Bread slices dunked in a mixture of mint, coriander, green chillies, shallots, ginger or garlic, fennel seeds, eggs and milk and toasted with butter - Savoury French Toast of India!
This is my mom's eruville rotti vatiye (spicy bread toast). Savoury French Toast recipe or what we know as Spicy Bombay Toast recipe is made by dipping sliced bread in a herby and spicy egg mixture and pan-frying it in butter to a delicious toast.
The trio of Indian condiment - mint, coriander and green chillies along with some mini shallots, a piece of ginger and garlic and some fennel seeds makes its way into the eggs and milk to become the batter for this spicy Bombay toast. If you are a savoury-for-breakfast kinda person, then this recipe is going to be your most loved on the breakfast menu. Trust me.
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If I have to choose between sweet or savoury for breakfast, I would happily say both but I most definitely lean towards the savoury. This spicy french toast recipe will definitely up your breakfast toast game like never before. There’s nothing better than a breakfast of these fluffy savoury french toast with all that minty, garlicky, gingery notes! Growing up, this or the sweet classic version was always a weekend pre-breakfast or snack after school kinda dish. We call this Bombay toast or more colloquially - eruville rotti vaatiye! 🤣 (spicy bread toast)
This is my mom's recipe but like always she never shares a measurement and I don't share a recipe on this blog without making sure you can also recreate it any number of times. I understand when some friends and relatives say they don't measure...I don't either but I make notes each time I attempt so that I have data to fall back, to rework, to fix, to make better, etc... so that there is no more wastage ... so that I can easily double or triple the recipe based on it.
This recipe took its time to get it right consistently - my mom's savoury french toast always had visible chunks of green chillies or onions and we relished it even then but I wanted to stretch the batter and make every single toast packed with the same amount of flavours. So like my Kadala curry recipe, I can boldly say this is better than mom's recipe! Hope you will try this recipe and share your feedback as always!
Ingredients
- Fresh herbs: I have used only mint and coriander.
- Ginger or garlic: You can either use ginger or garlic or both but avoid ginger garlic paste if possible. But in a crunch, you may use the paste.
- Green chillies: increase or reduce as per taste
- Mini shallots: You may use red onions
- Fennel seeds: You may use cumin instead but I highly recommend fennel seeds!
- Eggs: We need eggs, but if for health reasons you want to avoid eggs, then you may replace with approx 2 tablespoon of any flour.
- Full-fat milk: I have not tried with other kinds
- Salt and pepper: as per taste
- Bread: a stale bread (more on it below)
- Butter: unsalted. If using salted butter, then adjust salt in the batter or use ghee
How to make the spicy Bombay toast? I had mentioned in my French Toast recipe that I go with "every 1 egg needs ¼ cup liquid" formula. So, the ¼ cup liquid can be a mixture of milk and cream or all milk. For the savoury version though, as we are making a green paste, that counts as the "liquid". Keep that in mind when making a large batch.
Instructions
Let's see how to make savoury french toast!
Firstly, prepare the green paste by adding all the ingredients into a mini mixie or food processor and grind to a paste. It won't get smooth but continue grinding until no big chunks. You may add a splash of milk to get it to process better.
It won't get smooth but continue grinding until no big chunks. You may add a splash of milk to get it to process better.
Transfer the content into a bowl. Add a portion of the milk into the mixie jar and shake well to get every bit of greens out of it. Pour the content into the same bowl (I prefer to use brownie pan or pie dish)
Add the eggs, remaining milk, salt and pepper.
Whisk this mixture until combined and no large traces of egg yolk strands remain.
Heat your favourite flat pan with some butter and spread it all over the pan. Dunk one bread slice into the egg mixture for about 10 to 20 seconds on each side and place it on the hot greased skillet. You may use your fingertips or a spoon to keep the bread slices dunked. Repeat with bread slices as much as the pan can hold.
Toast on medium heat until golden brown on both sides which is for about 1 to 3 minutes on each side depending on the thickness of your bread.
Cooking time can vary based on thickness and density of bread as well as the amount of egg soaked into the bread.
FAQ
A good old white bread or milk bread is what every mom in India must have used in the 90s to make Bombay toast aka french toast. Now the world is fancier so we get a french baguette, challah, brioche, etc from the store next door (mostly). Whatever bread you are using, make sure it is at least a day old which makes the best french toast. I love to have brioche french toast but when I am making it at home I usually always use the normal white bread or brown bread or store-bought baguette! But I love to use plain white bread for this recipe because the flavours shine through it better than any other healthy bread. sorry, not sorry.
What can go wrong in a french toast? You either end up with too dry french toast or too soggy toast. I have been on both ends! The too dry happens when you didn't soak the bread enough in the egg mixture and the soggy happens when it is soaked too much and also not cooked through. A dry french toast is when you can see the middle of the toast dry when you take a bite because the egg mixture didn't reach the inside of the slice. The soggy french toast is when it is browned on both sides but still wet and heavy in the middle because it is not cooked through. You may have placed the bread on a very hot pan and removed it when you saw them well browned.
What to serve with savoury french toast? I grew up having spicy Bombay toast with a cup of chai and so continues even today. But I would suggest you can add some assorted cheese board along with the toasts for a fancy breakfast spread.
Check my classic sweet french toast recipe that will change your toast game!
📖 Recipe
Savoury French Toast | Spicy Bombay Toast
Ingredients
For the green paste
- ½ cup fresh mint leaves tightly packed
- ½ cup Fresh coriander leaves
- 2 to 3 green chillies
- ¼ inch ginger
- 2 garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- 3 to 4 mini shallots ½ a small red onion
For the batter
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup full-fat milk
- salt and pepper to taste
For the toast
- 6 to 8 bread slices stale preferred - meaning a day or two old
- 1 to 2 tablespoons butter or ghee to pan-toast the bread slices
Instructions
Prepare the batter
- Prepare the green paste by adding all the ingredients into a mini mixie or food processor and grind to a paste. It won't get smooth but continue grinding until no big chunks. You may add a splash of milk to get it to process better.
- Transfer the content into a bowl (big enough to fit the sliced bread)
- Add a portion of the milk into the mixie jar and shake well to get every bit of greens out of it.
- Pour the content into the same bowl (I prefer to use brownie pan or pie dish)
- Add the eggs, remaining milk, salt and pepper and whisk this mixture until combined and no large traces of egg yolk strands remain.
Prepare the toast
- Heat your favourite flat pan with some butter and spread it all over the pan
- Dunk one bread slice into the egg mixture for about 10 to 20 seconds on each side and place it on the hot greased skillet. You may use your fingertips or a spoon to keep the bread slices dunked. Repeat with bread slices as much as the pan can hold.
- Toast on medium heat until golden brown on both sides which is for about 1 to 3 minutes on each side depending on the thickness of your bread. Cooking time can vary based on thickness and density of bread as well as the amount of egg soaked into the bread.
- Remove and stack on the serving plate with more butter or ketchup. Serve with my hot cuppa chai! or use it to make a cheese sandwich!
Pallavi says
Looks yummy
Anonymous says
The fennel seeds took this into the Realm Of Awesome 👌