Veg-Packed Baked Eggs
Seriously guys, I will add veggies to just about anything. 😉 But hey, it works! People often comment on how many vegetables my children eat and how easily and happily they do it. But it has become so normal in our house I often don’t notice it until those people point it out.
It wasn’t always this way. But as I’ve slowly increased the vegetables we eat throughout the day and in each meal and making them the number one (and sometimes only) snack option, it’s become easier and easier to feed them to the family. It seems that maybe the more vegetables you eat, the more you want. We notice it now when we go and stay with other people. Within a couple of days our bodies are craving more than the odd bit of veg at dinner time.
The hardest obstacle to overcome, perhaps more so for my husband and I after years of cereals & toast to start our days, was breakfast. But now it seems completely normal to all of us to have vegetables at the heart of our first meal of the day at least 2-4 times a week. Although we love griddled asparagus “dippers” in our soft-boiled eggs, and a juice- (and often banana-) free green smoothie goes down well every time, this recipe is the easiest way to get the most veggies in all of us at the start of the day. It almost becomes a game to see how many I can stick in it without any complaints. So far there have been none!
It might be that if you are fairly new to the whole “veggies at breakfast” idea, you start by including only a couple of the vegetables in this recipe and work up from there (you can even swap in your favourites – chopped spinach or frozen broad beans go wonderfully in it). Or you could blitz the sauce with the veggies before you add the beans so it’s like having eggs, beans and tomato sauce. But either way, this dish is very inoffensive, tasty, naturally sweet and fun. And it keeps you going, filling you up for the morning ahead.
I like to make the veg-packed sauce the night before, then refrigerate it and heat it up the following morning. That way all I have to do before breakfast is crack some eggs in and leave to bake for 5 mins, then serve.
We love this with some avocado, sour cream and toasted torn wholemeal pitta breads to mop up the sauce, but it is equally yummy on its own.
This is the cheap, easy and tasty way to do veg for breakfast. It genuinely starts your day right, and sets you up so well for the day, as you will already have had satisfying protein and several helpings of veg before even leaving the house!
A super healthy, cheap, easy and tasty way to start the day, packing in plenty of protein and several helpings of veg before you even leave the house!
- 1 tbsp olive or coconut oil
- 1 red onion, finely sliced
- 100 g (1/2 cup) finely sliced bell peppers (frozen works really well here)
- 1/2 tsp chipotle chilli flakes (or 1 tsp smoked paprika)
- 1/2 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro) or parsley, roughly chopped (keep the stalks and chop them finely)
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 400 g (14 oz) tin black beans
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 400 g (14 oz) tin chopped tomatoes
- 400 ml (3/4 cup) vegetable stock (or 1 cup pumpkin puree)
- juice of 1/2 lime or lemon
- 4 eggs
- 2 wholemeal pitta breads, toasted and torn, to serve (optional)
- sliced avocado and/or sour cream, to serve (optional)
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Heat the oil in a large frying pan with a lid and fry the onion and peppers until softened (about 5 mins). Throw in the chilli flakes, herb stalks, tomatoes, tomato puree, black beans and garlic cloves and fry for another 1-2 mins, then stir through the chopped tomatoes, stock or pumpkin and lime juice. Mix well and simmer for 5 mins, until thickened slightly. (At this point I like to allow the mix to cool and I refrigerate overnight to make breakfast easier, then I heat it up again the next morning, but keep going if you are doing it all in one go).
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Use a wooden spoon or spatula to make four indentations in the sauce and crack an egg into each "hole". Cover the frying pan with the lid and simmer on a low heat for 4-7 mins, until the egg whites are set and the yolks are runny or cooked, depending on your personal preference. Take off the heat and sprinkle over the chopped coriander or parsley leaves, season, then serve topped with the sliced avocado and/or with the toasted torn pitta breads, if using.
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