Yoghurt Flatbreads with Sage-Fried Eggs and Lemony Greens
Considering how good they taste, these pillowy flatbreads are ridiculously cheap and easy to make. The dough doesn’t require any resting time, so you can whip them up in minutes. Plus, if you include the optional miso paste, you can hack the flavour of a long-fermented sourdough without any of the fuss of caring for a starter.
In my cookbook Lazy Baking I’ve given ideas for using the flatbreads as sweet and savoury brunch options, but make the flatbreads for lunch and dinner too – they’re great companions to dals, curries, kebabs, falafel, etc.
MAKES: 2 large or 4 small flatbreads (scale up the recipe accordingly to make more)
TAKES: 15-20 minutes
Photography: Matt Russell
Food Styling: Jessica Elliott Dennison
Season: Year Round
Ingredients
For the flatbreads
125g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
½ teaspoon baking powder
125g strained natural yoghurt
2 teaspoons white or brown miso paste (or ¼ teaspoon sea salt flakes if you don’t have any miso in the fridge)
2 teaspoons cold-pressed rapeseed, olive or vegetable oil
For the eggs and greens
4 tablespoons cold-pressed rapeseed or olive oil
12 sage leaves (kept whole and on stalks)
2 eggs
pinch of sea salt flakes
handfuls of trimmed cavolo nero or cabbage/any seasonal greens, coarsely chopped
zest and juice of 1⁄2 lemon (grate the zest on a Microplane or fine side of a box grater before juicing)
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First, combine the flour and baking powder together in a large bowl to ensure the baking powder is evenly distributed. Stir through the yoghurt and miso or sea salt to make a dough.
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Warm a large non-stick frying pan (skillet) over a high heat until it gets really hot and starts to smoke.
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Meanwhile, tip the dough onto a lightly-floured work surface. Using your hands, knead the dough for 1–2 minutes or until smooth.
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Divide the dough equally into two halves. Using a rolling pin dusted with flour, roll out each piece of dough into a flatbread measuring roughly 18 cm (7 in) in diameter.
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Taking great care as the pan will now be incredibly hot, drizzle 1 teaspoon of the oil into the hot pan. Lay a flatbread in the pan and cook for 2 minutes on one side without moving it.
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Using tongs, carefully flip the flatbread over and fry on the other side for a further 2 minutes, or until charred at the edges and puffing up in the middle. Transfer to a warm plate.
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Reduce the heat to medium, add the remaining teaspoon of oil then repeat with the second flatbread.
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Warm 2 tablespoons of the oil in the pan you used for the flatbreads over a medium heat. Throw in the sage leaves and leave them to crisp up before pushing them to one side of the pan. Increase the heat to high, carefully crack the eggs into the pan and then, using a spatula or fish slice, flick the crispy sage leaves over the top of the eggs. Fry over a high heat until the egg whites are super-crisp on the outside, but the yolks are still a little runny (or done to your liking).
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Season with plenty of salt and remove from the heat.
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In a second pan, warm the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil over a high heat. Add the greens, lemon juice and a pinch of salt to the pan and fry over a high heat for 1 minute, or until wilted.
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Place a flatbread on each plate. Divide the wilted lemony greens between the flatbreads and top each with a sage-fried egg. Splash over any sage-infused oil and finish with the lemon zest.
Read more: Lazy Baking
Baking might just not be your thing. Or, you might love it and spend every Sunday morning working on your sourdough. Whichever category you fall into, Jess’s book Lazy Baking has got you. The recipes are simple and realistic, both sweet and savoury, they use just a handful of ingredients, minimal kit and there’s little need for washing up. A dream for the novice or the pro.
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