Crispy Fried Egg Salad
Eggs are one of my favourite sources of protein. And while I tend to stick to eggs for breakfast most days, sometimes it’s nice to give them some airtime at dinner. To be honest the photo doesn’t do this dish justice. When you get the edges of your whites perfectly crispy a fried egg becomes an amazingly texturally complex ingredient.
enough for: 2
takes: 10 minutes
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon sherry or wine vinegar
1 bag salad leaves
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
1. First get your salad ready so as soon as the egg is cooked you’re good to serve. Combine mustard, vinegar, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil in a medium bowl. Mix well.
2. Toss the leaves in the dressing.
3. Heat the oil in a large frying pan on a medium high heat. When the oil is shimmering and hot add the eggs one at a time.
4. Fry eggs without turning spooning the hot oil over the yolks to help cook them. They’re done when the whites are no longer transparent or ‘snotty’ looking.
5. Quickly remove eggs and drain on some paper towel.
6. Divide salad between two plates and top with the eggs. Add salt and pepper at the table.
Variations
cooking oil – I use rice bran oil for frying because it has a high smoke point (so is stable at higher temps. Other good options are clarified butter (ghee) or coconut oil. Extra virgin olive oil is not great for high temp cooking but brilliant in salad dressings.
vegan / egg-free – replace eggs with chunks of avocado and roasted almonds.
more substantial / carb lovers – Serve on a soft bread roll. Or on some roast veggies.
more veg – toss in raw veg such as cherry tomatoes, snow peas, cucumbers or chopped red capsicum (bell peppers) or grilled veg like eggplant, mushrooms or zucchini.
carnivore – cook some bacon or chorizo until crispy and then cook the eggs in the bacon fat. Or you could serve with prosciutto.
Waste Avoidance Strategy
mustard / sherry or wine vinegar / oil – keep them in the pantry.
salad leaves – are highly perishable. My first path would be to use them for another meal (salad for breakfast!) but if that isn’t possible you can pop them in the freezer. They will wilt down but can then be used anywhere you’d use wilted greens. At least this way they wont go slimey.
eggs – will keep in the fridge for weeks or use for another meal.
Problem Solving Guide
eggs rubbery – you’ve overcooked them. Next time watch them more closely and get them out a little bit before you think the white is 100% set.
eggs not crispy – either not enough oil or temp not hot enough.
bland – eggs really benefit from using salt. So be generous!
Serving Suggestions
A great quick dinner.
Prepare Ahead
Definitely not.
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Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
My new favorite salad! This is *so* yummy for how quick and easy it is!
Awesome Kelly! My Irishman loves this one too 🙂
Hey Jules,
Okay, I made my 2nd meal from this class using this recipe. My novice is definitely showing here. So any case, my dressing was first so …
1 table spoon of sherry or wine vinegar … I had Braggs Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tablespoon of mustard … I bought some dijon mustard, and used 2 tablespoons
1 pinch of salt … check
2 table spoons of extra virgin olive oil … check
1 bag of salad leaves … had a bag of kale leaves and some cherry tomatoes
Mixed it all up, and noticed I am not a fan of vinegar. However, the mustard muted the vinegar out to a degree so that was okay.
Now cooking the eggs … I have a caste iron skillet, 8 inch diameter. I only have one oil so far which is the extra virgin. So I used that instead. I will buy the coconut, clarified, and rice bran oils later.
Caste Iron heated up quicker than I thought. The skillet started smoking a white smoke that was small and thin. I turned the heat down to 5 (was on 10), and then added eggs.
Only had room for two eggs in the skillet, and man did they start frying as soon as they hit the oil. They cooked in no time. In fact, I had to pull them out due to them getting brown around the edges after 2 and 1/2 minutes, maybe 3 minutes max.
I think I had the heat too high. The eggs were cooked pretty good though.
I have to let the caste iron skillet cool down for a while. The meal was quick, 2o minutes. It took me 10 minutes to wash the bowls and utensils I had used as far as for clean up.
Being a novice, I noticed there is still a lot of oil in the skillet.
Do we store that excess oil, or throw it out ?
If we store it, how do we store oil ? How long will it keep ?
If we throw it out, how do we do that ? (Throw it down the drain, put in the trash some how). Sorry, maybe dumb questions, but this is cooking school so it’s the best place to ask them questions.
Nice meal over all though. Quick, easy, and no chemicals if you use organic eggs and salad mix.
Go James!
And great feedback… thankyou!
In terms of excess oil, I know there’s a fair bit leftover with this recipe but I don’t keep it once it’s been exposed to heat like this it goes rancid very quickly (heat promotes the rancidity reactions) so I let it cool down in the pan and then throw it in the trash.
If you really wanted to you could probably keep in a jar and reuse once but I wouldn’t recommend.
Keep the comments coming!
Jx
To discard oil/fat, I keep a large coffee tin with a lid under the sink. I pour unwanted oil into it and then when it’s full, I put the lid on and put it in the garbage. I never put oil down the sink especially if it is the type that will solidify when chilled (olive oil, coconut oil, bacon grease, hamburger grease).
Great idea Sandra! Thanks for sharing xx
James, if you want milder vinegar, rice vinegar is a good choice, as it is much milder. I’ve also discovered that adding some lemon juice to cider vinegar tames it. I would try starting with equal parts lemon juice and cider vinegar, and adjusting to suit your tastes.
I second the rice vinegar Susan! And love the lemon juice and apple cider vinegar suggestion. Brilliant!