Kickstart your day with these spicy breakfast beans and eggs! This hearty breakfast recipe features tender beans and perfectly poached eggs cooked in a smoky chipotle tomato sauce. It’s an easy, one-pan meal that’s well-balanced, satisfying, and so flavorful.
Are you a sweet or savory breakfast person? For me, it’s savory all the way! This dish is like a spicy version of British baked beans, and it’s my ultimate comfort food. It’s a great way to get more beans into your diet, especially if you’re looking for more vegetarian protein options.
The savory, rich beans are cut beautifully by the pickled red onions and cilantro for some much-needed freshness. You can eat it as is, right out of the bowl, or serve it with some toasty whole-wheat Dutch oven bread or pita.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s flavorful. The sauce is smoky, spicy, and tangy.
- It’s filling. Soft poached eggs and creamy beans keep you full!
- It’s convenient. It’s pantry-friendly, easy, and straightforward, ideal for breakfast or brunch.
Ingredient Notes
- Canned Beans: Use your favorite canned creamy white beans, such as navy beans, cannellini beans, or great northern beans (or make my slow-cooked Italian beans!). Don’t use black beans, as they won’t have the right creaminess.
- Eggs: I poach the eggs directly in the sauce to keep this dish as simple as possible. However, a crispy fried egg or soft-boiled egg would be delicious too!
- Chipotle Chiles: This ingredient is essential for this dish’s spicy, smoky, sweet flavor. Look for a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Keep in mind, they can be quite spicy, so feel free to adjust the heat according to your preferences. Need some ideas for your leftover chipotle chiles? Try my crispy bean and cheese tacos or chili for two.
For a full list of ingredients and quantities, please refer to the recipe card.
Variations
- Cherry Tomatoes: For a saucier dish, stir in a handful of cherry tomatoes when simmering the beans. It’ll also add a nice pop of freshness.
- Vegan: For a vegan variation, omit the eggs.
- Creamy: Top with a dollop of homemade crème fraîche or Greek yogurt.
How to Make This Recipe
Step 1 – Pickle the onions: Thinly slice about ¼ of the red onion and place in a Ziploc bag along with the juice of a lime.
Step 2 – Saute the aromatics. In a large skillet, saute olive oil with garlic and onions until softened over medium heat.
TIP: Marinating raw onions in acid (lime juice) is a form of quick pickling! It removes the ‘raw’ spicy flavor of the onion and offers a nice tang to the dish.
Step 3 – Add the tomato paste, followed by the chipotle pepper, and saute for a couple of minutes until nice and caramelized.
Step 4 – Simmer the beans: Over medium-high heat, add the water and beans, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes.
Step 5 – Add the eggs: Season with sugar, salt, and black pepper. Using a wooden spoon, carve two small wells in the skillet, and crack the eggs.
Step 6 – Poach the eggs: Cover the pot and simmer for 3 – 5 minutes, or until the egg yolks are just cooked through. Divide amongst serving bowls, and top with pickled red onion and cilantro. Enjoy!
Top Tip
For nice, runny yolks, remove the pot from the heat just as the whites turn from translucent to opaque. Runnier yolks will still have a bit of a jiggle.
For more bean recipes, try my white bean risotto, Mediterranean chickpea soup, or white bean dip.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve these breakfast beans alongside a warm corn tortilla, pita, or buttered toast.
- For a bit of extra saltiness, garnish with a handful of crumbled feta cheese or cotija on top.
- Go full English breakfast, and serve these alongside some bacon, sausages, and toast!
Recipe FAQs
For an easy fix, try adding a splash of soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce for umami.
You can try my small batch chili for two, mix them with some mayo for a chipotle mayo, or freeze them for longer-term storage.
One of my favorite ways to use leftover beans is to make refried beans! Place the beans in a cast-iron skillet with a bit of oil, and cover with some water or stock. Simmer for a few minutes, then mash with a wooden spoon or potato masher to your desired consistency.
Breakfast Beans and Eggs
Ingredients
- 1 red onion
- 1 lime
- Salt and black pepper
- 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, de-seeded and finely chopped
- 1 (15.5-ounce) can white beans, such as cannellini or great northern beans | drained and rinsed
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon white sugar, optional
- 2 large eggs
- A handful of minced cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
- Prep the onion: Thinly slice ¼ of 1 red onion into half-moons. Finely dice the remaining ¾.
- Pickle the onion: In a small Ziploc bag, add the half-moon slices of red onion. Squeeze the juice of 1 lime into the bag and season with salt and pepper. Seal the bag and shake it a few times to allow the juices to fully coat the onion. Let sit for at least 20 minutes, preferably 30 minutes, before serving.
- Saute the aromatics: Add 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and minced 4 garlic cloves to a medium skillet or frying pan. Set over medium heat, and saute garlic until aromatic and very lightly golden in color, about 1 – 2 minutes.Add diced red onion, and saute for 6 – 8 minutes, until softened and translucent. Season with salt and pepper.
- Cook the pastes: Add 3 tablespoons tomato paste to the skillet, stirring to incorporate. Add the finely chopped 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. Saute for about 3 minutes until the paste caramelizes to a brick red color and begins to stick to the pan.
- Simmer: Stir 1 (15.5-ounce) can white beans and 1 cup water into the skillet. Bring to a boil, then simmer over medium-low heat for 6 – 8 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Season once more with salt and pepper, and add 1 teaspoon white sugar if you want a bit of sweetness.
- Cook the eggs: Using a wooden spoon, form two wells in the center of the pan and drop an egg into each hole. Cover the skillet and simmer for 3 – 5 minutes until the eggs are cooked through.
- Serve: Spoon the beans and eggs into bowls and top with pickled red onion and a handful of minced cilantro on top. Serve immediately.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Mmm!! Yum!! I never go back to a recipe to comment after trying but THIS! This is my new favorite meal! And to think I almost didn’t make it. So glad I did and I promise you will be too!
I did adjust the serving to make it one serving and skipped the sugar because I love spicy!
Hi Jules, thank you SO much for leaving a review!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂
amazing!
So happy you enjoyed!!
Such an awesome and easy recipe! Thank you so much! Definitely a keeper and will have this dish often now. Did not have that pepper so used jalapeños and smoked paprika instead.
That sounds delicious! Glad you were able to make it with what you had at home 🙂
So delicious, fast, easy, and easily substitutable. I used pinto instead of white beans (so good). Love this new addition to our last-minute-meal repertoire.
Hi Kim,
Thanks for leaving a comment. So happy to hear that – pinto beans seems like a great substitute!!
What do you do with the rest of the chilis in adobo sauce if you only use one out of the can? Do they freeze well? What container would you use to store them? Are there other recipes you would use chilis in adobo for?
Hi McKenna,
Good questions! I call for them in a few other recipes, like my Vegetarian Skillet Chili and Bean and Cheese Tacos. If storing in the fridge, you’ll want to store in an airtight container for 1 – 2 weeks. You can also freeze them for long-term storage – divide them amongst an ice cube tray (making sure the chilies are fully submerged in liquid — or if you’d like, you can blend everything up into a puree) and freeze until solid. Pop them out of the tray and store in a Ziploc freezer bag for a few months!
Hope that helps!
Karishma, it’s fabulous; we’ve long been Ful Mudammas eaters, but this is our new favorite breakfast recipe. I think we’ll experiment with some chili & garlic crisp in place of the chili adobo, too!
So glad you love it! And I really like the idea of experimenting with chili crisp – do let me know how it turns out 🙂 I’ll need to try Ful Mudammas some time too, sounds delicious!
the nutrition calculations are so misleading. I’d like to understand how you choose to calculate the nutritional values for your recipes. Just 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil is 375 cal, 2 sunny side eggs are 140 cal, 15.5 oz of cannellini beans is 611 calories, white sugar 16 cal, chipotle in adobo 30 cal, 39 cal for tomato paste, 16 for the cloves, red onion 44 calories. This is 1271 calories… and if it serves two it sits at 636 calories. it is almost double advertised. I hope viewers (specifically calorie-conscious ones) get to this comment. This recipe concerning its nutritional values SERVES 4. NOT 2.
Hi there – thanks for flagging the nutritional information and apologies for the issue. The information presented is an estimate that is calculated through an automated tool which, unfortunately, is not always 100% perfect. I just updated it as it originally incorrectly calculated the beans, hence the lower number. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information, I do recommend calculating it with the exact ingredients you use.
Why the insolence?
There are a lot of ways you could’ve communicated this and you chose the snootiest, thinking you could successfully park it under the guise of “helping the unsuspecting calorie conscious victims,” when it’s transparently about anonymously putting someone in their place for any number of unrelated reasons people like you leave your less-than-graceful comments as you patrol the web. The ol’ trusty “tsk tsk” and finger wag.
A simple “hey, sounds (or is) delicious, Karishma, nicely presented, and also you might want to double check your calorie stats,” would’ve been solid.
Maybe on your next internet recipe patrol shift?
Used butter beans instead and wow this was delicious and filling! I don’t find the calorie count misleading unlike the other reviewer (who overestimated the bean calories) but maybe it’s been updated since then. The red onions were the perfect topping. So easy, will def make again!
So glad you enjoyed! 🙂 Love that butter beans work here too!
Absolutely Delicious 😋
So glad you enjoyed! 🙂
Looks so good. Thank you!
Thanks so much!
Delicious and nice change from my usual breakfast!
Hi Tess,
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for trying out the recipe.