Egg Salad Avocado Toast with Jalapeno Pesto

This egg salad avocado toast takes everything you love about classic avocado toast and layers it with creamy smashed eggs, spicy jalapeno basil pesto, and tangy pickled onions. It's simple enough for a weekday morning but feels special enough for a weekend brunch spread.

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Recipe

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5 from 1 vote

Egg Salad Avocado Toast

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast, Lunch

Cuisine: American

Keyword: toast, vegetarian

Servings: 2

Author: Christine Ma

Ingredients

Spicy pesto

• 2 cups packed fresh basil
• 1 jalapeno roughly chopped
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• ¼ cup toasted pinenuts
• 1 garlic clove roughly chopped
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper

Egg salad avocado toast

• 4 boiled eggs
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• 1 avocado thinly sliced
• 2 slices toast
• 2 tablespoons pickled onions

Instructions

• Make spicy pesto. Combine basil, jalapeno, parmesan, pinenuts, and garlic in a food processor and pulse until chopped. Slowly pour the extra virgin olive oil while the machine is running. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
• Smashed boiled eggs with a fork or masher. Add mayonnaise and paprika and season with salt and pepper. Mix until well combined.
• Lay sliced avocado on sliced toast and season avocado with salt and pepper. Top with smashed eggs, spicy pesto, and pickled onions. Serve immediately.

Notes

For a mild pesto, omit the seeds from the jalapeno.

Step-by-step instructions

Step 1: Make pesto

First things first, let's make that spicy pesto that's going to take this toast from basic to brilliant. Combine fresh basil, roughly chopped jalapeno, parmesan, toasted pine nuts, and garlic in a food processor and pulse until chopped.

If you want a milder pesto, omit the jalapeno seeds. You can also use serrano chile if you prefer.

Then, with the machine running, slowly drizzle olive oil until it comes together into a beautiful, vibrant green sauce. Season it with salt and pepper to taste, and you're done.

If you don't have a food processor, you can make this by hand or with a mortar and pestle. Just finely mince everything as small as you can get it, then stir in the olive oil gradually until it reaches your desired consistency.

It'll have a chunkier, more rustic texture, but it's just as delicious.

Feel free to make the pesto up to 5 days in advance. The color will dull over time, but it'll still taste great.

This recipe also makes more pesto than you need for the toast; save it for next time or use it to make roasted vegetable pesto flatbread or ribeye sandwich with jalapeno pesto.

Step 2: Prepare eggs

Now let's move on to the smashed eggs. Start with boiled eggs, cooking them to your desired degree of doneness.

For jammy, slightly soft yolks, boil your eggs for 7-8 minutes. Want them fully hard-boiled? Go for 10-12 minutes.

There are several ways to boil eggs, but I always first bring a pot of water to a boil. Then, gently lower the eggs, set a timer, and when they're done, immediately transfer them to an ice bath to stop the cooking.

Once they're cool enough to handle, peel them and smash them up with a fork or potato masher. You want them broken down but still with some texture, not completely smooth.

Fold in the mayonnaise and paprika, season generously with salt and pepper, and mix until everything's combined and creamy.

Step 3: Putting it all together

Now that all of the components are ready, it's time to assemble the egg salad avocado toast. Start with the toasted bread - I like a hearty sourdough or multigrain that can stand up to all these toppings, but you can use any sturdy bread.

Layer on those thinly sliced avocado pieces and season them with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. This might seem like a small detail, but seasoning each component as you go makes such a difference.

Spoon the smashed egg mixture on top, followed by that gorgeous spicy pesto, and finish with a generous scattering of pickled onions. Those pickled onions are crucial because they add brightness that balances the rich, creamy elements.

Serve this immediately while the egg salad avocado toast is still warm and crispy, and prepare to never order disappointing breakfast toast again. I know I never will!

Make-ahead and storage tips

• Make-ahead: You can make the pesto up to 5 days in advance and store it in the refridgerator. You can also make the egg topping earlier in the day.
• Store: Keep leftovers in an airtight container up to 2 days.

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