In my ongoing quest to find savory breakfasts that don't include egg, I've decided it's okay to eat yogurt on toast in the morning. Especially if that yogurt is served warm with spinach, nuts, and saffron. To be fair, you could eat this at any time of day, but it's quick to whip up and involves lots of energy foods so makes for a nice start to the day (and to the year). Hi 2016!
I'm back at work now and winter has finally arrived in Washington, which means I need a balance between warm cozy foods to keep me alive and healthy January foods to keep me from exploding from all the extra cheese and booze I consumed over the last two weeks. I also need to invest in gloves (how do I not own any gloves)?
Warm yogurt may seem a little odd, but the saffron makes it almost more like a sauce that goes with the spinach... think of this dish like a tart deconstructed creamed spinach. Or is that weird? Maybe just think of it like a delicious warm winter breakfast.
Steps
Steep the saffron in 3 tbsps warm water and let sit for 5 mins. Remove threads and mix the saffron water into the yogurt. Season lightly with salt.
Wash and roughly tear/chop the spinach. Heat olive oil in a frying pan and cook the spinach. Once cooked, season with lemon juice, salt and pepper. In a small frying pan, gently toast the pine nuts.
To assemble, spread yogurt on a plate, top with spinach and pine nuts. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
(The dish can be eaten at any temperature, but I usually microwave it for 30 seconds before spooning it onto hot buttered toast).
A few years ago I developed an egg allergy. It's not horribly severe, I can still eat cookies or a piece of cake (and a slice of quiche won't kill me), but if I tried to chow down on some breakfast eggs, it would not be a pretty sight. This makes brunch a really sad meal. I look mournfully across the table at all the gooey benedicts, shakshukas, and huevos rancheros, while I drown my tears in bottomless coffee and order another bloody mary. WOE IS ME.
But not all is lost because I can still eat mushrooms, butter, toast, and a large dollop of crème fraîche with my coffee and feel like I just conquered the morning. This meal is rich, creamy, warm, and comforting, so great for cool winter mornings. Really, it's perfect at any time of day or night because it's so fast and simple but still incredibly satisfying.
Sometimes it's the simple things that taste the best...
If I were able to digest eggs, I might scramble some up to go with this? And when I have winter greens lying around, I'll sometimes sauté them up with the mushrooms and add some garlic.
Stuff
handful of mushrooms
slice of sourdough
couple sprigs of thyme
couple knobs of butter
crème fraîche
salt & pepper
Steps
Slice the mushrooms. Heat a knob of butter in a frying pan on a medium high heat. Sauté the mushrooms in the butter, add thyme leaves, salt & pepper. Stir constantly until cooked through (approx. 5 mins).
Toast and butter the sourdough and top with the sautéed mushrooms and a big dollop of crème fraîche. Garnish with a few thyme leaves and eat immediately.
Breakfast is hard. It's early and I'm hungry. 90% of the time this results in me eating peanut-butter on toast, which I've been eating for breakfast for as long as I can remember eating things for breakfast. Occasionally I'll swap the peanut-butter for avocado, but this is an expensive east coast habit. However, when my lunch or dinner is going to be bread heavy, I try to avoid a toast breakfast. Enter my Good Morning Blue Nuts Smoothie. I've tried this a bunch of different ways but I like the 2 to 1 blueberry to raspberry ratio and the cashew almond combo. It's rich, but simple. Filling, but not heavy. Plus there aren't any bitter greens so no need for additional sweeteners.
The main sweetener for this drink is the frozen banana. I like to keep a bag of peeled and halved bananas in my freezer for smoothies. When things freeze, their flavor becomes less extreme, so you can freeze bananas long past normal eating ripeness. In fact, the longer you leave them before freezing, the sweeter your smoothies will taste. If you're out of almond milk, you can add a handful of almonds in addition to the cashews and then use water to mix all the ingredients together. If you're out of almonds, go to the store.
Stuff
1/2 a frozen banana
big handful of frozen blueberries
a few frozen raspberries
handful of raw cashews
unsweetened almond milk
Steps
Break up half banana and throw in blender with the berries and cashews. Pour in almond milk until the solid ingredients are about half way covered. Blitz. Stir ingredients and add a touch more almond milk. Blitz again. Keep doing this until you reach your desired consistency.
Pour the smoothie into a jar and then pour a little bit more almond milk into the blender. Shake or blitz to loosen all the smoothie goodness on the side of your blender and pour the last bit of mixture on top of your smoothie. Good morning, blue nuts.
