Top 10 Spanish Breakfast foods

We had to start our list of breakfast foods in Spain, with the most famous one, the churros!

Churros are popular all over the world as a Mexican or Spanish dessert, but here in Spain, the most common time to eat them is for breakfast, specially during wintertime. Mixing it with a cup of hot chocolate is a great wat to get warmer.

There is something similar to churros called porras, which are bigger and taste a little bit different. Every time you are going to order some churros in Spain, you should get it together with a porra. Learn how to make Churros with our easy recipe!

Catalans took toasts a whole new level making the Pan Tumaca, also known as Spanish bread with tomato.

There are many ways to make Pan Tumaca, but the most common one is just a slice of bread with olive oil and tomato sauce on top of it. Some people would also add a slice of Iberic Jam, cheese or mozzarella.

Pan Tumaca is probably one of the easiest and most popular Spanish breakfast recipes and it doesn´t take much time, so if you want to make it at home, here you have a super easy Spanish breakfast recipe.

Santiago cakes are usually eaten as desserts or snacks, but they can also be a typical breakfast in Spain. Of course, people don´t eat a piece of cake everyday (although we honestly would lol), but it´s more common breakfast food in Spain during special occasions, like birthdays or family meetings.

This delicious cake is from Galicia in the north of Spain and its name, comes from one of the main cities, Santiago de Compostela. If you visit Galicia, eating a piece of Santiago Cake is a must, but don´t worry if you are traveling to other places in Spain, as you will be able to find it everywhere.

In case you want to make it at home, it is also possible, start cooking it now with this easy recipe!

Another of the most famous breakfast meals in Spain, is the “Roscon de reyes”.

This Spanish pastry is typical from Christmas and there is even an exact date where it should be eaten. The tradition says “Roscon de reyes” are for the Three Kings day (6^th of January), so it is eaten right after every kid gets its presents. It also says every family should leave plate of roscón before Three Wise Men arrive!

That said, we must recognize almost everyone (including ourselves), eats roscón since the beginning of Christmas, it is just too good to eat it only once per year.

If you are not a big fan of sweets, don´t worry, because there are many other options, like “pan con mantequilla”, which it basically is bread with butter.

This one is much simpler than any of the other Spanish breakfast recipes, so therefore it is a more common. If you want to complete this traditional Spanish breakfast, in addition to the butter, many people also add strawberry or honey jelly to the toast.

If you prefer to enjoy a healthy Spanish breakfast, instead of adding butter, you can always use olive oil, which is also delicioous

As we were telling you at the beginning, there are many delicious breakfast meals in Spain, but they are usually eaten in special occasions.

Most people´s real breakfast is the same as in many other countries, a warm cup of coffee to wake up and start the day fresh.

The most common coffee in Spain is the “Café con leche” or coffee with milk, but you can get anything you want, black coffee, espresso, espresso with milk, without caffeine…

Getting back to the good side of the Spanish breakfast, once you visit Spain, you will realize there are more more Spanish breakfast pastries than one can initially expect. The ensaimadas are one of them.

These pastries are made of yeast dough, flour, sugar, eggs and of course lard, which historically has always been the most important ingredient of this Spanish breakfast recipe. Luckily for vegetarians, now a days it is easier to find ensaimadas without lard.

You will be able to try them all over Spain, but if you want to taste the best ones, you must travel to Balearic Islands, being more specific to Mallorca, which is where they are from.

Ensaimada from Mallorca | © LisaStevens/WikiCommons

The Spanish Omelet is one of the most famous Spanish dishes, but it isn´t that common to eat it for breakfast, as cooking it takes more time and effort.

Now you might be wondering, why did we rank it in our top 10 then? Well, the reason is kind of weird. Many Spaniards start the day with a light breakfast and some others would even skip it, therefore (having in mind lunch in Spain is at 3:00 p.m.) they just need to get a “second breakfast”. In this second breakfast, it´s typical to get some tapas and the “tortilla de patatas” is always a great option.

Many experts recommend starting the day with a heavy breakfast, so Spanish Omelet should always be a great option, plus it is delicious! Learn here how to make the best Spanish breakfast just with eggs and potatoes!

If you are looking for unique Spanish breakfast ideas, the Horchata and fartons are a great option. Both are original from Valencia and in this case, if you want to try a real and good horchata and fartons you will just have to get there.

Horchata is a soft drink made of a plant called chufa, sugar and water. Its look is like milk, but the taste is different and sweeter. During summertime, you will be able to buy it at any supermarket, but it gets much better if you get it from “horchaterias” in Valencia.

Something similar happens with the fartons, which is a sweet bar-shaped cake made of flour, water or milk, sugar, oil, yeast and eggst. They harder to find in supermarkets, but it´s not impossible, still it is better if you try them in Valencia.

Every single mom in Spain will say this “Tómate el zumo rápido que se le van las vitaminas”, this basically means, hurry up drinking you juice, or it will lose its vitamins. This saying is so popular, that there are even jokes about it. Orange juice is one of the most famous Spanish breakfast drinks.

There are high quality oranges in Spain almost all year long, but during winter is for sure the best time to eat or drink them. Squeezing them usually takes a little bit of time so this morning juices are usually for the weekend, when kids don´t have to rush to go to the school.

You will be able to try this orange juices in almost every local restaurant. Just don´t look for them in International chains, as they won´t offer you natural ones.