Vegetarian Meal #13: Not Boring Potato & Egg
This meal takes inspiration from rancheros huevos and shakshuka ( which I have a blog post about that VEGETARIAN MEAL #9: SHAKSHOUKA (EXOTIC NAME BUT SIMPLE AND DELICIOUS)). This meal is simple , easy, and tasty. It would make a great breakfast and without the egg, it makes for a great side dish also becomes vegan friendly.
Apologies in advance for the lack of measurements. My approach to sharing my meal ideas is to make them flexible for individual taste buds and also to make them easily accessible for creativity in case some ingredients are not available to the individual. If any questions please feel free to comment here ( you don't need to sign up for an account to comment) or send me a message on the blog's Instagram (@plantainsyum).
Ingredients Overview
🌻 1. Potato
🌻 2. Vegetables
🌻 3. Tomato Sauce
🌻 4. Egg
🌻 5. Olive oil
🌻 6. Seasonings: (Thyme, Vegetable Bouillon Cube, Garlic Salt, Salt, Cumin, Hot Sauce)
Ingredients Explained
🌻1. Potato :
2 Sweet Potatoes
When it comes to potatoes, a potato is a potato at the end of the day, so you can use whatever potato you have. I love the taste of sweet potatoes , it is part of my grocery staple so I always have it around. I planned on using tomato sauce in this meal and I personally don't really enjoy the bitter acid taste of tomato sauce especially more bitter/acidic when canned which is why I was happy to use a sweet potato.
Starches in general like a potato is good in general in offsetting acidity. Just a sweet potato is a starch with that extra sweetness that would help slap that bitter acid taste further down at least that is what my mouth brain came up with. Just in case you are not using sweet potatoes and you need a little help in further reducing the acidity a bit of baking soda helps. At the end of the day the acid level is to your liking, I know some people actually like a bit of that acidic tomato taste, so you do you boo!
Starches in general like a potato is good in general in offsetting acidity. Just a sweet potato is a starch with that extra sweetness that would help slap that bitter acid taste further down at least that is what my mouth brain came up with. Just in case you are not using sweet potatoes and you need a little help in further reducing the acidity a bit of baking soda helps. At the end of the day the acid level is to your liking, I know some people actually like a bit of that acidic tomato taste, so you do you boo!
🌻 2. Vegetables
(White Onion, Tomatoes, Red Pepper, Green Pepper, Zucchini, Broccoli , & Garlic + Eggplant - not pictured)
(Actual quantity of vegetables used in this picture. Not pictured 3 gloves of garlic and 1/4 eggplant)
In choosing the vegetables for this meal it comes down to what vegetables you have available, what vegetables you want to get rid of that may soon go bad, your favourite vegetables, or you may be going for a colourful theme. I said YES to all those concepts and that is how I picked the vegetables I used for this meal. I wish I had some fresh hot peppers but I didn't, I would have preferred that as my source of heat , which is why I ended up using hot sauce instead.
🌻 3. Tomato Sauce
Hunts No Salt Added Tomato Sauce
I used about 1/2 of this 15 oz can. The tomato sauce is negligible. I have made this meal before without tomato sauce and it came out great!
I just decided to use a bit of tomato sauce because I wanted to use less oil than I did the last time I made it and have it still be flavoursome. I would highly suggest the usage of tomato sauce if you want to go without the egg.
🌻4. Oil
Oil is also negligible in this meal, it depends on your philosophy on cooking with oil. For the most part I replaced my usage of oil for tomato sauce as mentioned earlier. I just ended up using a tad bit of olive oil to bring out the flavours of onions, garlic and thyme also for health because olive oil actually has a handful of health benefits (11 Proven Benefits of Olive Oil). Just because it has some pretty great health benefits that doesn't mean you should go swimming in it. Remember "With great power comes great responsibility" . So use the power of olive oil wisely 😉
🌻5. Egg
Egg is a great protein to add but it is negligible. Of course to make this meal can be easily delicious and vegan without the egg. In retrospect I wish I actually made the meal without it . It would have allowed the meal to be a more flexible side dish and I could always add a poached egg to a serving later but oh well, Next time!
🌻6. Seasonings
Honestly you don't need so much seasonings with this. Ideally, if you have some type of dried herb like thyme, Salt, and something for heat you are good to go.
- Thyme (Member's Mark Organic Thyme Leaf)
- Knorr Vegetarian Vegetable Bouillon
- Hill Country Fare Ground Comino
- Badia Garlic Salt
- Salt (HEB Pink Himalayan Salt) & Pepper (Texas Pete Hot Sauce)
Disclaimer: Just want to say based on the seasonings listed, things are seeming a bit salty as I have 4 salty elements (pink salt, garlic salt, bouillon cube, & the hot sauce, yes hot sauce can be salty) but I promise you it wasn't. I made sure I tasted as I added each elements. Just wanted to put a disclaimer to remind you to not go to crazy and taste as you add each element. If you end up going overboard with the salt and you are not yet a cooking MacGyver to figure how to get out of that debacle, here is a really good list to help you solve that QUICK FIXES IF YOU ADD TOO MUCH SALT TO A DISH.
So before I get everything going, I perform a short cut cooking with the sweet potatoes. I pre cook the sweet potatoes for about 6 mins each in the microwave. I do this to make sure the potatoes get thoroughly cooked and there is no raw bit. Also it makes it easier to chop them in smaller pieces because cutting raw potatoes is never fun or maybe I just have sucky knives, I think probably I just have sucky knives.
I prick the potatoes with a fork
and put it in the microwave.
Importance of pricking:have you ever heard a vegetable cry, well if you want to put a potato in the microwave and it will squeal your head off, that is why it is good to prick the potatoes before putting it in the microwave. Also most importantly it will help keep it from bursting all up in your microwave.
Sweet potatoes are not as high maintenance in the microwave and can be okay without pricking at least from my experience but it is better to prick just incase.
If you know how to cook a potato in the microwave you can skip my yapping below and scroll down to the rest of the cooking part.
So there is no perfect time I can give you how long to cook a potato in the microwave, because it depends on how big the potato is and also how much you want it to cook. Its a whole mathematical process but I would say a good 5-6 mins on a smaller potato. 8 - 10 mins on a larger potato. I usually cook the potatoes when I am doing other things to save time, like cutting up the vegetables which is the most annoying task in this whole process.
After the potatoes are out of the microwave, it is easier to take off the skin if that is what you want and cut it into smaller pieces. Usually I don't mind to cook with the potato skin, I only took the skin off because it came right off due to how slightly over cooked the potatoes were. Hey it happens. When cooking potatoes in the microwave, it is a gamble but a delicious gamble because it is going to taste good anyways.
and put it in the microwave.
Importance of pricking:have you ever heard a vegetable cry, well if you want to put a potato in the microwave and it will squeal your head off, that is why it is good to prick the potatoes before putting it in the microwave. Also most importantly it will help keep it from bursting all up in your microwave.
Sweet potatoes are not as high maintenance in the microwave and can be okay without pricking at least from my experience but it is better to prick just incase.
If you know how to cook a potato in the microwave you can skip my yapping below and scroll down to the rest of the cooking part.
So there is no perfect time I can give you how long to cook a potato in the microwave, because it depends on how big the potato is and also how much you want it to cook. Its a whole mathematical process but I would say a good 5-6 mins on a smaller potato. 8 - 10 mins on a larger potato. I usually cook the potatoes when I am doing other things to save time, like cutting up the vegetables which is the most annoying task in this whole process.
After the potatoes are out of the microwave, it is easier to take off the skin if that is what you want and cut it into smaller pieces. Usually I don't mind to cook with the potato skin, I only took the skin off because it came right off due to how slightly over cooked the potatoes were. Hey it happens. When cooking potatoes in the microwave, it is a gamble but a delicious gamble because it is going to taste good anyways.
🍳Let the assembly begin!!!!!
🍳1.
🍳1.
On High heat, I poured some olive oil in the pan,
then putting in the onions, stirred for a bit,
then I added the garlic and lowered the heat to a low medium because I don't want the garlic to burn. Stirred for a bit. Then I added Dried Thyme,
stirred
and covered the pan in low medium heat for about 6 mins.
then putting in the onions, stirred for a bit,
then I added the garlic and lowered the heat to a low medium because I don't want the garlic to burn. Stirred for a bit. Then I added Dried Thyme,
stirred
and covered the pan in low medium heat for about 6 mins.
🍳 2. After about 6 mins, I added the 1/2 of the tomato sauce and stirred.
Then I added 1 vegetable bouillon cube, cumin, and hot sauce stirred and tasted.
🍳3. Soon after I added the rest of the chopped vegetables and stirred.
I closed the pan for the vegetables to cook a bit in the sauce.
Since vegetables will release its when cooked as can be seen here
I waited for the vegetables to cook before before re-salting with Pink Himalayan Salt and Garlic Salt stirred and cover the lid. You can cook the vegetables to your liking but put in mind that with future reheating of this dish the vegetables will continue to cook so try not to over cook the vegetables.
(if you are not using pre-cooked potatoes, add the chopped raw potatoes to the tomato sauce first and let it cook for a bit before adding the vegetables).
Then I added 1 vegetable bouillon cube, cumin, and hot sauce stirred and tasted.
🍳3. Soon after I added the rest of the chopped vegetables and stirred.
I closed the pan for the vegetables to cook a bit in the sauce.
Since vegetables will release its when cooked as can be seen here
I waited for the vegetables to cook before before re-salting with Pink Himalayan Salt and Garlic Salt stirred and cover the lid. You can cook the vegetables to your liking but put in mind that with future reheating of this dish the vegetables will continue to cook so try not to over cook the vegetables.
(if you are not using pre-cooked potatoes, add the chopped raw potatoes to the tomato sauce first and let it cook for a bit before adding the vegetables).
🍳 4. Before adding the pre-cooked sweet potatoes, i did a last minute sauce check, I added a little bit more thyme and hot sauce and cumin. When I felt everything was to my taste I added the sweet potatoes and stirred.
You can stop at this point because you have a delicious dish already that would make a versatile side and also is vegan friendly but if you want to add the eggs to make it a full breakfast you can continue to the last step.
You can stop at this point because you have a delicious dish already that would make a versatile side and also is vegan friendly but if you want to add the eggs to make it a full breakfast you can continue to the last step.
🍳 6. Soon after, I created little holes to put the egg in. I made about 7 holes, so I added 7 eggs. I close the lid and let it cook on low medium heat until the egg is cooked.
The end. See it wasn't that bad. Yes alot of words but the overall process is very quick, except the cutting up vegetables bit.
Dressed up in thyme
Dressed up in thyme
MANY THANKS TO YOU FOR YOUR VISIT. IT MEANS ALOT
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WISHING YOU A WONDERFUL AND DELICIOUS DAY!
🌻 HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN 🌻
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