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Breakfast, Diabetic friendly, Egg Recipes, Healthy, Party dishes

An inspired Sunday brunch

August 26, 2016

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A Sunday brunch menu with a shopping list and recipes

Leisurely weekend mornings and brunches are made for each other. I love the slow pace of Sunday morning over cups of coffee and the whole range of newspapers, browsing through the travel and food stories in the Sunday supplements. Sunday mornings also means taking the time out to stand and stare at the birds single-mindedly going about their business. It’s also a day when it’s perfectly normal to pour yourself a glass of wine (or a G&T) at 12 noon.

Some Sundays, I cook up a full traditional meal for lunch. And sometimes, all the inspirations gathered from travels, restaurant menus and exciting food websites goad me into cooking a beautiful Sunday brunch.

One of our Sunday brunch staples is toast, pancakes, eggs and potatoes which gets a two thumbs up from my family and friends. In our recent travels to Europe, I observed that the locals could easily make a meal from good bread, cheese and wine. So that is the inspiration for this brunch I cooked up a couple of weekends ago.

This brunch menu I’m sharing with you today comes together quite quickly. No pancakes in this one, but there are a couple of worthy substitutes, you’ll see.

Shopping List for a Sunday brunch for 4

  • A boule of sourdough bread (if you have the patience to make this yourself on a Sunday morning, go for it!)
  • A bottle of orange marmalade
  • Smoked Goat’s cheese (or any other cheese you fancy)
  • 10 eggs
  • Butter
  • Spinach / or any other greens
  • a kilo of mixed bell peppers
  • 3 avocados
  • Fresh herbs
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

ROASTING BELL PEPPERS

Start by preheating your oven to around 190 C.

Chop the bell peppers into quarters and then slice each one into 2-3 strips. Toss them in some olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs. Lay them out in a baking tray in a single layer. Bake for around 30 minutes or until the peppers are softened.

TOASTING THE BREAD

Slice the sourdough bread and place them on another baking tray. Drizzle some olive oil over these slices and bake for 5-7 minutes, or until they are toasted. Remove the toasted bread slices onto a tray and rub them gently with a clove of peeled garlic for that hint of garlic flavour.

GREEN SCRAMBLED EGGS

Meanwhile, we can get working on the eggs. Crack them in a large bowl. Season the eggs with salt and pepper. Add a good handful of chopped spinach or rocket, or whatever other greens you have around. Whisk everything until the whites and yolks are combined. Throw a knob of butter in the pan. Once the butter has melted, add the whole lot of eggs. On a medium flame, gently stir the eggs around until it starts forming curds. Keep stirring around, until the eggs are completely scrambled into small clumps, but still soft. Remove this into a bowl and keep aside. This is best done just before you are ready to set the brunch table.

MASHED AVOCADOS

Now, on to my favourite ingredient – the avocados. I would always have a tough time with these babies until my friend shared with me the trick to getting avocados to ripen perfectly. None of the stores / supermarkets sell ripened avocados as they need to be consumed immediately. When you buy raw avocados, wrap each one in a piece of newspaper and place it in a fruit / banana basket. The ripening bananas release a gas that helps ripen your avocados quickly. Check everyday by gently pressing on the flesh to see if it is yielding. Once it has reached this stage, refrigerate immediately and consume it asap.

For my Sunday brunch avocados, halve them lengthwise. Scoop out the flesh with the edge of a spoon, discard the stone. Mash the flesh with a fork, or chop roughly. Add this to a bowl. Immediately squeeze 2 lemons over this to preserve the green colour. Season with coarsely ground pepper and salt. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil and we are done! When you have a perfectly ripe avocado, it’s best to enjoy it in its most natural form and not do too much to it. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate this until ready to serve.

CHEESE!

Slice up the cheese or chop it into bite sized pieces. That was easy!

Sunday brunch

Now comes the happy and fulfilling part, putting it all together!

Set your table with the platter of toasted and garlic rubbed bread slices.

Serve the scrambled eggs warm, with some extra seasoning on the side.

Layout the cheese and the marmalade.

The roasted bell peppers taste good both warm or cold. Sprinkle some extra dried herbs over the platter and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Sprinkle a chiffonade of fresh herbs over mashed avocados.

Slice up some watermelon or a platter of mixed fruits, flavoured yogurts, a loaf of homemade or store bought tea cake, will all add a little bit of extra deliciousness to the brunch table.

Don’t forget a couple of bottles of rose wine and some virgin mojito for the teetotallers to wash it all down.

I hope this post inspires you to cook up a beautiful brunch for your family and friends.

This post was sponsored by the good folks at Axis Bank. You can watch Chef Vikas Khanna talk about his #Foodventures with breakfast in this video.

Don’t forget to check out #Foodventures by Axis Bank Dining Delights, for inspiring food videos, recipes and more!

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bread breakfast brunch egg recipes Sunday
by Nandita Iyer 
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About Nandita Iyer

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previous post: 11 Traditional Tamil Vegetarian Lunch Menus
next post: Saffron Trail Digest – September 2016

Comments

  1. Neha Pol says: August 30, 2016 at 9:26 am

    Yum! Where do you get sourdough in bangalore? Recommendations?

    Reply
  2. nandita says: August 30, 2016 at 11:26 am

    @neha I bought it from M cafe at the Whitefield Marriott 🙂 Look in any specialised bakeries

    Reply
  3. araa says: February 25, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    you should get it in Godrej Nature’s Basket

    Reply

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  • The days are getting hotter and the only thoughts that give me comfort are late evenings in the pool and eating plates of chilled fruits, both not at the same time, of course 😁
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Also, I've been going through my old Ayurveda books which I've read over the last 15 years, out of pure fascination for this science and way of life. Did you know that  bitter gourd is excellent for your  summer diet for reducing the aggravated pitta. What's even better that it is a summer season vegetable. Talk about how nature helps us take care of ourselves. I've got this bitter gourd and mango Ayurvedic curry on my blog from 2005 or so and I want to reshoot a photo of that one to share with you this season :)
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  • Just polished off this breakfast a few minutes ago. Homemade sourdough with a good helping of buckwheat flour and seed mix in it, sauteed spinach topped with my current fav way to eat eggs- a 3-4 minute steamed egg, topped with basil microgreens from @livingfood.co
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Steamed Egg my way --
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This is faster than boiling the egg, no peeling involved and way easier than poaching an egg. Carefully break an egg into a lightly greased (small) cup. Bring some water to boil in a saucepan with a lid keeping some sort of stand (small cooker ring works) inside so the water does not enter the egg. Place the egg cup inside the saucepan when water is boiling. Cover and keep a timer for 3 minutes. Check if the white and yolk is set to your liking. Mine is when the white is set and yolk is very slightly jammy and not fully runny. Takes 3.5 minutes in my set up. Try this method of steamed eggs and let me know how you like it. You can also use a bigger saucepan for multiple egg cups. The idli stand would also work very well for this.
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  • #saffrontrailXsourdough
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If you remember from my stories, I had made a beet raisin sourdough some 3 weeks ago. Being the first time, I wasn't sure how much beetroot powder to add. The result was a very light pink - brown bread. This time, I added 30 grams of beet powder + 50 grams whole wheat flour + 170 grams all purpose flour to 50 grams Levain and the colour turned out more beautiful. There wasn't any residual beet flavour in the bread so I can up it by 10 grams next time.
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Two of the most creative answers will win a gift voucher of Rs.1000 each to shop at Star Bazaar
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Giveaway closes at 6PM 20 Feb 2019. Open to people in Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad only because the stores are in these locations. In these cities, you can also shop from Star Bazaar online on starquik.com - you can tag your friends in these cities to take part if you cannot!
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This is just a small section of the produce in which there are over a dozen greens piled up. I share with you some of my favourite dishes as I take you through this section. Although I did miss one - Kothimbir Vadi made using tons of fresh coriander. What  is your favourite green leafy vegetable and the dish you love to make with it?
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I have a giveaway coming up this week sponsored by Star Bazaar so stay tuned :)
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