Ultimate full Scottish vegan breakfast

A full fry-up breakfast is a classic across the UK, with each country having its own variant on the plate. For a meatless fry-up, gone are the days of a dry veggie sausage and an egg being your only option. We’re talking black pudding, hash browns, potato scones, bacon, lorne sausage, link sausage, haggis, mushrooms, beans, toast - the list goes on.

We’ll specifically be looking at the Scottish fry-up variant. We’ll look in detail at some pioneering releases in 2021 from Simon Howie, a well-known supermarket butcher brand. The breakfast fry-up has been rewritten, without meat.

Find details, reviews and images below for:

• The full Simon Howie vegan range
• Simon Howie vegan breakfast pack
• More vegan breakfast products
• Our full Scottish vegan breakfast

What is the Simon Howie vegan breakfast range?

The Simon Howie vegan breakfast range is a range of chilled vegan meat substitutes. The range is available in all big supermarkets (both meat and vegan).

Their plant-based breakfast range timeline goes a little like this:

• For years (before we can even remember) Simon Howie veggie haggis has been around as standard. It might not always have been vegan, but it is now.
• In 2018, the first major release was the amazing vegan lorne sausage (or sliced sausage, square sausage, whatever you want to call it).
• In 2019, the vegan breakfast pack was released as a limited edition in Aldi.
• In 2020 and into 2021 the black pudding pack and the vegan breakfast pack appeared as permanent products in supermarkets and online.

Simon Howie, known as The Scottish Butcher, has been a widely-known brand for many years. We ate plenty of their meat products when we were younger. And we’re still eating them now they’ve moved into the vegetarian and vegan sphere. It’s nice to be able to compare from both points of view, knowing how they should taste.

As a butcher brand which has dealt for many years in meats, it’s amazing to see how well they’ve adapted to the demand for vegan food.

The full Simon Howie vegan breakfast range

People are interested in the change. You don’t need to be a dedicated veggie or vegan to try it out. The soy-based square sausage was the third Simon Howie vegetarian product. This followed the success of their two vegan haggis products which saw sales increase by 24% in the preceding year.

Simon says: “While The Scottish Butcher may not be the first place you think of for delicious meat-free alternatives, we are proud of our growing vegetarian range. We now boast the UK's best-selling Vegetarian Haggis and the first widely available Vegetarian Square Sausage! Now even more people can enjoy these Scottish classics! All Vegan Approved by The Vegetarian Society.”

If you needed any more reasons to love the brand, Simon Howie also sent a haggis into space this year.

Simon Howie vegan breakfast pack review

What we love about the breakfast pack:

• Tastes exactly the same as its meat cousin, all the flavours and spices are there.
• It’s great value at £2.50, it's the same price as its equivalent Simon Howie meat breakfast pack. If you're flexitarian, why not try them both and compare.
• It contains two link sausages, two lorne sausage slices and two black pudding slices.
• Textures are perfect, particularly the vegan lorne sausage. Truly hard to tell that it’s not meat.
• No little gristley or hard bits of fat, which sometimes you can find in the meat versions.
• It's brilliant that you can get various products in one pack. Ideal for two people on a Sunday morning, or equally you can add more to the meal with extras from the range.

Where can I buy the Scottish vegan breakfast pack?

1. Buy online at The Vegan Kind Supermarket
2. Buy directly from Simon Howie if you’re near Perth or Auchterarder
3. Buy in-store or online from Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Nisa, Sainsbury’s

Reviews of the best vegan breakfast products

This isn’t just a tribute only to Simon Howie products. Find more of our favourites below and see our gallery of vegan breakfast products.

Simon Howie vegan black pudding

Texture is so close to traditional black pudding. Charcoal gives it an authentic look. Taste is perfectly spiced.

1. Buy online at The Vegan Kind Supermarket
2. Supermarkets: Nisa, Sainsbury’s, Tesco

Simon Howie vegan square sausage

Texture is spot on, can't get much closer to traditional lorne. Pink colour is exactly what you'd expect. Tastes just like the meat version but less fatty.

1. Buy online at the Vegan Kind Supermarket
2. Supermarkets: Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Nisa, Sainsbury’s

Macsween veggie haggis

Texture is lovely, not got the congealed feel that sometimes traditional haggis does. Colour is lighter than traditional, you can see the different oats and grains. Spices are spot on.

1. Buy online at The Vegan Kind Supermarket
2. Supermarkets: Morrisons, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Tesco

Sgaia vegan lorne sausage

Texture is nice and meaty, quite dense (not soft and crumbly like some vegan versions). Colour and cut is as you'd expect, and holds together well in the pan. Tastes like lorne meat.

1. Buy online at The Vegan Kind Supermarket
2. Buy online directly from Sgaia

THIS isn’t bacon plant-based rashers

Texture when uncooked is similar to anchovies or a smoked fish fillet (in a good way!). Crisps up really well in the pan with the colour looking very close to pork bacon. Tastes smoky and strong.

1. Buy online at The Vegan Kind Supermarket
2. Supermarkets: Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s

Richmond meat-free sausages

Texture is really perfect and hard to tell they're not pork Richmonds. Look and smell exactly like the pork Richmonds too, including the packaging. Tastes also like the traditional sausage, perfect.

1. Only in supermarkets so far: Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Iceland

Vegan breakfast products gallery

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Combining a variety of vegan products, this was what went into our full vegan breakfast below:

• Simon Howie Scottish vegan breakfast pack
• Simon Howie vegan black pudding pack
• Richmond meatless sausages
• Mcghees potato scones
• Heinz reduced salt and sugar baked beans
• THIS isn’t bacon
• Chestnut mushrooms and kale (homemade)
• Potato and onion hash brown (homemade)