Holy moly, a recipe! I made a recipe! A good one, too. Let me tell you about this Paratha Egg Breakfast Sandwich.
So you all know that the pandemic sort of killed my creativity in the kitchen. My food adventures are colored by my actual adventures and when there are no adventures of any kind to be had, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Life, or otherwise. But, since getting on a plane a few weeks ago my spirits have been restored a bit and with a few more jaunts planned in the next few months, I am hoping that the good food vibes and the good life vibes continue.
This paratha egg breakfast sandwich was inspired, or I should say is a copycat of one that we ate on our most recent Disney trip. I know that some of you are wondering how one can get inspired by the land of popcorn, hamburgers and churros, but one thing that we learned years ago on our adult-only Disney trips is that there are so many good options in the various parts of the World to mix it up from the usual amusement park fare. One of our favorite haunts in Sanaa, an Indian-African fusion restaurant that is a must-visit every single time we go. Don’t mess with our Sanaa lunch date – you would not be forgiven should we miss it.
It’s not often that we stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge (though it is one of my favorites!), but since we did this time, we actually go to try some of their breakfasts. We all fell in love with the methi paratha sandwich, so recreating it at home was priority 1 in the kitchen for when I got home.
The base of this and, let’s be honest, my favorite part – is the paratha bread. Paratha is a indian flatbread. It’s flatter than naan, flaker than roti and can be stuffed or unstuffed with delicious fillings. Admittedly I wasn’t ready to make these myself, and the original plan was to hop over to the Indian market to see if they had some ready-made but don’t you know, Trader Joe’s to the rescue! You can find these in the freezer section next to the garlic naan. If you can’t find the paratha for whatever reason, a garlic naan would also be fab. The parathas heat up in minutes on the skillet and you’ll use the same skillet to scramble your eggs. Easy peasy.
In my version, I swapped out the potatoes for smashed, curried chickpeas just because the I love me curried garbanzos better than curried potatoes. The recipe spice mix I took out of my own family’s cookbook and adapted the recipe of my mom’s curried potatoes, a favorite from our own Indian breakfast.
Scrambled eggs, lime-pickled onions and fresh cilantro top the whole thing off. Hot sauce or chutney are optional but encouraged, and leftover make for an easy breakfast every day.
It’s been a while since I’ve made something that I’ve gone back to over and over again enthusiastically at each meal and this one, my friends, made me do just that. This recipe below will serve four.
Enjoy and happy breakfasting!
Paratha Egg Breakfast Sandwich
Delicious paratha egg breakfast sandwich mixes curried chickpeas, scrambled eggs and fresh onions and wraps it in a deliciously flaky Indian flatbread.
Ingredients
- 4 frozen paratha breads or naan, thawed
- 8 whole eggs, beaten with 1 TB hot sauce
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp butter
- 1 14-oz can chick peas, drained and rinsed
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh ginger
- 1-2 cloves garlic
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 3/4 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 limes, juiced
- Cilantro, chopped to garnish
- extra hot sauce as desired
Directions
- Step 1 In a small bowl, add the sliced red onion and lime juice. Set aside.
- Step 2 In a large bowl, add the chickpeas, ginger, garlic, cumin, turmeric, cloves, cinnamon and salt. Using a fork, mash all the ingredients together until well combined and to desired “chunkiness.” If you want more texture, don’t smash the peas at all, simply mix all the ingredients well. You can also do this in a food processor if you want smoother peas. Heat in the microwave for about 90 seconds to heat through. Set aside.
- Step 3 Cook the paratha in a medium skillet according to package directions. Set aside and cover with foil to keep warm while you cook the eggs.
- Step 4 Add the butter to the skillet and scramble the eggs to desired dryness. Set aside.
- Step 5 Assemble each sandwich by adding 1/4 of the chickpeas and 1/4 of the eggs to top each bread. Finish off with onion salad and chopped cilantro. Serve immediately.
