For A Savory Take On French Toast, Try Subbing In A Can Of Tomato Soup

Though there are many savory breakfast dishes, French toast isn't one of them. It falls into the same category as pancakes and waffles, which usually tend to be almost dessert-like and sometimes even come with sweeteners like ice cream and whipped cream on top (or at the very least, powdered sugar and maple syrup). Traditional French toast is made with eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla extract, though it's fairly common to substitute some of the ingredients.

It's possible to make French toast without eggs, for example, by using coconut milk and cornstarch or bananas and flaxseed. And perhaps more obviously, you can always swap the butter for margarine, leave out the vanilla entirely, or add another flavor like cinnamon. With these modifications, your French toast is bound to taste a bit different, but it'll still be on the sweet side. If you're willing to be more adventurous with flavor, however, next time consider adding canned tomato soup. The addition will yield a savory yet surprisingly tasty French toast.

If you're taken aback by the idea of adding an ingredient such as canned tomato soup to your French toast, it's probably because you've never heard of red dog toast. A recipe from the 1970s, red dog toast is named for the red color it gets from the tomato soup. According to a recipe published in the 1970 edition of the "Women's Day Collector's Cookbook" shared by Reddit user nomoanya in the r/Old_Recipes subreddit, red dog toast is made almost exactly like French toast except it uses tomato soup in place of milk.

As for how red dog toast tastes, nomoanya, whose actual name is Lulu Caldwell, further shared on Instagram that it tastes a lot like a strata, a type of breakfast casserole made similarly to a bread pudding, but with ingredients like cheese and tomatoes. If you don't want to eat it for breakfast, red dog toast also works well as the bread for an inspired lunchtime grilled cheese.

Much like milk, tomato soup can easily make French toast soggy. The 1970s recipe calls for only a half cup of tomato soup — less than half a can — for every two eggs, which is plenty of liquid for six slices of bread. The recipe also specifies using condensed tomato soup rather than regular. Condensed soup contains less water than regular soup and therefore has a slightly thicker consistency. If you only have regular tomato soup on hand, you'll want to add cornstarch, because otherwise it could make your toast soggy even when the eggs cook.

The original recipe also adds paprika and suggests garnishing with parsley or chives, though you can realistically substitute any combination of herbs and spices you'd like. And when it comes to serving red dog toast, since it's a savory dish, you can eat it with other savory breakfast staples like bacon and eggs. It's the perfect thing to eat if you like French toast but aren't in the mood for something too sweet.