19 Hearty Whole Grain Breakfasts (2024)

Start your day with a hearty, satiating whole grain foods for breakfast that'll keep your motor running until lunchtime. Quinoa, farro, whole wheat, oats, amaranth, and more make their way into both sweet and savory breakfast dishes from pancakes to porridge. Whether you choose something sophisticated like Basil and Corn Cornmeal Waffles with crème fraîche, smoked salmon, and poached eggs, or go with something simpler such as Overnight Oatmeal with Almonds and Dried Cranberries, here's inspiration for incorporating whole grain foods for breakfast into your routine.

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Basil and Corn Cornmeal Waffles

These loaded cornmeal waffles are your next brunch showstopper, balancing savory, salty, and sweet flavors all in one dish. Fresh corn kernels and honey lend their sweetness to the waffles, while cornmeal gives them a pleasant bite.

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Savory Granola

If you're looking to start your day on a savory note, here's a great recipe to try. Store-bought granola is often packed with lots of sugar, and while there are sweet notes to this granola, with its maple syrup, orange zest, and cardamom, it leans much more savory with smoked almonds, buttery pine nuts, millet, and tahini. Try it with yogurt or kefir and your favorite fresh fruit.

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Brown Butter-Raspberry Baked Oatmeal

In this baked oatmeal, perfectly tender spiced oats mixed with sweet and tart fruit are topped with crispy coconut and pecans. The recipe calls for raspberries — blackberries, blueberries, or sliced strawberries would work as well. Blooming the spices in the hot brown butter releases their flavors and infuses the entire dish with a nutty warmth.

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Quinoa Pancakes with Ricotta and Lemon

Nutty whole wheat flour, fluffy ricotta, and tender cooked quinoa add flavor and texture to these light pancakes, due to the clever addition of whipped egg whites. Lemon zest, vanilla, and maple syrup add just enough sweetness to balance the slightly bitter quinoa.

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Pearl Barley Porridge with Ham and Eggs

Chef David Chang first made this recipe at a food conference in Copenhagen, when he had very little to work with. He simmered barley in local apple cider with chicken stock and kombu, creating a deliciously sweet and savory porridge.

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Farro Breakfast Porridge with Raspberries

Missy Robbins, the chef at Lilia in Brooklyn, mixes up her morning breakfast routine with farro porridge, which she tops with a super-speedy and delicious sauce made from frozen raspberries and honey.

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Rustic Apple-Rye Bread

This bread is Monika Walecka's ode to one of her favorite grains, rye, and has become her signature loaf at Cała W Mące in Warsaw. "Everything you sense while eating pure rye bread — lactic notes, sweetness, gentle spiciness, and rich fruity aroma — is here," she says.

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Spelt Crêpes with Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache

These spelt crêpes have a delicately nutty flavor and light texture – they're delicious served on the sweeter side with a warm drizzling of ganache. Adding just a little bit of peanut butter to chocolate will never fail to wow.

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Three-Grain Cereal with Dates and Cinnamon

Chef Quinn Hatfield cooks big batches of pearledbarleyandquinoato keep in his refrigerator for this hot cereal, which comes together in minutes. He also uses the grains in salads. The mixture of cinnamon and chopped dates makes this breakfast nicely sweet — no extra sugar needed.

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Strawberry Amaranth Porridge with Cardamom

This amaranth porridge makes for a nourishing breakfast that will keep you comfortably full for hours. The addition of fragrant spices and stewed strawberries makes it almost desert-like and delicious.

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Carrot-Bran Muffins

When San Francisco’s revered Four Barrel coffeehouse asked Belinda Leong to make bran muffins for them, she added bran to her favorite carrot cake recipe. The result is an extraordinarily fluffy bran muffin that stays moist for days. While wheat bran is not the same as whole wheat, it does pack a punch of fiber.

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Sweet Breakfast Quinoa

"This breakfast will make your day so productive," says hospitality expert Jill Donenfeld about her maple syrup–sweetened quinoa. It's studded with dried apricots and slivered almonds, spiced with cinnamon, and topped with a dollop of creamy ricotta.

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Oatmeal Soufflé

Former F&W test kitchen senior editor Kay Chun turns soufflé into an elegant and satisfying breakfast or brunch dish. Much of the prep can be done the night before.

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White House Honey-Oat Muffins

Chef Spike Mendelsohn was inspired by the beehive in the White House garden to make these lovely, not-too-sweet muffins. "I'm not a big breakfast eater, but I have muffins in my house right now," he says.

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Whole-Wheat Pancakes with Roasted Berries

F&W culinary director at large Justin Chapple uses a resealable plastic bag to mix his pancake batter and pipe out perfect pancakes — resulting in one less bowl to wash. The berries take just 10 minutes to roast in the oven.

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Mashed Banana and Whole-Grain Porridge

Making wheat berries for breakfast can require waking up before sunrise, since the grains take at least an hour to cook. But, thanks to new flash-freezing technology, excellent precooked whole grains like barley, quinoa, and wheat berries are ready in the time it takes to brew coffee. Justin Chapple turns frozen grains into porridge that's great with all kinds of toppings.

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Strawberry-Almond Scones

When baking these scones, be sure to use whole wheat pastry flour, which is less dense than whole wheat flour. Mixing in some all-purpose white flour also lightens the texture of the scones, so they're more delicate and tender.

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Overnight Oatmeal with Almonds and Dried Cranberries

Many people miss out on the nutty flavor and nubby texture of oatmeal made with steel-cut oats because they assume it's too time-consuming to prepare. But if you soak the oats overnight, they cook in just 10 minutes.

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Spinach Bread Pudding with Lemon and Feta

Blogger Heidi Swanson shares this lightened whole wheat bread pudding recipe in her cookbook Super Natural Every Day.

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