Huevos Rancheros: 30-Minute Meal

No Comments | Written on May 2, 2012 at 3:00 pm, by The Editors

The classic Mexican dish we think of as a spicy satisfying breakfast does easy double duty for dinner on a busy weekend night. Instead of the traditional huevos rancheros, though, oozing bright red tomato salsa, this version uses a tangy green salsa with eggs layered over a bed of beans rich with melted cheddar cheese and a side of brown rice and sliced avocados. This dish is as healthy as it is mouth-watering.

The entire concoction sits on tortillas, which get layered with all the other ingredients for a kind of build-your-own dinner that might even interest any of the budding young cooks in your family—think of it as the same fun of putting together a pizza!

Best of all is the taste, with cheese-laden pinto beans coming alive with the flavor of the warm egg yolk as it drips down to fill the plate. Healthy brown rice adds a cooling touch to counter the green salsa.

Huevos rancheros, as the name implies, were meant as a cheap mid-morning breakfast on poor Mexican farms, something that could be thrown together without a lot of fuss and bother or expense. The dish’s popularity north of the border over the years attests to the fact that these eggs pack a lot of balanced flavors and nutrition into one healthy power breakfast. And we really do mean healthy: Each serving size of this dish has fewer than 400 calories, and yet you’ll never leave the table hungry.