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Eggs with walnuts and pumpkin seeds

Two eggs fill until midday. Walnuts and seeds bring fat that slows the salty night snack. It is a breakfast, not a therapy.

Men from forty often eat anything before leaving and then make up with a biltong sandwich and a coffee. That rhythm ends in hunger at 21:00 and chips with the game. A plate with egg, walnut and pumpkin seed is boring in the good sense: it fills, does not ask for a blender and you do not salt it like a vetkoek.

Time: 12 minutes. Servings: 1. No oven needed. If you leave home at 07:30, boil the eggs the night before and toast the seeds in the morning in a minute.

Ingredients (1 person)

• 2 medium eggs
• a handful of walnuts (about 6–8 halves)
• a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds (unsalted, if you can)
• a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil
• a pinch of black pepper
• a little salt, less than you would put on a fried egg
• optional: half a tomato in quarters or a handful of rocket

Steps

1. Bring water to the boil. Lower to medium, put the eggs in and count 6 minutes if you want them creamy, 7 if firmer. You do not need a kitchen timer: the fridge one is enough.
2. Move them to cold water for 30 seconds. Peel. If they stick, roll them on the table and start from the wider end.
3. Dry pan, medium heat. Walnuts and seeds 1–2 minutes, until they smell. Do not leave them black: they turn bitter.
4. Cut the eggs in half. On top, the toasted handful. A thread of oil, pepper, the pinch of salt.
5. If there is tomato, put it beside, not on top, so the plate does not flood.

Why this plate and not a bun

Egg fills. The fat of the walnut and the seed delays mid-morning hunger. The zinc of pumpkin seeds often appears in conversations about men’s diet; here it is because it is a pantry snack, not because it “cures” anything. What the plate does: replace very salty biltong and the croissant that at 11:00 already asked for another coffee.

Salt counts. A boiled egg asks for less salt than a fried one with cheese. If you eat this four mornings and supper lighter, the week experiment (coffee at 15:00, less salt at night) makes more sense.

Variations that do not wreck the plate

• Without walnuts: almonds or pecan. Same dry pan.
• Without egg: plain yoghurt and the seeds on top. Less protein, still better than a bun.
• With bread: one slice, not three. Oil on the bread or on the egg, not both at full strength.
• Scrambled: low heat, 2 minutes, seeds at the end. More pan, same salt rule.

Shopping and storage

Pumpkin seeds: look for the unsalted roasted pack at Checkers or Woolworths. If there is only salted, do not rinse them; rather use less and do not add more salt to the plate. Walnuts go rancid: a closed jar, not the open pack in the drawer for a month. Eggs, fridge. Oil, closed and away from the window sun.

On Sunday you can boil four eggs for Monday and Tuesday. Do not leave them peeled more than two days. Toast the seeds on the day, or at most the night before.

Tip

Eat them before 10:00. To drink, water. If you want infusion, Urokolia nettle or a caffeine-free infusion. The green tea in the seed blend, leave it for early afternoon: it has caffeine. Do not pair the plate with a second coffee “because breakfast was healthy”. Breakfast coffee is enough; the 17:00 one is what wrecks the night.

Who it is not for

If the doctor limited the yolk, ask. If there is a nut allergy, drop walnuts and seeds and keep the egg with oil and tomato. It does not replace a check-up and does not “fix” the prostate. It is a better start than a bun in the car.

Continue with the oil and lemon drink or, at night, the nut bowl. The map of the day is in daily diet.

The content on this site is informational and concerns daily habits and wellness products. It does not replace medical advice. If you have symptoms, see a specialist.