Egg and Avocado Bake

This is an egg baked with ripe avocado slices and a generous sprinkling of garam masala and salt. Simple, nutritious and a great little breakfast.

So after scheduling the Baked Egg and Hot Tomato recipe I thought I should post this – as it is mentioned in that recipe. The recipe here came about because I was trying to make those eggs baked in an avocado – which look really nice – and failed miserably because I didn’t scoop out enough avocado flesh.  Then when the egg spilled out over the counter I was like – well, I didn’t want to scoop out any flesh anyways so … Who wants a pretty breakfast if it requires good depth perception? Not me. That’s who not. Yeah. … Anyways, I sliced up the avocado and put it in ramekins with eggs, sprinkled over some garam masala and salt, and baked them. They turned out great. To be honest I knew from having baked tinned mackerel and avocado with garam masala before that avocado and this spice mix are a good combination. 

I was inspired by Popsugar’s Baked Eggs in Avocado. I really like the look of them. Unfortunately trying to make them was a bit of a ridiculous disaster – and I really think this could only happen to me – because I nearly always buy large or jumbo eggs and scooping out the amount of avocado in the recipe was nowhere near enough for the size of the egg, but I somehow didn’t realise this until after I’d tried cracking the egg into the avocado and … well it was just a mess really.

I like a good filling breakfast so I wanted to stick with the large eggs and also I wanted to use all of the avocado. The solution was obvious – bake them in ramekins instead.

I baked them for 20 minutes at 200 C which completely cooked the egg. And while normally I like a runny egg I like the consistency of the completely cooked egg with the soft creamy avocado. But if you’d rather have it runny I think baking it for 10 minutes would do.

I found a garam masala mix that is the whole spices in a grinder with a little salt. I actually got it months ago but kept on using the normal finely ground garam masala I had – just because that was what I was used to. Then I ran out of that and started using this one. If you find a spice mix that is like this, with the whole spices in a grinder, I’d recommend getting it because the flavours are definitely more vibrant.

Also, I’ve since found that if you’re adding cumin to something, you’re better off using the seeds and just crushing them before adding them because again the flavour shines through much better. I used to avoid using a pestle and mortar because I thought you were supposed to end up with something finely ground – and I’m simply not strong enough to get that consistency – but what I’ve found is if you just bruise and crush the spices that is often enough to release the flavour.

But if what you have to hand is a finely ground garam masala mix that works fine too. Just add a pinch of salt.

What’s so healthy about this breakfast? Well we all know avocados are packed full of healthy fat which can help lower blood cholesterol levels but, according to this site, they can also help you absorb nutrients from plant-food making them especially good for vegetarians. We all know that eggs are good for you too. In particular they are a great source of protein and they contain iron and B12. A great start to the day.

This recipe makes 1 serving. It uses a half avocado per egg. If you are making just for yourself or for an odd number, you sprinkle some lime juice on the half of the avocado that still has the stone in it and it will stay good in the fridge for about 24 hours (so you can have it for breakfast the next day too ;-).

The avocado should be ripe but it is best if it is just ripe, not mushy. If it’s mushy it would work better as guacamole – and just serve with poached eggs.