🥑 Avocado Toast with Jammy Eggs
Ingredients
- 2 ripe avocados
- 4 slices sourdough
- 2 eggs
- 1 lemon
- Red pepper flakes (pantry staple)
- Salt & pepper (pantry staple)
Instructions
- Boil eggs 7 min; peel and halve.
- Toast bread; mash avocado with lemon juice and salt.
- Spread, top with eggs, and finish with pepper flakes.
Tips
- 7 minutes exactly, then straight into ice water. That's the window for a jammy yolk — 6 is runny, 9 is chalky.
- Toast the bread darker than you think. Avocado is soft and the egg is soft; without a genuinely crisp base the whole thing is texturally flat.
- Salt the avocado properly and add the lemon before spreading. Unsalted avocado is why avocado toast is so often disappointing.
Substitutions
- Sourdough
- Any sturdy bread with a firm crumb. Gluten-free bread works if toasted twice. Soft sandwich bread collapses under the weight.
- Avocado
- Mashed white beans with olive oil and lemon are a genuine and much cheaper substitute with a similar texture.
- Eggs
- Poached, fried, or soft-scrambled. Or skip them and add feta or smoked salmon.
- Red pepper flakes
- Za'atar, everything bagel seasoning, dukkah, or hot sauce — something with texture or heat to finish.
Storage & reheating
Assemble and eat; avocado browns and toast softens within minutes. Boiled eggs keep a week in their shells, so doing those ahead turns this into a 4-minute breakfast.
Common questions
How do I pick a ripe avocado?
It should yield to gentle pressure in your palm, not your fingertips, which bruise it. Flick off the small stem nub — green underneath means ripe, brown means overripe.
How do I peel soft-boiled eggs without wrecking them?
Ice water immediately, then crack all over and peel under running water. Older eggs peel far more easily than very fresh ones.
Why does my avocado brown so fast?
Oxidation. Lemon or lime juice slows it considerably, which is why it's in the recipe rather than just for flavour.