If you’ve got the breakfast blahs, opening the door on Australia’s bush food pantry is a sure-fire way to change things up. And it’s an easy way to do it too – not only can it be as simple as putting some powdered native fruit in your smoothie, but getting your hands on these amazing flavours is much easier than it used to be.
In the past, Indigenous ingredients weren’t as readily available, but with more companies now selling online, access has become easier;
these days, you can buy everything from wild gubinge powder to sprinkle on your muesli to wild rosella tea to sip with your brekkie.
Inspired to give some new flavours a go? Here are some of our favourite ways to add bush foods to breakfast.
Slather on the jam
Is toast your breakfast fave? Or perhaps you’re a fan of a breakfast scone for a weekend breakfast (if so, these flaky, buttery scones are just the ticket). Then try this recipe for tart-but-sweet, brilliantly red home-made rosella jam or this simple recipe for gubinge (aka Kakadu plum) and star-anise jam. You could also ring the changes in your scone with these bush tomato scones.
Sweet-but-tart rosella jam is a perfect match with scones, crumpets, fruit bread or toast. Source: Feast magazine
Bush food bowl
Macadamias, wattleseed and lemon myrtle bring wonderful flavour to this easy granola, which is cooked up in a skillet or pan on the stovetop.
Source: Freshly Picked with Simon Toohey
Delicious damper
Damper is at home at any meal, and this recipe, from The Australian Ingredients Kitchen cookbook by Elder Bruno Dann and Tahlia Mandie, changes things up by adding wattleseed and gubinge (kakadu plum) powder. Fantastic served with lashings of butter and honey.
Damper with wattleseed. Source: Murdoch Books / Alicia Taylor
A trifling matter
If dessert for breakfast sounds deliciously indulgent, give Justine Schofield’s lemon myrtle-flavoured pineapple and coconut trifles a go. She was inspired to create this recipe during an early morning visit to Leliyn (aka Edith Falls), a natural swimming pool in Nitmiluk National Park, north of Katherine in the Northern Territory, and while we’d obviously be lying if we said eating one will magically transport you to where she whipped it up, perhaps closing your eyes and savouring the flavour of lemon myrtle in this tropical brekkie might give you a wee bit of the peace of this scenic spot.
Source: Outback Gourmet
Eggs for breakfast
If eggs are your go-to, you can try all kinds of native sea greens and bush herbs. Use beach mustard greens to add a fiery garnish, add dried herbs such as sea parsley to scrambled eggs, or try a sheep’s cheese frittata from Indigenous chef Mark Olive, who uses saltbush, pepperleaf and Warrigal greens in his recipe.
Source: Tammi Kwok
Go nuts
They are so easily available that we don’t always think of them as an Australian native food (and they are mostly commercially grown, not wild harvested) but macadamias are as Australian as thongs, lamingtons and meat pies.
Put them on your breakfast menu in these peach and macadamia muffins with lemon glaze, as a crunchy topping on home-made passionfruit ricotta bowls, or in the macadamia-walnut butter served with these choc-chip pancakes:
Paleo choc chip pancakes with nut butter and berry jam. Source: Benito Martin
Banana, cinnamon and chia seed porridge Source: Irena Macri
Savoury muffin stars
A great breakfast or brunch option, these oven-dried tomato, warrigal greens and goat’s cheese muffins from Mark Olive also use ground bush tomato and ground salt bush.
Oven-dried tomato, warrigal greens and goat’s cheese muffins Source: On Country Kitchen
Bundle up
The flesh and skin of red bush apples have a unique tangy flavour. If you're lucky enough to get your hands on some, try this recipe, which is equally delicious for breakfast for dessert. Combined with Granny Smith apples, the red bush apples create a twist on the traditional apple bundle.
Source: Ben Ward / Jimmy Shu's Taste of the Territory
Time for tea (or a wattlecino)
If you like a cuppa with breakfast, there’s an exciting world of native flavours for you to explore. Here are a few examples to inspire you. The Kakadu Plum Co sells maarr (native lemongrass) tea, which they describe as great with meals, as it is said to aid digestion, and berry myrtle tea, which brings together several bush flavours, plus bush gumby tea and more. Binjang Tea's range includes bush peppermint and bush chai (native wattle seed, black pepper, allspice, liquorice root, cardamom pods, clove, bay leaf, fennel seed, and ginger root!). Coffee lovers, how about Indigiearth's lemon myrtle or wattleseed infused coffee?
