Eggs are my go to lazy protein.
And what I mean by that is… when you cook eggs, you don’t have to worry about dirtying up utensils by touching raw meat or cutting off the fat. I know all of that takes very little time, but still. On my lazy days, eggs are what’s for dinner.
This Punjabi egg curry is one of my favorite go-to egg recipes because not only is it easy to make; it’s also incredibly flavorful. You add hard-boiled eggs to a spiced tomato sauce, and in less than 30 minutes, dinner is made.
A few shortcuts…
The secret to cooking delicious Indian food (most dishes, anyway) is in the layering. You cook onions until caramelized, then cook ginger/garlic, spices, and your featured veggie/protein. And as with any recipe, the better quality of the ingredients, the better the dish will taste. That said, there are some shortcuts I take when I’m short on time.
You can use canned diced tomatoes (about 1 ½ cans) if you don’t have fresh tomatoes or if you don’t feel like chopping them, lol. Or you can use ½ cup of my onion masala in this recipe and omit the onion, ginger, garlic, and tomatoes. If you use onion masala, the dish will look a bit different than what you see in these pictures, but the curry will taste great (see the notes in my recipe card on how to do this).
This recipe is a north Indian egg curry – if you’re looking for a south Indian egg curry, check out my coconut egg curry recipe. Both are awesome and so different! It’s pretty great growing up in a north Indian family and then marrying into a south Indian one because the cuisines are so unique and different and yet, still somewhat familiar.
Anyway, I hope you love this Punjabi egg curry. Let me know what you think! You can serve this dish on top of jeera rice, cauli-rice, or with my paleo naan.
Ingredients
- 6 eggs hard-boiled and peeled
- 2 tablespoons ghee or oil
- 1 onion diced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 Serrano pepper or green chili (more if you like it spicy), minced
- 1- inch knob ginger minced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
Spices
- 2 teaspoons coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder or cayenne to taste
- 4 medium tomatoes chopped (or 1 ½ cans of diced tomatoes)
- ½ cup water
Instructions
- Heat ghee/oil in a pan over medium heat and add onion, bay leaf, and Serrano pepper/green chili.
- When the onion browns, add ginger and garlic. Stir-fry for a minute.
- Add the spices all at the same time, stir, then add the tomatoes and simmer for 5-6 minutes.
- Add ½ cup water, cover the pan and cook until the tomatoes break down (5-10 minutes).
- Add the eggs and mix well. You can always sprinkle a little paprika on top of the eggs to add more color to them if needed.
Notes
Like Indian food? Then be sure to check out my Paleo Indian eCookbook: South Asian Persuasion! It has 100+ Paleo Indian Recipes (paleo gulab jamun, anyone?) 🙂
Just for fun: here’s the first picture I took of this dish back in 2013:
Roslyn Turbitt says
Hi Ashley made your Punjabi egg curry and oh my good it was so delicious.
This is demy go to recipe so easy and tasty.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Roslyn, I’m glad to hear that!
Lesley B says
This was so easy to prepare and was absolutely delicious. Great go to , to impress recipe.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Lesley, I’m so glad to hear that! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Sarah says
Hey Ashley,
I love this recipe so much! I make it with fresh tomatoes when they are in season and use the onion masala otherwise :). When I use the onion masala I end up using ~ 1 1/2 cups, increasing the amount by a cup or so. I wanted to mention that in case anyone finds the 1/2 cup substitution to be too little.
The onion masala makes it really easy to scale this recipe up or down!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Sarah, that’s so great to hear! I’m glad you like this one so much 🙂 And thanks for sharing how much masala you like!
Jigna Kuttavilla says
Hi Ashley,
Used your onion masala paste for the egg curry and it tasted pretty good. I gave it it a bit of a south india twist by adding a few tablespoons of coconut powered to the gravy and then finishing with curry leaves tempering in coconut oil.
Thanks for sharing all your great recipes !
Jigna.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Love the idea of adding coconut to this, yum! Thanks for sharing, Jigna!
barbie says
I’ve tried it and it came out to be veryyyy delicious. Thank u so much for this recipe and keep sharing more!
My Heart Beets says
I’m so glad you liked the egg curry! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Mary says
In the words of my mom…PERFECT!!! Ashley..thank you so much!!!
My Heart Beets says
Hooray! I’m so glad your mom approved! Thanks, Mary 🙂
Dee says
Hi,
Can we use your onion masala for this recipe? Looks like the ingredients are similar but i’m still a novice indian cook so don’t want to assume, just have a lot of your yummy masala to use 🙂
Thanks
Brenda says
I made this for my family tonight, everyone agreed it was delicious! I wasn’t sure how to prepare the tomatoes, though, I just quartered them and mashed them when they softened up, which worked out… I’ll try chopping them the next time I make this recipe. We’ll be trying your coconut egg curry next week, I’m sure it’ll be just as great.
My Heart Beets says
Brenda, I’m so glad your family liked this! Ah, the tomatoes should say chopped, thank you for the comment – just fixed this! Let me know what you think of the coconut egg curry 🙂
Arv says
Hi Ashley
Loved this recipe. I have stopped meat therefore have to vary my diet and try new things which has been amazing. Anyway, your website is very useful for someone like so thank you so much.
Regards
My Heart Beets says
Arv, I’m so happy to hear that you liked this recipe so much and are also enjoying my website! Look forward to hearing what you think of other recipes you try 🙂
scrummlife says
I am definitely going to try this version as well. I can’t get enough of eggs! Thank you.
My Heart Beets says
Awesome! Hope you love it 🙂