Cheeses for breakfast
Feta and olives, Turkish kahvalti, Dutch bread with Gouda, paneer bhurji and the cheese of the first meal.
In much of the world, cheese is a breakfast food. A Turkish breakfast is laid with white cheese, kaşar, olives, tomatoes and bread; Dutch and Scandinavian mornings start with sliced Gouda or brunost on bread; Greek, Levantine and Balkan breakfasts bring feta, labneh, halloumi and akkawi. In India, paneer bhurji and cheese toast are breakfast staples, and in Latin America arepas and cheese breads come warm with coffee.
The eastern Mediterranean spread
Turkish breakfast, kahvaltı, a word that means something like before coffee, is a spread rather than a dish: beyaz peynir, kaşar and tulum cheese, sometimes herb cheese, alongside olives, tomato, cucumber, honey, eggs, bread or simit, and glass after glass of tea. Greek and Cypriot breakfasts add feta and halloumi. In Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, akkawi and labneh sit beside manakish, flatbreads baked with za'atar or cheese and eaten warm from the oven.
Northern Europe
In the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, breakfast and the packed lunch are often bread with cheese cut thin with a cheese plane, a tool patented in Norway in 1925. Young and mature Gouda, Danish Havarti and Danbo, and Norway's sweet brunost are the usual choices, eaten on rye bread or crispbread with coffee. In Germany and Austria, quark is spread on rolls with jam or chives, and in Finland, warm leipäjuusto is eaten with cloudberry jam.
South Asia and Latin America
Indian breakfasts use cheese in cooked dishes: paneer bhurji, scrambled paneer with onion, tomato and spice, eaten with toast or paratha; paneer paratha stuffed with spiced crumbled paneer; and the chilli cheese toast of Mumbai's cafés. In Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan, churpi and datshi go into morning curries with rice. Colombian and Venezuelan arepas are split and filled with fresh white cheese, and Brazil's pão de queijo, small cheese breads of cassava starch, go with morning coffee.
Worth knowing
- Turkish breakfast: A spread of cheeses, olives, bread and tea
- Beyaz peynir: Turkey's white breakfast cheese
- Gouda: Sliced thin on bread in the Netherlands
- Brunost: Sweet brown cheese on Norwegian bread
- Paneer bhurji: Scrambled paneer with onion and spice
- Manakish: Levantine flatbread with za'atar or cheese
- Arepa: Corn cake split and filled with cheese
- Pão de queijo: Brazilian cheese bread of cassava starch
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Breakfast on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
🇹🇷 TurkeyVan herbed cheeseVan otlu peyniri
A semi-hard sheep's-milk cheese from eastern Turkey, infused with wild herbs and brined.Sheep · Semi-soft · Salty
🇾🇪 YemenYemeni cheeseجبنة تعز
A smoked semi-hard sheep or goat milk cheese from Taiz Governorate in Yemen.Sheep · Semi-soft · Savoury and brothy
🇲🇹 MaltaĠbejna
A small Maltese sheep's-milk cheese shaped in reed hurdles and sold fresh, dried, or peppered.Sheep · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇧🇬 Bulgaria and 5 moreKashkavalkaşkaval
A semi-hard yellow cheese from cow, sheep, or goat milk, popular across the Balkans and Turkey.Cow · Semi-hard · Milky and fresh
🇨🇾 CyprusAnariαναρή
A fresh whey cheese from Cyprus made from sheep or goat milk.Sheep · Fresh · Salty
🇫🇷 FranceFaisselle
A fresh, very soft French cheese strained in a faisselle mold, made from cow, goat, or sheep milk.Cow · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇮🇷 IranLighvan cheeseپنیر لیقوان
A sour brined sheep's milk curd cheese from the village of Liqvan in Iran.Sheep · Brined · Salty
🇬🇷 GreeceAnthotyrosΑνθότυρος
A traditional Greek whey cheese made from sheep or goat milk, available in fresh and dry forms.Sheep · Fresh · Sweet and caramel
🇹🇳 TunisiaRigouta
A fresh Tunisian whey cheese from Béja, made with Sicilo-Sarda sheep milk.Sheep · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇬🇷 GreeceKatiki DomokouΚατίκι Δομοκού
A fresh, soft goat and sheep milk cheese from central Greece.Goat · Fresh · Milky and fresh
🇫🇷 FranceBrousse
A lumpy whey cheese from Provence and Corsica made from cow, sheep or goat milk.Cow · Whey · Milky and fresh
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Akkawi: Paul Joseph, CC BY 2.0, source
- Lighvan cheese: farsnews.ir, CC BY 4.0, source
- Anthotyros: Giorgos ab1234, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Faisselle: Véronique PAGNIER, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Anari: Zlerman, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Ġbejna: Chattacha, CC BY 3.0, source
- Van herbed cheese: Tanyel, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kashkaval: Nnikolce, Public domain, source
- Katiki Domokou: C messier, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Brousse: Roland Darré, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Rigouta: Habib M ' henni, CC BY-SA 4.0, source