Breakfast Plantain & Veggie Scramble

Back in the day when I happily noshed bagels or English muffins, I loved to make breakfast sandwiches and things that resembled Benedicts. I still love a good eggy/cheesy brunch, but I've had to retool my starch a bit.

There are recipes out there for grain free muffins, breads, bagel-like things, cookies, crackers, and pizza crusts readily available, but I've come to the conclusion that trying to make grain-free versions of my favorite carbs turns out to be akin to the veggified versions of meat products - expensive, time consuming, and not very much like the item you are trying to fake. I ended up preferring lentils and beans to Chik'n Nuggets or ToFurky, and I've discovered that bread cravings can almost always be quelled without Fava bean and flax meal "sandwich flats".

Here's my #1 tip for anyone trying to cut down on conventional grain-based foods: Rethink your base.

This morning I woke up craving Eggs Benedict. What did I really want? Bread, Eggs, and something saucy. No bread, no interest in making hollandaise. But it is my day off, so I had a bit more time to tool around in the kitchen, so I rummaged around and got started with a new breakfast melange.

Let's start with the new base:

Satisfying little discs of starchy goodness: Plantains

I'm sure there must be some way to roast plantains, but honestly, if you fry things hot enough and blot them quickly enough, flash frying is not a terrible way to cook things. I did these up in some grapeseed oil, because it can handle high heat and quick cooking.

Plantains do not taste anything like the bananas they resemble. They remind me more of sweet potatoes than of fruit. And they are an excellent bready substitute.

After the plantains were cooked up, I started dumping random bits of veggies from the fridge into the same quick-cleaned saute pan:

leftovers from a can of fire roasted tomatoes

some unused black beans 

handful of baby spinach

the rest of a can of black olives from an ill-fated recipe earlier this week

And then I tried to fry up an egg quickly, but the pan was so hot it ended up overcooked. No matter. I stacked up my odds and bits onto a plate and scraped some disappointingly not-quite-ripe avocado on top.

There you have it!

And it was really, really good. Filling and carbish and proteiny. You could put cheese on top, but I'm trying to go easy on the dairy these days too and this is plenty rich. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper and you are done. All the breakfast, none of the grains.