Chunky Vegetable Breakfast Toast with Better-Than-Ranch Dressing
A breakfast toast piled to the gods with chunky vinegared vegetables, featuring a recipe for a better-than-ranch dressing.
Eggs, potatoes, toast, bacon, and a congealed orange wedge on a single piece of pink-bordered, wilted lettuce typically graces North Americans' breakfast tables.
However, if we follow the advice of our lord and savior, M.F.K Fisher, in How to Cook a Wolf, she says: “Balance the day, not each meal in the day.”
She goes on to elaborate: “Breakfast can be toast. It can be piles of toast, generously buttered, and a bowl of honey or jam. You can be lavish because the meal is so inexpensive.” I agree that breakfast is a great time to be lavish. Luckily, in-season vegetables are cheap.
And while I do love a buttered sourdough toast with an inviting bowl of jam nearby, I’d probably be hungry again within an hour. So, to add more…just more to my breakfast, I tossed bite-sized chunks of radicchio, cucumber, radish, avocado, and jalapeños with white distilled vinegar, good EVOO, Maldon salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
I knew this would be the perfect mix to pile high on top of a breakfast toast. And really, the only thing that makes a breakfast toast a breakfast toast is the fact that it’s served, you guessed it, for the meal that breaks your fast. This was a great start but I knew I needed an excellent sauce to get me really excited.
I’m the girl who always orders a side of ranch but is usually left disappointed by the Hidden Valley claggyness that arrives. When I think of the ranch-esque sauce I want to eat with almost everything, this is what I envision. Generous amounts of fresh herbs, lots of garlic, fresh lemon juice, creaminess, and a spreadable texture but never runny.
You smear this herby schmear on a lightly toasted piece of good bread, ideally sourdough (always sourdough), and then pile it to the gods with your vinegared and oiled vegetables.
Shower the toasty pile with lemon zest, anoint with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some flaky salt. Serve with a 6-minute, 30-second jammy egg, and be happy.
Better-Than-Ranch Sauce:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup Greek yogurt or labneh
1 large clove garlic or 2 small cloves
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon mayo
1/4 cup finely minced dill
1/4 cup finely minced mint (optional! Just dill will be more traditional ranch vibes; dill and mint together will be more raita-esque)
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
Instructions:
Put Greek yogurt or labneh in a small mixing bowl.
Grate garlic using a microplane or a fine cheese grater. Add to the yogurt.
Tip: we definitely want to grate the garlic or finely mince it and then smash it with the back of a chef’s knife so that it blends seamlessly with the sauce. No one wants to bite into a bracing chunk of garlic.
Add lemon juice, mayo, dill, and mint to the yogurt and stir to combine.
Add 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
To make this less schmear and more salad dressing, add 1-2 tablespoons more lemon juice to thin it out.