Smashed avo with dukkah and poached egg

Saturday mornings I’m out the door by 7:45 for junior netball on the courts at Speers Point Park, and the last thing I want is to come home to a kitchen that still needs feeding. So I’ve been making this smashed avo with dukkah and poached egg on repeat lately — not just for weekends but on a Tuesday night when we need something fast, genuinely filling, and not another pasta bake.

Avocado on toast has been done to death, I know. But hear me out, because the dukkah changes everything. It adds a nuttiness and a little crunch that my kids actually respond to, which is honestly more than I can say for half the things I put on the table. Even my youngest, who won’t touch anything with visible herbs, cleared the plate when I swapped the chilli flakes for plain dukkah.

Why this breakfast earns its place on a weekday

The fibre here is doing real work. A single avocado half delivers around 5 grams of dietary fibre — and when you put it on proper wholegrain sourdough and add an egg, you’ve got a breakfast that keeps blood sugar steadier than a bowl of cereal would. The case for eating more fibre is one I come back to often on this site, and this recipe is one of the easier ways to actually hit your numbers without thinking about it.

The egg adds protein that carries you through to lunch without the 10am crash. And the dukkah — a blend of toasted nuts, seeds and spices with Egyptian roots that has become a proper Australian pantry staple — adds healthy fats and a mineral hit from the sesame and hazelnuts. The Australian Dietary Guidelines from Eat for Health put legumes, eggs, and wholegrains at the centre of a balanced breakfast pattern, and this recipe lands squarely in that territory without making you feel like you’re eating something medicinal.

One thing I’ll say plainly: bought dukkah from the supermarket is fine. I know some food writers will insist you toast and blend your own, and yes, homemade is better. But on a Tuesday morning with school bags to locate and a lunchbox to pack, the jar from Harris Farm or your local IGA does the job. I won’t pretend otherwise.

What you’ll need

This makes two serves, which doubles well for lunchboxes if you keep the egg separate and pack the avo toast in a container. The avo smash itself holds reasonably in the fridge for about four hours if you press plastic wrap right onto the surface to stop browning.

Ingredients

• 2 slices thick-cut wholegrain sourdough (roughly 120g total)
• 1 large ripe avocado (or 2 small ones)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (about half a lemon)
• 1 small clove garlic, finely grated
• Sea salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
• 2 eggs, as fresh as you can get
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar (for poaching)
• 2 tablespoons dukkah (store-bought or homemade)
• A small handful of baby rocket or microgreens, to serve
• Extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle (about 1 teaspoon)
• Optional: a few thin slices of radish, or a pinch of dried chilli flakes for adults

Serves 2. Prep: 10 minutes. Cook: 5 minutes.

Method

1. Toast the sourdough slices until golden and sturdy enough to hold the toppings without going soggy. Set aside on your plates.
2. Halve the avocado, remove the stone, and scoop the flesh into a bowl. Add the lemon juice, grated garlic, a good pinch of sea salt, and a few cracks of pepper. Smash with a fork — you want some texture left, not a smooth paste. Taste and adjust the lemon if needed.
3. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a gentle simmer. Add the white vinegar. Crack each egg into a small cup or ramekin first — this gives you control when you slip it in.
4. Stir the water in a slow circle to create a gentle whirlpool, then lower one egg in close to the surface. Repeat with the second egg. Cook for 3 minutes for a runny yolk, or 4 minutes if your household prefers it firmer. Lift out with a slotted spoon and rest briefly on a folded piece of paper towel.
5. Divide the smashed avo between the two toast slices. Scatter the rocket or microgreens over the top, then settle a poached egg onto each piece.
6. Spoon a tablespoon of dukkah over each egg, drizzle with olive oil, and finish with a small pinch of flaky sea salt. Serve straight away.

Make it ahead without losing texture

The smash itself is the only component that benefits from any prep. I’ll make a double batch of the avo mix on Sunday night — lemon juice does a solid job of slowing the oxidation — and keep it in a small airtight container with the plastic wrap pressed flush against the surface. It sits fine in the fridge until Tuesday morning. Everything else takes about five minutes from cold.

If this is going into lunchboxes, pack the avo smash separately in a small container and keep the toast in a bag so it doesn’t go soft. Poached eggs don’t really travel well, so for lunchbox duty I swap to a hard-boiled egg alongside. Less elegant, still good. And given the amount of time I’ve spent trying to pack a poached egg into a container, I reckon the hard-boiled version wins on practicality every single time.

For something equally satisfying on a slower morning, the coconut and blueberry baked oats pull off the same make-ahead trick beautifully — I bake a tray on Sunday and we’re sorted for three or four weekday breakfasts.

A variation worth trying

Swap the sourdough for a thick slice of rye crispbread if you want something lower in carbohydrates, though I’ll be honest — the sourdough gives you a better fibre hit and keeps you fuller longer, so it’s not always the smarter swap even if it feels like one. A decent wholegrain sourdough from a local bakery has a genuinely different nutritional profile to supermarket white sandwich bread, and Better Health Victoria’s guide to bread does a clear job of explaining why the grain and fermentation process matters.

You can also scatter a tablespoon of tahini over the avo smash before the egg goes on — sounds odd, genuinely good. The sesame flavour echoes the dukkah and adds another layer of healthy fat without much extra effort.

If you want a broader look at how a breakfast like this fits into an overall eating pattern, the nailing nutrition guide here is a good place to start. And if you’re trying to work more fibre into breakfast rather than just dinner, this recipe alongside something like the brown rice porridge with zesty lime and coconut on rotation will genuinely move the needle across the week.

This is the kind of breakfast I can get on the table in the time it takes the kettle to boil and the toaster to pop. That’s not nothing. On a Tuesday, it’s actually quite a lot.

— Nicole Barnes, Golden Door Living kitchen