Portuguese Peas with Poached Eggs • Ervilhas com Ovos Escalfados

Here we have a true classic from Portuguese cuisine, the wonderfully traditional peas with poached eggs this is a super simple and common dish for Easter and… well, good all year round! This recipe is extremely simple and, in my opinion, absolutely delicious, maybe the best way to eat peas, hehehe!

Basically, you make a simple sauté with onion and garlic, add chorizo or bacon (or both!), toss in the peas, season everything up, crack in some eggs, season again, and you’re done! Normally you want the eggs a bit runnier with liquid yolks, but I took too long preparing everything for the photos and by then they were more cooked than ideal.

The beauty of this dish lies in its rustic simplicity, it’s the kind of food that Portuguese mothers have been making for generations, turning humble ingredients into something truly satisfying. Let’s check the recipe!

Portuguese Peas with Poached Eggs • Ervilhas com Ovos Escalfados

Servings: 3
Time: 40mins
Difficulty: Normal
Rating: ★★★★★
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For all the pea haters out there hehehehe, joking joking, but this might be one of my favorite ways of eating peas, well seasoned these are delicious and super nutricional.

Ingredients

Onion – 1 Small
Garlic – 3 Cloves
Chorizo – 50g
Bacon – 4 Slices
Peas – +/- 450g
Eggs – 3
Olive Oil – A Drizzle
Pepper – A Pinch
Salt – A Pinch
Parsley – Optional (for Sprinkling)

Directions

Start by peeling and washing the peas. It’s easy, just open the pea pods with your fingers.

In a large, deep frying pan, add the finely chopped onion and garlic and the coarsely chopped chorizo and bacon. Add a drizzle of olive oil and sauté until the onion is golden brown and the chorizo begin to brown at the edges.
While the mixture is cooking, taste one of the raw peas. If you think the skin is too thick, skip this step (I skipped it). If you think the skin is too thick, it’s a good idea to quickly blanch the peas to make the outside more tender. (For that prepare a small pot of boiling unsalted water, add the peas and let them cook for 1 minute, maximum 1 minute and a half, remove from the hot water into a bowl and drain with cold water.)

When the sauté is ready, add the peas, season with salt and pepper, mix and cook until the peas are tender, about 5 minutes. Taste to see if they are tender and adjust the seasonings.

Finally, add the eggs, season them with a pinch of salt and pepper, cover the pan, and cook for another 2 minutes until the outside is cooked but the yolk is still runny. Serve with slices of rustic bread and sprinkled with parsley. Bon appétit!

Notes: Of course you can use frozen peas without any problems, being small, you don’t even need to defrost them. No need to blanch them either, and add them at the same time I add the fresh ones. Both take roughly the same time to become tender, but note that this recipe doesn’t work with canned peas these are too cooked…

Some people make the eggs separately to get them perfect, then add them when serving, but my mother always made them with the peas, so I always make them with the peas, hehehe.

There’s another variation of this recipe with fava beans… hmm, I actually have some fava beans, maybe I should…

This tastes even better the next day when reheated, the flavors meld together beautifully!

If you can’t find Portuguese chorizo, Spanish chorizo, Italian sausage works well as a substitute, or well more bacon ;D

This recipe for Portuguese Peas with Poached Eggs • Ervilhas com Ovos Escalfados was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Típicas Ervilhas com Ovos Escalfados foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.