Tostada Colombiana (Fried Bread with Hogao and Eggs)

About This Recipe

The tostada colombiana is the no-frills, deeply satisfying breakfast of the Colombian interior — particularly popular in Antioquia and the coffee-growing regions (Eje Cafetero). It is not a Mexican tostada and not a Spanish tostada: it is a thick slice of pan campesino (rustic white country bread) fried in butter until golden and crispy on the exterior, topped with hogao — the essential Colombian sauce of slowly cooked tomatoes and spring onions — and a fried egg with a runny yolk. The act of breaking the yolk and watching it run into the hogao and pool in the hollows of the toasted bread is a quiet morning pleasure. Alongside a tinto (small black coffee) or a Colombian hot chocolate with cheese floating in it, the tostada is a complete, nourishing breakfast in under 15 minutes. Hogao is the essential Colombian sauce — onion and tomato cooked together for 10–15 minutes until concentrated, sweet, and fragrant with cumin. It is the same sauce that finishes bandeja paisa, tops patacones, and is stirred into beans. No Colombian refrigerator is without it.

Ingredients

Serves 2

• 2 thick slicespan campesino (Colombian white country bread) or sourdough(cut 2 cm thick)
• 2 tbspunsalted butter
• 2 largeeggs
• 3 largespring onions (scallions), thinly sliced
• 3 mediumripe plum tomatoes, finely diced
• 2 clovesgarlic, minced
• 1 tbspneutral oil (for hogao)
• 0.5 tspground cumin
• 0.5 tspsalt
• 1 tbspfresh cilantro, chopped

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the hogao

   Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add spring onions and garlic; cook 4–5 minutes until softened and fragrant. Add diced tomatoes, cumin, and salt. Cook 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until tomatoes completely break down into a concentrated, rust-red sauce. Stir in cilantro.

2. 2

   Fry the bread

   Heat butter in a wide skillet over medium heat until foaming. Add bread slices. Cook 2–3 minutes per side until deeply golden and crispy on the exterior. The bread should have a crust but remain soft inside.

   A generous amount of butter is what distinguishes tostada colombiana from plain toast — don't be shy.

3. 3

   Fry the eggs

   In the same pan (or a separate small pan), fry eggs in a knob of butter over medium-low heat until the whites are set but the yolks remain runny, about 2–3 minutes. Season with salt.

4. 4

   Assemble

   Place golden bread on plates. Spoon hogao generously over each slice. Top with a fried egg. Serve immediately with black coffee or hot chocolate.

Variations

• •

  Tostada con aguacate: add sliced avocado between the hogao and egg.

• •

  Tostada con chorizo: top with sliced, pan-fried chorizo criollo alongside the egg.

• •

  Tostada de queso: replace egg with a thick slice of queso campesino melted under the broiler.

Storage

Hogao keeps refrigerated up to 5 days. Tostadas must be assembled and eaten immediately — the fried bread softens quickly once topped.

Frequently Asked Questions