Sunday morning in a Jewish (Ashkenazi) household means one thing: lox on the counter, cream cheese already at room temperature, and a bagel debate in progress (everything or sesame? Toasted or nah?). But the Jewish breakfast table is bigger than our family bagel spread.
There’s shakshuka, which is eggs poached in spiced tomato sauce and which every brunch spot now claims to have invented. There’s matzah brei, which is French toast if French toast had a Passover crisis. There are blintzes, which are Jewish stuffed crepes that know exactly how good they are. And there are approximately twelve ways to cure lox, each one slightly more ambitious than the last.
I love Jewish-inspired breakfasts for lazy Sundays and Shabbat mornings that turn into Shabbat afternoons. Here are the 20 I keep coming back to.
The bagel spread
The Jewish bagel spread is not just breakfast. Build it right and it covers lunch too.
Homemade bialy
A bialy is a bagel that skips the boiling step. Flatter, chewier, with caramelized onions and poppy seeds pressed into the center instead of a hole. Easier to make than a bagel and, honestly, better with lox. A New York Jewish deli staple worth knowing. Get the recipe.
Homemade bagels
If you want the full bagel spread, you need actual bagels. Boiled, then baked, the boiling step is what gives them that shiny, chewy exterior. King Arthur’s New York-style bagel recipe is the one to trust.
Homemade lox
Salt-cured salmon, made at home in about five minutes of active work and two days of patience. Once you make your own lox, the store-bought stuff feels like a compromise. The base recipe for everything else in this section. Get the recipe.
How to make flavored cream cheese
Scallion, lox, sun-dried tomato, jalapeño — once you realize how easy flavored cream cheese is to make, the store-bought versions feel embarrassing. Takes five minutes and dramatically improves any bagel situation. Get the recipe.
Dill pickle cream cheese
Cream cheese loaded with chopped dill pickles. This is the one people request by name after the first time they try it. I mean Jews love pickles, right? Who doesn’t? Tangy, briny, great on an everything bagel, and surprisingly hard to stop eating by the spoonful. Get the recipe.
Lox and schmear stuffed everything bagels
The lox and cream cheese go inside the bagel before baking. Every single bite has both. There is no bad angle on this one. Get the recipe.
Shakshuka and eggs
Eggs are the backbone of the Jewish breakfast table. Sometimes poached in spiced tomato sauce, sometimes scrambled with matzo, sometimes crisped up with brisket into a hash. All of these are correct.
The best shakshuka
Eggs poached directly in a pan of spiced tomato and pepper sauce. North African in origin, now on every brunch menu everywhere, but none of them are doing it better than this version. Serve with good bread for dipping and prepare to be asked for the recipe. Get the recipe.
Green shakshuka
The tomatillo-and-herb version that is bright, tangy, a little unexpected. Eggs poached in green sauce are just as satisfying as the classic red, and make for a much more impressive-looking plate. Get the recipe.
Cinnamon roll matzah brei
Matzah brei – soaked matzo, fried with eggs – made with cinnamon sugar filling swirled through like a cinnamon roll. Technically Passover breakfast. Genuinely one of the best sweet breakfasts, Passover or not. Get the recipe.
Lox, dill and goat cheese omelette
Lox, fresh dill, and creamy goat cheese folded into a soft omelette. The flavors are essentially a deconstructed bagel and schmear, which means it hits every note you want from a Jewish breakfast without requiring a bagel. Get the recipe.
Tzimmes brisket hash
Leftover brisket and tzimmes turned into breakfast. Sweet carrots, tender beef, crisped up in a pan. The best possible use of holiday leftovers. Get the recipe.
Sweet brunch
Blintzes, kugel, challah French toast. Jewish sweet brunch is not subtle about what it wants.
Blueberry blintzes
Thin crepe-like wrappers filled with sweetened ricotta and fresh blueberries, pan-fried until golden. A Shavuot classic and a year-round brunch move. They look fancy and take less time than most people expect. Get the recipe.
Tzimmes blintzes with cardamom yogurt sauce
Blintzes filled with sweet potato, carrots, and honey aka tzimmes flavors inside a blintz. Served with cardamom yogurt sauce. This one is Rosh Hashanah appropriate but good enough to make any Sunday feel like a holiday. Get the recipe.
Cardamom challah French toast with tahini syrup
Thick-cut challah dipped in cardamom egg custard and pan-fried, finished with tahini syrup and halva crumble. The flavors are Middle Eastern and the format is Saturday morning. This is what challah French toast should always be. Get the recipe.
Blueberry goat cheese kugel
Sweet noodle kugel with blueberries and goat cheese baked in. Kugel-for-breakfast is a legitimate move and this version is good enough to justify it fully. Make it the night before and reheat for Shabbat morning or any morning you want something that feels like a hug. Get the recipe.
Israeli brunch
The Israeli breakfast table has its own language: malawach, bourekas, tahini on everything. This isn’t a trend. It’s what Israelis have been eating for generations.
Date malawach with roasted grapes and labneh
Malawach is a Yemenite Jewish flatbread. Flaky, buttery, and cooked on a griddle like a very indulgent pancake. This version is topped with roasted grapes, labneh, and dates. It’s a complete breakfast that looks like it came from a restaurant, and it starts from a package of frozen malawach dough. Get the recipe.
Caramelized onion and goat cheese breakfast bourekas
Flaky puff pastry pockets filled with caramelized onions and goat cheese, baked until golden. Bourekas are the Israeli breakfast pastry and these ones are better than anything from a bakery case. Make a batch on Sunday and eat them all week. Get the recipe.
Avocado bagel toast with za’atar roasted chickpeas
Avocado toast but on a bagel, topped with za’atar roasted chickpeas and preserved lemon. The bagel base means more structural integrity and better chew than regular toast. The za’atar chickpeas are what make it actually interesting. Get the recipe.
Israeli breakfast latkes with homemade schug
Crispy latkes made Israeli-breakfast style, served with homemade schug (a Yemenite green hot sauce), labneh, and a fried egg. This is the latke as main-event breakfast rather than Hanukkah side dish, and it earns that spot. Get the recipe.
For a crowd
When you’re feeding ten people who all have opinions about cream cheese.
Break-fast bagel board
The breakfast (or break fast if we are talking Yom Kippur) setup: a full board with bagels, multiple cream cheeses, lox, smoked whitefish, pickles, capers, tomato, and onion. Everything arranged so people can build their own plates without asking you where anything is. Scales easily for any size crowd. Get the recipe.
Smoked salmon and goat cheese quiche
Smoked salmon and goat cheese in a flaky quiche that serves a crowd without requiring you to be at the stove. Make it the night before, slice it cold or reheat it — both work. This is the move when shakshuka feels too intensive for a large group. Get the recipe.
FAQ
What is a traditional Jewish breakfast?
In the Ashkenazi tradition, that’s bagels with lox and cream cheese, smoked fish, eggs, and kugel. The Israeli version adds shakshuka, bourekas, labneh, salads, and fresh vegetables. In practice, a Jewish breakfast is anything your family has always made on Sunday morning.
Can you make Jewish brunch recipes ahead of time?
Yes, most of these work well ahead. Lox keeps in the fridge for up to a week once cured. Kugel and blintzes both reheat well. Shakshuka sauce can be made a day or two out and you just add the eggs when serving. Cream cheeses keep for a week. The bagels are really the only thing worth making same-day.
What Jewish breakfast recipes are kosher for Passover?
The shakshuka recipes, matzah brei, the lox (any variety), the omelette, and the latkes are all naturally Passover-friendly. Skip the bagels, blintzes, kugel, French toast, and bourekas during Passover — all of those require chametz.
What’s a good vegetarian Jewish breakfast?
Almost everything here works without meat. Shakshuka, matzah brei, blintzes, kugel, challah French toast, bourekas, malawach, avocado bagel toast — all vegetarian. The lox and omelette are fish/dairy, not meat. For something fully plant-based, the avocado bagel toast and shakshuka are your cleanest options.
