Here’s a really simple dish that I ate in Ikaria many mornings for breakfast. Because why not? And aren’t we always after a new breakfast idea?

Fava with some cucumber, purslane, feta and mountain tea: a perfect breakfast

Fava is essentially pureed yellow split peas and is served as a meze or side dish. But I found it a super day-starter. (Note: Greek fava is not the same as fava beans…confusing, I know.)

I’m not a big fan of eating too many pulses…they are quite hard to digest and the phytic acid and other toxins can be rough going for folk like myself with digestion and autoimmune issues. Which is why I make my own sprouts.

But while I was in Ikaria, my health was so good that I read my body and knew I was fine to eat some beans. This is how I work. Feel how my body is feeling. I don’t like food rules.

Fava is super cheap to make. You can store it for some time in the fridge and it can be eaten cold or warmed.

I like it with some yoghurt, cucumber and olives. Or feta. And always serve with chopped onion or eschalots and

I write about breakfast a lot. My breakfast choices stray left of the cereal box. I eat meat muffins. And pumpkin with sardines. And stirfried sprouts with egg. And so I’m often met with the reaction: but that’s not what breakfast is meant to be, that’s not how breakfast goes?!

Isn’t it?

photo by Sarah Illenberger

I personally think that fat and protein are best at breakfast and that sugar should be avoided at all costs because it sets the day up for a rollercoaster ride of cravings. A protein-less breakfast leaves you unsatiated. And yet that’s the kind of start to the day we’ve been sold. Reader Dani alerted me to this article by Anneli Rufus. It’s a good succinct overview of a lot of material I read about how:

breakfast = dry cereal dripping in sugar in LARGE part because big corporations have sold us into believing such an equation.

But know this:

Breakfast foods are dictated by corporate interests + masturbation paranoia.

Breakfast is a much politicised meal. Rufus writes “Cold cereal, donuts and orange juice are now breakfast staples because somebody somewhere wanted money.”

• cereal as we know it was born out of a desire to produce something that would stop us masturbating!  Not. Kidding. Seeking to provide sanitarium patients with meatless anti-aphrodisiac breakfasts in 1894, surgeon and anti-masturbation activist John Kellogg developed the process of flaking cooked grains. Hence Corn Flakes. And Rice Crispies.
• in pre-Corn Flakes time, breakfast wasn’t cold or sweet. It was hot and hearty.
• pre-industry, we loaded up on protein-rich eggs, sausages, ham and belly-fat bacon along with ancient carb classics: mush, pancakes, bread.

I’m a big fan of Sally Fallon and her “bible” Nourishing Traditions (in fact it’s my all-time favourite manual…I VERY much recommend it). She’s an adherent to the Weston A Price way of living, which is similar to Paleo living, which is similar to how I eat (I’ve personally found it the best approach for my auto-immune issues).

photo via The Alkaline Sisters

Anyway, in a recent edition of WAP’s Wise Traditions Magazine (by Jen Allbritton), they ran a rundown on the best tricks for eating breakfast based on Sally’s principles. So I’ve shared a few below. I recently shared a post on how to eat breakfast without sugar and grains…this kinda builds on it. I know a stack of you were interested in reading more. Yeah?

5 Weston A Price breakfast tricks:

• fats and protein should be the featured nutrients, as they are critical for brain chemistry balance (these include egg, meat, fish, full fat dairy including yoghurt, kefir, nuts and seeds, coconut oil, butter, avocados).
• fruit, veggies, tubers and whole grains make a wonderful side note.
• make at least a portion of breakfast food easily digestible through soaking grains, or sour leavening, culturing dairy, fermenting fruits and vegetables.
• don’t rush. Relax through your morning meal.
• plan ahead.

Some breakfast favourites from fellow WAP foodies:

Sally Fallon: bake no-nitrate bacon in a pan with fruit (such as apple slices, apricot, peaches or nectarines, or with cherry tomatoes and mushrooms). Serve with eggs of any style – scrambled, fried. Enjoyed with a glass of raw milk. Breakfast tonic favourites include swedish bitters, beet kvass, cod liver oil, high vitamin butter oil mixed with warm water.