Quinoa Kale Breakfast Bowl
I don't have many routines. One of the only few I kept is going to kickboxing class on Saturday mornings. With the intense 75-minute workout, I found having a savory bowl for breakfast is perfect to keep me energetic the entire time.
Not to be super hipster or anything, but I happen to love the nutty flavor of sautéed Lacinato kale.... and it was on sale at Whole Foods last week so I bought a bunch. If you never had sautéed kale before and thinks kale is gross and just another overhyped food for urban hipsters, I highly recommend you give this a try.
This dish is the easiest if you do some batch prepping the night before. Then you'll have plenty for not just the next morning, but possibly the whole week. I cooked 1 cup of raw quinoa, which came out to be about 2 cups cooked the night before, then stored it in an airtight container in the fridge. The next morning, I just need to scoop out however much I need and pop it in the microwave for 1 minute and it's warm and ready.
One of my favorite ingredient is soft boiled egg. I love the moment when you break into the egg and the yolk just oozed out and the yolk just sort of becomes the sauce for the entire dish. I cooked 4 in a batch the night before as well and stored them in an airtight container in the fridge. When the morning come, all I need to do is carefully remove the shell and place the egg in the bowl. But next time, I think I would pop the de-shelled egg along with the quinoa to the microwave though. The yolk was a bit cold this morning and it'd be nice if it's slightly warm too.
The pecans is another thing that depends on your preference, you could just use them raw or like what I did, toast them the night before. I just put them on a sheet pan on a single layer and leave them in a 300F oven for 10 minutes. But honestly, I prefer them raw after tasting it. Probably because I didn't add any extra oil or seasoning since I was trying to keep it healthy.
For the avocados, to be honest, I had been using half instead of 1/4 until I put in the ingredients in MyFitnessPal to check the overall calories last night. To my dismay, avocado has so much calories! So I decided to use only 1/4 for the breakfast as I generally eat out for lunch after the workout so I'd like to somewhat limit the calorie intake for breakfast. It was quite enough to keep me full the whole time.
I'm quite happy with the result and this bowl is quite customizable to keep it interesting. It's definitely more filling than normal breakfast with the quinoa and egg and avocado all in the same dish. It's perfect for a day with physical activities cuz you need extra fuel to burn.
Ingredients
- 1 soft boiled egg
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cup Lacinato Kale, sliced and sautéed
- 1/4 avocado
- 1/8 cup pecans
- 1/2 cup cooked quinoa
Instructions
- To cook the soft boiled egg, boil a big pot of water. Put the eggs in for 30 seconds. Turn heat off and tightly covered the pot for 6 minutes. Soak the egg in cold water to stop the cooking after 6 minutes. You can store them in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Sauté kale with olive oil until tender.
- Assemble all the ingredients in a bowl.