While I don’t wan’t to talk about bloody c*v*d, we started the new year in isolation. Not the best start to 2022 but thankfully we were both fine, bored but fine. As part of the endless cooking that happened for the week, I made this Baked Eggs with Beans again. We were lucky to get to London for a few days in December and I had a gorgeous brunch of baked eggs. I’ve been recreating it and playing around with recipes ever since. There are endless variations, see tips and links for suggestions.

I’ll be honest, I usually like to make this with nduja. But one of my last posts was for Nduja Fried Eggs with Asparagus Wrapped in Bacon so I didn’t want to be too repetitive. Plus many people are trying to cut back on meat so I wanted to post a vegetarian recipe. So this one is flavoured with harissa which is now widely available.

I always like to post new recipes for Breakfast & Brunch dishes at the time of year. You need natural daylight to get decent photos so late morning is good in winter. I love eggs and spice and am always looking for new variations on this combination. Plus I’m a big fan of breakfast at any time of day!

 

Useful tips & links:

• As I said, you can make this with nduja, which is a quick way to pack loads of flavour in. Simply fry a little nduja with the shallot and you can skip the spices and harissa and go from there.
• Alternatively fry some chorizo with the shallots for a more meaty dish.
• The version I had pictured below was topped with labneh and dukkah. I don’t have access to decent labneh so I just went with plain yogurt to top it. It also had butter beans but I prefer the texture of smaller cannellini beans. Use whichever beans you like yourself but if they are dried you will need to cook them in advance.
• I like to make a double batch of the beans to freeze them and just reheat before adding the eggs and baking it. Here I made an individual serving from what was in the freezer.
• Have a look at these Baked Green Eggs from Jono and Jules for more baked eggs inspiration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baked Eggs with Beans

Serves 2-3

 

Ingredients:

• Olive or sunflower oil
• 1 shallot or small onion finely diced
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• ½ a teaspoon of ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons of Harissa
• 1 roasted red pepper, sliced
• ½ a teaspoon of smoked paprika
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• ½ a teaspoon of red wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• Sugar
• 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained
• 4 eggs

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200c/180c fan/gas mark 6.
• In a large oven proof dish or frying pan, heat about a tablespoon of oil over a medium heat and fry the shallot until soft.
• Add the garlic and cumin and fry for another coupe of minutes.
• Add the harissa, pepper and paprika and stir through. Next pour in the tomatoes, water and vinegar and season with salt and pepper.
• Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.
• Drain the beans and add to the tomato sauce. Taste the sauce and add a little sugar if needed. Simmer for another 10 minutes and taste again to see if it needs more seasoning.
• Use a spoon to make 4 little wells in the beans and crack the eggs into the wells.
• Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the whites are fully set and the yolks cooked to your liking. For this I like the yolks to just start to set and this takes 13 minutes in my oven. Remember they will cook more in the beans when you take them out of the oven.
• Top the eggs with freshly cracked black pepper and top with whatever you like yourself. In the pics here I have topped with yogurt, the leftover chilli butter from my Turkish Eggs and fresh coriander. Serve with toast or nice bread on the side.

Serving suggestions:

• Yogurt, whipped feta, labneh, crumbled feta cheese, halloumi cheese, sour cream, creme fraiche, avocado, chunky guacamole, Aleppo pepper, chilli flakes, extra harissa, chilli butter, peanut rayu, dukkah, fresh coriander, parsley, dill or chives.