Fried Eggs with Charred Tomatoes and Caramelized Onions

Easy and flavor-bursting. Simple and perfect. Atop some crusty sourdough bread, this stuff is a game-changer. Dare I say it works for dinner almost better than for breakfast? I dare! I dare 100%.

Before I talk about this recipe, I got to get something clear about the dear chicken egg for which I’m so thankful. Sweet, good, chicken-y chickens.

Okay, the thing is, for quite some time now, I’ve been back and forth between the right way to fry an egg and the wrong way to fry an egg.

So what’s the wrong way then? And more importantly, the right way?

Well if you ask different people, you’ll obviously get different answers, right?

...Keep pan on low heat to prevent gristle-like, frizzly, crunchy egg white formation on the underside of egg...Keep pan on high-blast heat to get crunchy gristle-like, frizzly egg white formation...Cover pan to steam the top of the egg...Flip the egg...Don’t you dare flip that egg...Just flip the freaking egg already.

Ahhhhhh!! Make it all stop.

Maybe let's just come up for some air.

Now, how about this---

Take butter (this is my one hard and fast rule… good, good, REAL, and real GOOD butter), throw it into a pan, crack in the eggs, add some salt, maybe some pepper, wait a bit, then take it off the heat and eat it. Yep.

The rest of the stuff, do it the way you prefer. Cooking is all about what YOUR taste buds enjoy, not what the best chefs in the world enjoy, or anybody else for that matter. Because when it comes down to it, you’re the one eating it, right? Yeahhh. So then fry it up until it’s crispy, or take it low and slow to keep it tender, maybe flip it, or don’t flip it. There’s honestly like a bajillion ways to fry an egg.

Just make sure you add enough butter and salt.

Yeah, I pretty much lied up there when I said I only had one rule but that’s only because I just now decided that actually you really need this second rule!

Salt.

Salt is my other rule.

And add enough of it to make the food taste good, yeah? Truth is, if you don’t add enough salt---and I’m not saying to add enough of it to make it taste like you’re having some egg with your salt---you won’t taste what the egg has to offer in flavor. It’ll just be bland and you’ll miss out---and then I'll start this whole overcompensating thing by crying all my salty tears while pouring salt directly from the shaker into my own mouth. Nobody likes seeing me like that.

For reals though, salt draws out the flavor in food. So, so necessary. Even more crucial (again, depending on whom you ask) is the fact that we need salt for strong bones. Yep. Science works in non-mysterious ways my friends.

Oh yeah, and as for butter---butter allows for better nutrient absorption compared to any other cooking fat. So, absorb that! <--Haha?

One Ha?

Nevermind.

OK! Now that that’s settled, let’s get on with it then! 

This is a truly rustic and simple dish with nostalgic flavors for me. I grew up eating what my Persian parents call “omelettes”. Only, they were actually scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes cooked into them. I love those “omelettes” and everything they represent for me.

My Persian baba always cooked them just right with a few amazing flavors that worked together like gold. Butter and salt were key in there as well. Merci, Baba! Also, I wonder if he reads my posts. Baba, are you reading this?

Anyway, I had a craving a few weeks ago and ended up making a version of his eggs, not knowing until I had eaten it that the flavors I craved were essentially those of my baba’s famous “omelette”.

I cooked up some awesomely caramelized onions, charred some tomatoes in a pan (the same way I did in my stovetop chelow kabob recipe), fried up some eggs the way I like them (just a little bit runny and with crispy edges), and piled everything onto some toasty sourdough bread slices. The flavors and textures are UNBEATABLE.

Thanks, chicken.

Healthy and Happy reconsidered, I hope.

Make sure you also check out the secret to making the best soft-boiled eggs ever and the ultimate hard-boiled eggs! These recipes are fool-proof and so easy!

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Recipe

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Fried Eggs with Charred Tomatoes and Caramelized Onions

Course Main

Prep Time 1 minute minute

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 31 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Calories 606kcal

Author Honest and Tasty

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons Butter can also use ghee
• 4 Eggs
• 1 large Onion cut in half and then sliced
• 2 Ripe Tomatoes of your choice sliced to about ½ inch rings
• 2 slices Sourdough Bread (real sourdough bread is made from a starter culture and not commercial yeast)
• A few good pinches of Sea Salt
• A few pinches Black Pepper

Instructions

• Add 3 tablespoons of butter into a large nonstick pan on medium-low heat. Once it’s almost all melted, add the onion and mix. You don’t want to burn the onion; it should start to turn brown and get really soft and sweet. The whole caramelization process will take about 25 minutes, with occasional mixing. Add a pinch of salt. If smoke starts rising and onions start burning, turn heat down a bit and add more butter if it needs it.
• Once the onions have completely caramelized, remove them to another dish and add the tomatoes to the pan on medium heat. Add a pinch of salt. After about 1-2 minutes (or until tomato starts to char), flip the tomatoes to char the other side for another 30 seconds or so. Remove tomatoes to another dish.
• Turn burner to medium (if you want a crispy edge, otherwise lower to med-low), melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the pan, crack in the eggs, giving them enough room in the pan. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until desired doneness.
• Toast bread and place the onions, tomato, and egg on top. Enjoy it!

Nutrition

Calories: 606kcal | Carbohydrates: 47g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 38g | Saturated Fat: 21g | Cholesterol: 403mg | Sodium: 712mg | Potassium: 575mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 2374IU | Vitamin C: 21mg | Calcium: 111mg | Iron: 4mg