For The Perfect Lazy Weekend Breakfast, Borrow A Middle Eastern Technique

We've all been there, slogging through marathon hosting sessions, sandwiched between holidays, visitors, and errands — feeling energy, along with cooking desires, drain from our exhausted bodies. In times when it's easier to load up the food delivery apps than it is to throw together a home-cooked dish, breakfast is usually the first meal to suffer in quality and nutrition. But we're big believers in working smarter, not harder, and that's why we recommend borrowing from the Middle Eastern culinary tradition of mezze to salvage your weekend breakfasts.

Mezze is a Middle Eastern word, thought to have originated in Turkey or Persia, that means snack or appetizer. Mezze isn't only a way of serving food, it encapsulates the tradition of sharing a meal with your family, friends, and community. Communal dining used to be a cornerstone of ancient civilizations where the concept of mezze first originated, and it's still a popular way to showcase local ingredients and bring people today. A typical Middle Eastern mezze usually features hummus, falafel, grilled meats, pickled veggies, and a series of dips and salads that are easy to scoop up with warm, steamy flatbread. The best part of turning to a breakfast mezze to feed your family? It's incredibly easy to put together. All you need is to gather an assortment of delicious and nutritious breakfast bites and lay them out in an easy-to-grab manner on a platter or large cutting board.

Putting together a breakfast mezze is very similar to composing a morning-themed grazing table. It is the perfect option for a lazy weekend meal or to easily feed visitors without spending all morning in the kitchen cooking up an elaborate dish that's just going to cool off and coagulate before everyone gets out of bed.

When putting together your very own breakfast mezze we recommend serving finger foods that require very little fuss to get on a plate and in your mouth. Start with some hard-boiled eggs that are already peeled and served alongside a smattering of mustard options. For your bread, toasting up some New York-style bagels, plain croissants, or sliced baguettes will make for perfect serving vessels — just be sure to wait until everyone's seated and ready to eat so your bread is delightfully warm and fresh from the toaster. No breakfast is complete without a serving of fruit so having something that's in season, or bananas and sliced apples, is a great way to start the day. Add a few dishes of cottage cheese with sliced tomato, flavored cream cheese and sliced cucumbers, and yogurt with a drizzle of honey, for dipping your bread and you'll have an easy, beautiful, and most importantly, simple, breakfast mezze to share a relaxing, delicious, and communal breakfast.