Curried Egg Pitta Bread

A curried egg pitta bread makes a great savoury packed lunch or picnic solution – and can be made with just 4 ingredients.  This is foolproof.

Today I had one pitta bread to use up and I’d just bought a new pack of eggs, so it seemed a good idea to have curried egg pitta for lunch.  This recipe serves one, but is very scalable.

Ingredients:

• One pitta bread, your choice of type/flavour!
• Two hard boiled eggs per pitta (I am using larger pitta breads, not the 22p/6 sized ones), shelled
• 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise – your choice of light/full fat and you can even use salad cream
• 1 teaspoon of hot curry powder

Method:

1. Mix together the mayonnaise and the curry powder – a mug works well for this, no need for a full bowl!  If you can put this into the fridge for 1-2 hours to “mature” then it’ll taste smoother, but this mix can be used immediately.
2. Taste the curry sauce – is it fine for your tastes? You can always add a little more mayonnaise or curry powder if it’s not cool/hot enough for you.
3. Add the hard boiled eggs to the curried egg sauce and chop them up until they’re the size of chunk you want.
4. Toast your pitta bread and cut it in half (I find this way to cut pitta breads gives me two great-sized pockets for food, rather than messing about slicing one edge and then trying to eat a whole pitta bread.
5. Fill each half of the pitta bread with your curried egg.
6. If you wish to gain extra points for presentation, then you can sprinkle the top with some black pepper, or watercress, or chives, or even finely cut red pepper (I happened to have some).

How Long Will Curried Egg Pitta Last?

If you wrap your pitta in foil and put them into the fridge, they’ll be fine for 3-4 days.

How Long Will Curried Egg Mix Last?

If you want to “make ahead” the curried egg, so it’s in your fridge when you need it, then just put it into a lidded pot and it’ll be fine for 3-4 days.

Alternatives:

Instead of using mayonnaise, you can use creme fraiche or yoghurt – use what you’ve got, don’t buy things in especially just because a recipe says you need it!  Only buy ingredients you can genuinely use in other ways and so won’t waste.

Food Cheats:

What food cheats have been used here?

• I buy the long-life pitta breads, which have a lifespan of at least 2 months, so I can have them available when I fancy and not have to pay too much attention to the “best before” date.
• You can make the boiled eggs ahead of time, I use a microwave egg boiler, so it’s easy for me to boil four eggs on a whim without having to watch them. I then cool them and pop them into the fridge (in a freezer bag to stop eggy smells) – boiled eggs keep weeks in a fridge, but I do use them up within 3-4 days usually.
• The other ingredients are simple to find storecupboard ingredients, which have a very long shelf-life

Menu Cost:

These are a cheap and tasty lunchbox item.  I bought everything from Lidl and it cost:

One pitta bread £0.07. Two eggs £0.13.  Mayonnaise & curry powder £0.05.

Total cost: £0.25 for two halves of pitta bread filled with egg curried mayo sauce mix.

Frugal Snacks: 

If you’re looking for frugal snacks, then half a pitta with egg in curry mayo would qualify as a snack – and coming in at just 12-13p per half, it’s a contender!  Make up one pitta bread, then wrap the second portion in foil and pop it in the fridge – it’ll keep for a good 2-3 days!