Yea, you read that right, breakfast nachos. They’re a thing in our house. Unlike traditional nachos, the base for this healthy version are sweet potato “chips” and the cheese is optional. I toss the sweet potato chips into a bowl with a bunch of cilantro pistachio pesto, and top them with caramelized onions, kale, black beans, a fried or over easy egg or two, some melty cheese, avocado mousse, cilantro, and hot sauce — obviously.
This meal can be made in 10 minutes if the sub-recipes are batch-cooked ahead of time. I love making batches of the sub-recipes on a Sunday, enjoying a plate of breakfast nachos for brunch that morning and then several more times throughout the week. Just think, on a Wednesday you could spend 5-10 minutes in the morning and have a brunch-quality meal before work!
I also love this recipe because it’s naturally gluten-free (all of the recipes on this site are GF) and can be easily modified for other dietary requirements:
- Vegan — make the pesto with the nutritional yeast option, skip the egg & cheese, add an extra can of black beans to the onion mixture for protein, and drizzle the whole plate with avocado mousse.
- Paleo/Dairy free — omit the cheese, make the pesto with nutritional yeast, and remove the black beans from the onion mixture. Add an extra egg and don’t forget the avocado.
The sub-recipes:
Roasted Sweet Potatoes — just slice the sweet potatoes extra thin. If your knife skills are like mine — irregular — the ultra thin slices will get super crispy while the thicker ones will be a little softer. Personally I like the variety. You can batch cook a bunch of these potatoes and use them several times throughout the week.
Cilantro Pistachio Pesto — I make a large batch of this every few months and then put it in 1/2 cup portions in snack-sized ziplock freezer bags and freeze them. Then all I have to do is pull a bag out and plop it in warm water for 5 minutes and it’s ready to add to any recipe. It’s one of my favorite recipes because of its versatility — toss any type of roasted vegetables in it, put a dollop onto broiled salmon or halibut, or stir it into rice, quinoa, or orzo. Recently a reader who didn’t like cilantro substituted equal parts kale and basil for the cilantro in the recipe and said it was addictively good, so give that version a try if you’re a cilantro hater, I’m sure it’d be great in breakfast nachos too!
Caramelized Onions, Kale, and Black Beans — Here’s another item you can batch cook. Are you catching onto this trend? The idea here is that you can make all three of these sub-recipes ahead of time and then whip up these nachos in 10 minutes.
Pick your nacho assembly style:
- The OCD: Heat up the onion, kale, and black bean mixture in a little coconut oil on one side of a large skillet and use the other side to cook the egg. While the egg is cooking, toss some hot sweet potato chips in a mixing bowl with a few tablespoons of warmed cilantro pesto. Set the pesto-coated chips onto a plate and top with the onion, kale, and black beans, then add the egg. Make the plate pretty (and more delicious) with your choice of additional goodies listed below.
- The Heap: Heat up a large skillet, add a little coconut oil and add desired amount of sweet potato chips, onion mixture, and pesto. On the other side of the pan, cook the egg. Once the egg is cooked, turn off the heat and top the pan with cheese (it’ll get all melty). Dump onto a plate & finish with the other desired toppings.
Choose your toppings:
- Egg(s) — over easy, fried, poached, scrambled, even a medium boiled duck egg would be outstanding.
- Cheese — this particular recipe is great with extra sharp cheddar or chèvre (pictured).
- Avocado — sliced or drizzled with avocado mousse.
- Cilantro — I love the flavor of cilantro, but it’s also ridiculously good for you. One-quarter cup contains nearly twenty percent of the RDA for Vitamin K, and it has robust antioxidant and detoxification properties.
- Your favorite hot sauce — yes, I put hot sauce on almost everything. I like life spicy.