Middle Eastern breakfast burritos

Breakfast burritos are a dinnertime staple around my house. I forage in the fridge for whatever leftovers I have, throw it in with scrambled eggs and wrap it in a heated flour tortilla and you have dinner. Sauteed veggies? Throw ‘em in for veggie burritos. Leftover pork? Chop it up, throw it in then top the scrambled eggs with salsa for Mexican breakfast burritos. Mozzarella + diced tomatoes + fresh basil (if you have it) and you’ve got Italian breakfast burritos. Yeah, I wasn’t kidding when I said we have this a lot. Easy peasy.

On Friday night I even packed our breakfast burritos to go since we were running late to see The Avengers. Yes, I carted our burritos into the theater with us so we could eat while we watched the previews. I had thought of just giving in and buying fast food on the way but I took 5 minutes and made Mexican burritos instead. So I had burritos on the brain while watching the Hulk smash through Cleveland. Yes, it’s Cleveland, not New York, getting pummeled during the movie. I’m so proud. After defeating Loki and his minions (yeah, no spoilers there we all figured the Avengers would prevail, right?), Iron Man mutters that he wants shawarma. I love that shawarma got a big screen mention. The Middle Eastern shish kabob deserves the A-list star treatment.

The next day my husband and I did a little what we like to call culinary spelunking in Cleveland and stumbled upon the Assad Bakery, which had shawarma and fresh pitas for sale. Fresh pitas are nothing like the cardboard kind you find at a regular grocery store. They’re soft and pliable and come in different sizes. They’re meant to be rolled. I was inspired: what about a Middle Eastern breakfast burrito complete with a slathering of hummus? I went for Trader Joe’s smoky red pepper chipotle hummus and paired with scrambled eggs for this Middle Eastern breakfast burrito.

Recipe rundown: Prepare scrambled eggs. Spread about 2 tablespoons hummus over the pita. Place about 1/3-1/2 cup cooked eggs in a center line on the pita then roll up starting with one end. If you can’t find decent pitas around, go ahead and buy the pocket variety and just place the hummus and eggs into the pocket (don’t try to roll ‘em). Or, you could use flour tortillas for even more cross-cultural food fusion.

Kids’ reaction: Rave reviews all around. My two youngest requested their burritos sans hummus but then when I couldn’t finish mine they both offered to eat it.

By the time I went for a shot my daughter was almost done!