Many people are intimidated by a ketogenic breakfast because they overthink the process. If you’re just starting the keto diet, breakfast and brunch might seem like the most challenging meal to prep.
Lunches and dinners can easily be made keto by preparing recipes you already enjoy. After all, meals like salads, steak, salmon, and stuffed peppers are inherently low-carb. But what about your favorite breakfast foods? Waffles, oatmeal, cereal, and pancakes are all off-limits.
This guide explains how to prepare a low-carb breakfast and how to rethink your morning meal, plus you’ll learn a few keto-friendly recipe ideas so you can enjoy a delicious start to your day.
How to Prepare a Ketogenic Breakfast
Preparing a keto breakfast is no different than preparing any other meal. Simply focus on your macros, then fill in those macros with nutrient-dense foods. For example, if you’re sticking to 70% fats, 25% protein, and 5% carbs, you know you need a protein source, a low-carb vegetable, and a fat source, either for sauteing or by preparing a sauce.
You can always use the free keto calculator to track your macros accurately.
#1: Pick Your Protein
Virtually any protein source works well for a ketogenic breakfast. But if a low-carb breakfast is still new to you (meaning you grew up on cereal and bagels), you might want to stick to those foods commonly associated with breakfast. This might include scrambled eggs, sausage patties, smoked salmon, and bacon.
Here are a few protein-packed keto breakfast recipes:
- Smoked salmon keto avocado toast
- Savory crustless breakfast keto quiche
- Breakfast casserole with bacon, egg, and cheese
- Turkey sausage frittata
- Keto sausage balls (or fat bombs)
#2: Pair With a Low-Carb Vegetable
Within the standard American diet (SAD), breakfast is hugely lacking in the vegetable department. While eating veggies for breakfast might be a fairly new concept for you, know that it’s important to get these micronutrients throughout the day, rather than just at lunch and dinner.
When selecting a ketogenic breakfast side dish, forgo your typical hashbrowns and select a low-carb vegetable instead. Try shredding zucchini or celery root and frying those up instead of high-carb potatoes.
Here are a few veggie-centric ideas to get you started:
- Avocado egg bowls
- Cheesy bacon Brussels sprouts casserole
- Bacon-wrapped asparagus
- Low-carb “potatoes”
#3: Include a Healthy Fat
Finally, choose a healthy fat to include with your breakfast. These choices might include coconut oil, avocado oil, grass-fed butter, ghee, or bacon fat. You’ll probably be cooking your protein and vegetable in your chosen fat source, but you might also use it in a sauce. When adding flavor to any recipe (not just breakfast recipes), the sauce can make or break the dish. Here are a few easy keto sauces you might want to include:
Rethink Your Definition of Breakfast
Most breakfast foods are very high in carbohydrates, which is the exact opposite of what you want on a keto diet. If you can shift about what foods are classified as breakfast options, you’ll spare yourself a lot of headaches.
No matter what you’ve been told in the past, any food can be eaten for breakfast. A bowl of beanless chili made with ground beef, pulled pork, or baked salmon can all be “breakfast foods.”
If this is too great a mental leap, read on for a few other keto tricks.
Find a Keto Version of Your Favorite Breakfast Foods
If there’s a keto version of your favorite dessert, there’s certainly a keto version of your favorite breakfast foods. Here are a few keto recipes you might want to try:
- Instead of breakfast muffins from the corner coffee shop, try these egg muffins (which are also great for meal prep).
- Instead of Belgian waffles piled high with whipped cream, try these gluten-free waffles made with coconut flour and almond flour.
- Instead of whole-wheat toast, try cloud bread (made with cream cheese) topped with almond butter.
- Use this keto bread to recreate your favorite breakfast sandwich.
- Instead of classic carb-laden pancakes, try these delicious keto pancakes.
- Try this crunchy keto granola recipe instead of the oat-filled classic style.
Rethink Your Breakfast Beverage
When first beginning the keto diet, you might want to skip your morning Starbucks run. Lattes, blended coffee drinks, and iced beverages are often loaded with unwanted ingredients (including sugar). Instead, make your own beverage at home. Here are a few recipes to include as part of your new morning routine:
- Boosted coffee is a great way to start your day (and get a healthy dose of extra fats)
- This acai almond butter smoothie is much lower in carbs (and sugar) than your typical acai bowl.
- Swap out that store-bought green juice (which is probably loaded with sugar) for this low-carb keto green smoothie.
You Can Never Go Wrong With Breakfast Tacos
Want to know one more recipe you can enjoy any time of day? Tacos.
Tacos can easily be made into a low-carb, delicious ketogenic breakfast by swapping out the tortilla for a low-carb alternative, then adding in a breakfast protein such as bacon or sausage.
In the recipe below, you’ll create a low-carb “tortilla” using shredded cheddar cheese and egg, then top with bacon, arugula, and cilantro. And the best part? They contain just 4 net carbs per serving.
Your Morning Is About to Get Even Better
Hopefully, this post gave you a solid list of keto breakfast ideas to work into your weekly routine.
Remember, you can easily make a breakfast skillet or a breakfast bowl by focusing on your macros and choosing a protein source, a low-carb vegetable, and a fat source.
If you’re ever at a loss for ideas, simply browse the Perfect Keto breakfast recipe section on this site. These recipes will keep your blood sugar in check, your carb count low, and your body energized throughout the day.
PrintEasy Ketogenic Breakfast Tacos
After you try this recipe, you’ll wish keto breakfast tacos grew on trees. If you don’t have a breakfast taco tree in your backyard, this is the next best thing.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 1 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients
Instructions
- Cook bacon first. You can pan fry it or put it in the oven at 350°F until crispy. Set aside.
- Shred cheese with a cheese grater and set in a bowl.
- Heat skillet on medium-high heat. Once it’s come to temperature, add the ghee to the skillet.
- Sprinkle the cheese into the skillet in a circular shape.
- The cheese will quickly begin to melt. Once it’s melted, crack the egg into the center of the cheese circle. Sprinkle the yolk with salt, pepper, and turmeric.
- Cook for 2 minutes until the egg begins to become opaque, and the cheese begins to brown.
- Cover with a tight-fitting lid and lower the heat. Cook covered for 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat. The egg should be fully cooked and the cheese crispy.
- Slide the cheese egg onto a cutting board or dish. Use two bowls or cups (or the cheese grater) to hold up the sides of the sheet taco — this will help the sides stay up as the shell cools and hardens.
- Add bacon, arugula, and cilantro.
- Grab your shell and eat on a plate to capture any yolk.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Taco
- Calories: 360
- Sugar: 2
- Fat: 29
- Carbohydrates: 4
- Protein: 20
Keywords: breakfast tacos
Just made these, they’re delicious. Instead of forming them into a taco, I formed them into a roll, and propped a spoon on top to keep closed until they hardened. Also put avocado in there for extra fat.
These taste great!
That said, the nutrition facts that I get after entering the recipe into my app came up with almost twice the calories. My Tillamook Mild Cheddar cheese is 110 calories per ounce—so that alone gets me to 385 calories. Overall I end up with 51.5 grams of fat, 34.5 grams protein, 4.5 grams of carbs, and 632 calories. I am hoping to try it again with half the cheese to see if I can still get the great flavor and wonderful crispy taco shell.
Correction, I put mistakenly 3.5 ounces of cheese in my app. So my numbers are a bit high. But those shown on the recipe are way too low. It appears they may have been calculated for 1 ounce of cheese instead of three.
Hello Joe. 3 ounces sharp tilamook cheddar comes out to 3 grams of carbs in our app.
What about the taco shells? What are good brands for this?
Brilliant!! Quick, easy, delish! I may try to roll for ease or purchase a taco stand to insert them into to cool and firm up…. A++