This is my lazy girl’s lunch. Lazy, because even when I’ve eaten every last pickle in the fridge, I can usually find a few fresh eggs, a couple mushrooms, and half an onion there. Lazy, because when I can’t be bothered to go to the store, I have to look for what I can scrounge in the garden, and the only things thriving in my garden bed at the moment (early March) are parsley and chard. And who wants to eat a big plate of sautéed parsley?
Beautiful, happy, survived-with-winter, about-to-be-eaten Swiss chard
Now that I think about it, this dish could also be considered a lazy girl’s dish because it’s really easy to make, and only uses one pan, preferably one with a stick-free coating (meaning that it takes less than a minute to clean up.)
But the real reason I love this dish? Because it tastes so good. Fresh Swiss chard is probably the most delightful leafy green you can eat. Tender, not bitter, almost sweet in fact, and I’m convinced it’s got built-in seasoning. You just don’t need to add much salt to chard. Top it with a runny egg and the egg yolk creates a luscious dipping sauce for the chard. The mushrooms are just there for fun. I love mushrooms with eggs, and shiitakes pack a lot of flavor, so you only need a couple.
Eat your greens!
Eggs Nested in Sautéed Chard and Mushrooms Recipe
Shiitakes are highly flavorful mushrooms, and will really make this dish special if you use them, though you can use just about any mushroom. You can also skip the fresh mushrooms and sprinkle the eggs with truffle salt.
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INGREDIENTS
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1/2 pound of fresh chard
- 2-3 large shiitake mushrooms, sliced into 1/4-inch thick slices
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 to 2 eggs
METHOD
1 Cut out the thick, tough center ribs of the chard leaves. Chop the ribs into 1/2 inch pieces and place in a bowl. Add the chopped onions and mushrooms to the bowl. Cut the remaining chard leaves crosswise into 1-inch ribbons, set aside.
2 Heat the olive oil in a large, stick-free sauté pan (with cover) on medium high heat. Add the onions, chard ribs, and mushrooms. Sauté for about 4 to 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms are a little brown on the edges and have started to give up their moisture.
3 Add the green sliced chard leaves to the sauté pan. Use tongs to turn the leaves over in the pan so that the leaves get coated with some of the olive oil and the onions and mushrooms are well mixed in with the leaves. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4 Spread the mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Crack one or two fresh eggs in the center of the pan, over the chard mushroom mixture. Lower the heat to low and cover the pan. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, checking after 3 minutes. When the whites are cooked, remove the pan from the heat and use a spatula to gently transfer the eggs and chard to a plate to serve.
Serve immediately. Cut into the egg yolks so that the runny yolks run over the chard and mushrooms and form something of a sauce.