Brown toast and nutty starters (3)
I believe the answer is:
tan
'brown' is the definition.
(tan is a kind of brown)
'toast and nutty starters' is the wordplay.
'starters' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letters of 'toast and nutty' is 'TAN'.
(Other definitions for tan that I've seen before include "Thrash" , "Brown to beat" , "Turn dark in sun" , "Make black and blue" , "function" .)