Recipes: My favourite breakfasts : The Pickled Ginger

I’d like to claim that this post is inspired by last week being Breakfast Week. Sadly, this isn’t the case, because had I known, I’d have posted this last week, rather than this.

This is inspired more by a recent trip to Scotland, where we stopped in Aviemore and I had some divine Kiwi sweetcorn fritters, by the response that a photo of my sweet potatoes bravas received on Facebook and by all good things coming in threes and me needing a last recipe to round things off.

So I give you three of my favourite breakfasts.

Sweet Patatas Bravas

These are really easy. It’s all about what you load on top of them, in this case fried egg, fresh guacamole, fresh salsa and a couple of dollops of Greek Yoghurt rather than soured cream.

The potatoes I’ve fried with peppers, just because. And unlike their true Spanish cousins, I add chilli for a little more heat with breakfast – but please adjust to your own personal preference.

And if you happen to be having sweet potato mash the night before, just make a little extra, remove the extra before mashing and eat them the next day. Easy.

Makes enough for two.

Ingredients

1 large, or 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks

1 large green pepper diced

½ tsp dried chilli flakes, or ½ chilli finely chopped

1-1 ½ tsp coconut oil (or vegetable/rapeseed/sunflower if you prefer)

Toppings of your choosing. Hummus, guacamole, salsa, soured cream, Greek Yoghurt, ratatouille, home made chilli, poached, scramble or fried eggs – whatever takes your fancy

Method

Put your potatoes in a pan with cold water and bring to the boil. Once boiling, drain.

In a frying pan, heat the oil and add the potatoes.

Once they begin to brown, throw in the peppers and chilli flakes and seasoning – just a pinch of salt and a grind or two of pepper.

Once the peppers have warmed through, the potatoes will be cooked and a little crisp on the outside.

Pop onto a plate and top with whatever you’re in the mood for.

Enjoy.

Protein Veggie Fritters

The gorgeous Nic at Nic’s Nutrition turned me onto protein pancakes a while back. Then Body Building Warehouse cemented that love. But it was whilst in Aviemore eating a pile of incredible fritters that a thought occurred to me.

I like sweet, but I love savoury. So the challenge began, I needed to make a savoury version of these and this is the result.

Makes enough for two.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

50g porridge oats

100g Greek Yoghurt

Small tin (198g) sweetcorn

1 pepper finely diced

1 small carrot julienned or diced (or grab that spiraliser)

1 tsp coconut oil

salt and pepper to taste

(optional) ½ tsp chilli flakes

Method:

Take the eggs, oats, Greek Yoghurt and a pinch of salt and pepper and put into a blender. Blend until the oats are completely integrated into the batter.

Leave the batter to sit to one side, while you drain the sweetcorn of as much liquid as possible, prepare the veggies and heat the oil in a frying pan.

Ladle in some batter (how much is up to you, depends on how big you want your fritters), then sprinkle the veggies on top.

Cook until bubbles start to form on the surface of the fritter, then carefully flip.

Cook for another couple of minutes and once the centre is firm, remove from the heat.

Repeat until all your batter has gone.

Serve on their own, or if you need something a little extra, poach an egg and pop it on top. Delish.

Overnight Oats

These are the ultimate lazy breakfast. Measure, put in a tub, leave til morning. I tend to eat them cold and they’re perfect for the summer, but you can easily warm them up in the microwave when you get to work if you need something a little less chilled.

This recipe is admittedly, very light on oats – they’re an addition, rather than the bulk of this treat. I tend to use a low carb diet, as that suits me, but please feel free to adjust this if you’d prefer more.

I use soy milk rather than dairy here, simply because there’s already Greek yoghurt in the recipe, and I find too much dairy can leave me feeling a bit uncomfortable. If you don’t have that issue, please use ordinary milk, though you may have to adjust the quantity.

Ingredients:

30g porridge oats

100g Greek yoghurt (full fat)

20-30ml soy milk

100g frozen fruit of your choice (I prefer a berry mix)

Honey to taste

Method:

Take your container of choice (I use a clip-lock tub) and put everyhing bar the fruit and honey in the tub. Mix to evenly distribute the oats.

Top with the fruit and honey – I used a light drizzle, just enough to take the sharpness away from the fruit.

Put into the fridge, or leave on the side overnight.

In the morning, grab yourself a spoon and dig in. If you still feel like it needs warming, just gently do so in the microwave – just enough to take the edge off.

Enjoy!