Eating healthy is one of the ways we can reduce our chances of getting ill. A complete English breakfast tends to be comfort food in the morning, but it is accompanied by greasy and fatty bacon and thick sausages. Other people can also opt to add hash browns with their meal, adding to the toast’s carbohydrates.
Due to its high calorific value, approximately 800 calories, it does have consequences when you eat it too often. Aside from weight gain, a frequent meal consisting of bacon, fried eggs, and sausages will lead to increased risk for heart disease and higher cholesterol levels. It’s important to find other ways to adapt this classic breakfast towards the trend of healthy eating.
First of all, removing meat entirely from the meal and using eggplant as a substitute could help reduce the overall fat in the English breakfast as eggplants have a negligible fat content. Cooking the eggplant in spices tends to create a meaty mouth-feel. There are two ways we can incorporate eggplant here as a meat substitute: either as a stacked eggplant or as an eggplant patty.
Here’s how to quickly prepare a stacked eggplant:
1. Thinly slice a tomato and half an eggplant.
2. On a ramekin, spread some tomato sauce at its base.
3. Alternatively, stack the eggplant and tomato slices on top of the sauce on the ramekin.
4. Season with salt, pepper, and basil.
5. Bake in a toaster oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until the eggplant is soft.
It’s that simple! If you’re not willing to go entirely meat-free, you can add some leftover chicken to the stack. It’s a versatile recipe, so long as you add complementary ingredients. If you’ve been meaning to have mushrooms with your English breakfast anyway, you can even add them on the sides of the stack to have a fuller-looking ramekin.
The eggplant patty will take a bit longer, but it’s going to taste a lot like a burger when you’re done with it. If you don’t tell anyone that it’s made of eggplants, they probably won’t even notice!
Eggplant Patty Recipe:
1. Boil the eggplants with their skin for at least half an hour.
2. Allow the boiled eggplants to cool. Chop half a medium-sized onion in the meantime.
3. Drain some of the excess water from the eggplants and then start mashing it.
4. Add the chopped onions and 1 egg to the eggplants.
5. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. You can also add some cayenne if you want an extra kick.
6. Slowly add flour to the mixture until you’re able to form patties.
7. Fry the patties in olive oil and serve.
With the right amount of seasoning, you can disguise eggplants as meat. If you’ve never tried eating eggplants before, and you might not be sure if you’re allergic, make sure to have a food allergy clinic on call or nearby. Although allergies to eggplants are rare, they are still possible.
According to a study, eggplant peels were found to be the most likely source of allergies. Two signs of allergies noted by the study were skin rashes and wheezing. You can remove the skin of the eggplant before mashing it. Scoring the skin of the eggplant before boiling it will help in the peeling process. You can also boil the eggplant for 20 minutes instead of 30. The extra time in the instructions above was to ensure that the eggplant skin became soft.
You can even go the extra mile and not pan fry the patty in olive oil. You can use the air fryer or an oven instead.
Another substitute you can use in the English breakfast will be carrot-potato hash browns. This is a substitute that will reduce the sugar content of your hash browns as carrots tend to be lower in sugar content than potatoes.
Carrot-potato Hash Browns
1. Grate 1 medium-sized carrot and 1 medium-sized potato. Chop 1 small onion.
2. Mix the carrot and potato shavings with the onion in a small bowl.
3. Add an egg and some flour to the mixture.
4. Season the mixture with some salt and pepper.
5. Make a patty using the mixture and shape it like how you’d prefer your hash brown to be shaped. Pan fry in olive oil or apply some olive oil and place it in the air fryer.
Although these are just 3 substitutions that you can make in an English breakfast, they’re sure to keep you just as full without feeling sluggish from all the grease that a usual English breakfast has. Treat yourself to these quick and easy substitutes to create a special English breakfast to start your day the right way!
