you have to do is layer all your prepared vegetables and the tofu on your toasted bagel and then drizzle the vegan dill sauce on.

You can customize the sandwich with the vegan fillings and add ins of your choosing. Red onion, sprouts, etc all make really great add ins. Feel free to take out any vegetable you aren’t a fan of as well.

Vegan Bagel Brands

Loads of store bought bagels nowadays are vegan. You can usually scan the allergy information on them to be sure about whether there are any sneaky egg or dairy ingredients which are usually the culprits in making bagels not vegan.

Be aware that “Does Contain” and “May Contain” on ingredients lists are not the same thing.

May contain just means that it’s produced in the same factory as the ingredients listed so there may be cross contamination which is problematic for those with serious allergies.

In order to simplify your life, here is a list of some easy to find vegan bagels:

• Dunkin’ Donuts Bagels – Plain, Cinnamon Raisin, Everything, Sesame, Multigrain
• Sara Lee Bagels- Plain, Onion, Blueberry, Everything
• Thomas’ Bagels – Plain, Whole Wheat, Plain with Whole Grain, Onion, Everything, Blueberry, Cinnamon Swirl, Cinnamon Raisin
• Panera – Plain, Blueberry, Cranberry Walnut, Sesame
• Trader Joes – Plain, Whole Wheat
• Rudi’s Organic Bakery Bagels

These are definitely not the only vegan bagel options, but these are just some of the commonly found ones you can buy without having to kill yourself checking ingredients.

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You May Also Like:

Vegan Bagel Spread Recipe

Vegan Tortas

Vegan Tuna Melt

Vegan Sweet Potato Waffles

Vegan Turkey Sandwich with Cranberries and Stuffing

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