The Versatility Of A Breakfast Hash And How To Make It Your Own

Breakfast has to be the most important meal of the day. But waking up early and spending an hour sometimes appears to be a task. Breakfast hash is one of the least intensive meals that you could make that is colourful, filling and last but not least, flavourful. You could even chuck in your last night’s pot roast or leftover steamed chicken in the pan and it would turn out on the other side refreshed and scrumptious. 

The two main components of any hash have to be the carbohydrate part, which could be your potatoes or sweet potatoes, and the freshness from herbs, relish, chimichurri or salsa verde. The breakfast hash must be hearty and capable of waking up your tastebuds and setting you out for the rest of the day. The other components that go into the hash depend on what you have lying around your pantry or your refrigerator. The versatility of this dish is its main allure as it allows you to mishmash, freestyle and try your own ingredients to create your very own breakfast hash. 

Ingredients (Serves 2):

  • 3 Potatoes or Sweet potatoes 
  • 2 Green, Red or Yellow Capsicum 
  • 1 whole Onion 
  • 2 cloves of Garlic 
  • 2 Green Chillies (Optional) 
  • 4 Eggs 
  • 60 g soaked/ canned Black Beans 
  • 6 Cherry Tomatoes/ 4 tbsp Pizza Sauce 
  • 60 g shredded low moisture Mozzarella 
  • 2 Green Onions 
  • 4 sprigs of Coriander 
  • 3 tbsp Chimichurri, Relish or Salsa Verde 
  • Half a Lime

Method: 

Frying off your choice of carbs and vegetables- 

  1. In a deep walled oven-safe frying pan, add olive oil or any oil that would be light on your palate. 
  2. Add your diced potatoes or sweet potatoes, which will be the carbohydrate component of the dish. We’re adding it first because it’ll take some time to fry off. In the meantime, chop the rest of the ingredients. 
  3. Roughly chop an onion and capsicum. If you have any large peppers like poblano pepper, throw it in as well. 
  4. Smash a few garlic cloves and chop them up as fine as you muster. Remember, this cooking is supposed to be rustic, so you don’t have to be precise with your knife skills having just woken up. 
  5. Once the potatoes are fried and golden brown, remove them from the pan and add your onions and peppers. 
  6. Add your chopped garlic, and at this point you could also add a few chopped chillies if you’d like your hash to have a little kick to it. Totally optional. 
  7. Once the onions are translucent and the peppers have caught on a little colour, add your potatoes back in and season them with salt and pepper. 
  8. This is the part where you could also add your leftovers, like tofu, paneer, steamed chicken or cut pieces of steak, ham or sausages. Stir it around with the vegetables. Avoid using meat that has bones in it because you don’t want it to get in the way of your hash.

Adding it to the oven-

  1. A hash is also about layers. Before adding it in the broiler or just your regular oven setting, make little pockets within the pan and crack a few eggs open. 
  2. If you’ve got cherry tomatoes or just pizza sauce, add it to the mix. 
  3. If you’ve got canned black beans, or some that have been soaking overnight, throw them in little pockets like eggs. 
  4. Add shredded cheese over the contents of the pan, as generously or sparsely as you’d like. 
  5. Now send it to the oven. Check on it so that the eggs don’t get overcooked. The cheese acts as a great marker, in this case. As soon as the cheese melts and the egg whites get cooked, take it out of the oven.

Garnish-

  1. We’re nearly there. But the garnishing part is indispensable to making a great hash. We’ve already made the hash colourful, now it’s time to make it fresh and add some acid to cut through the greasy components of the hash. 
  2. Slice your green onions and coriander leaves. 
  3. Add salsa verde, chimichurri or relish if you have it lying around. 
  4. Dress it up with a squeeze of lime.

And now, you’re allowed to nosh upon this delicious creation. You can serve yourself up a plate that has all the ingredients, the eggs, the cheese, the potatoes and the peppers underneath. Toast up some bread or have it as is. Don’t forget to pat yourself on the back too, if it tastes amazing, which it absolutely will!