Italian Garden Salad with Baked Egg

This Italian garden salad with baked egg on a English muffin bun was a ‘weird’ and impromptu salad, but it tasted good! I had McDonalds Big Breakfast (told you this was weird), but I usually don’t eat the English muffin bun as I don’t like to eat too much in the morning. I didn’t want to waste food though, so I kept the English muffin in the fridge. Later in the day, I made baked eggs on the English muffin buns to go with my Italian garden salad. This salad looks and tastes great even though it is by chance, so I’d definitely remake it again (with actual English muffins from the bakery next time).

Related Recipes:

• Italian Vinaigrette Recipe
• Garden pasta with Italian Vinaigrette
• Kenny Roger’s Garden Pasta Recipe

See Also:

• Tempeh Salad with Orange Vinaigrette Recipe
• Lump Crab Avocado Salad Recipe

STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS

MAKE THE SALAD DRESSING

Make Italian vinaigrette with olive oil, red wine vinegar, dried Italian seasoning, honey (I used zero-calorie pancake syrup as a low carb substitute), salt & pepper. Whisk or shake in a glass bottle until well combined. This dressing can be prepared in advanced in keeps well in the fridge for a week. You can check out more ingredients & step-by-step photos in my Italian vinaigrette recipe.

MAKE BAKED EGG ON ENGLISH MUFFIN

Place the split English muffin, cut side up, on a cookie tray lined with baking paper. Spread some butter on the muffin and crack a small egg over each muffin. Use the smallest eggs possible, otherwise the egg white will spill out like mine did :P

Bake for 10 or more minutes until the egg white is set and the yolk cooked to desired doneness (I prefer mine runny).

P.S. This was not the only thing I had in the oven. There were some frozen Ikea meatballs which took about the same baking time as the eggs. If you are only baking the eggs, you probably want to make more to fill the tray to make the oven session worthwhile.

ASSEMBLE SALAD

In a large bowl add romaine lettuce and salad toppings (cherry tomato, red onion, carrot, bell pepper, cucumber and pickled jalapeno). Most of the ingredients (except the lettuce and jalapano) were leftovers from my Italian garden pasta, so it was really quick for me to assemble this salad.

Measure out required salad dressing. Whisk or shake well before using so that the dressing is emulsified.

Pour over salad. Then toss to coat the salad well in the dressing.

Plate the dressed salad on a plate, leaving a well in the middle for putting the baked egg. Garnish the baked egg with salt, pepper & parsley flakes.

Print

Italian Garden Salad with Baked Egg

The salad dressing can be made ahead and keeps well in the fridge for a week or more.

Check out the step-by-step photos on the previous page.

 

 

Serves: 2

Prep Time: 8 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Baked Egg on English Muffin

Note: This recipe uses only one English muffin as it was a leftover, you can bake as many as you like in one session to fill the cookie tray. 

• 1 english muffin halved
• 2 small eggs
• salt & pepper to taste
• dried parsley flakes

Salad for one

• 100g romaine lettuce leaves roughly chopped or torn by hand
• one generous handful of shredded carrot
• 1/4 Japanese cucumber cut to quarter moons
• 1/2 bell pepper sliced to long thin strips
• 1/4 small red onion sliced thinly
• 15 cherry tomatoes halved
• 12 slices pickled jalapeno to taste

Italian Vinaigrette Dressing

• 1/4 cup (50 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar (or apple cider vinegar) to taste; build up 1 tsp at a time if needed
• 1 tsp zero-calorie pancake syrup (or honey/maple syrup/fine sugar) to taste; omit if you like it super tangy
• 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
  1/8 tsp salt to taste
• freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Make baked egg English muffin. Place English muffin, cut side up, on a baking cookie tray lined with baking paper or sprayed with cooking oil. Spread butter on the English muffin. Carefully crack an egg onto the English muffin, leaving the egg yolk intact and in the middle of the muffin. Baked at preheated oven at 160°C (320°F) for about 10 minutes, until the egg white is just set and the yolk runny. Bake longer if you want the egg yolk to be fully cooked. Season with salt, black pepper and parsley flakes.
2. Make Italian vinaigrette dressing by combining the ingredients in (A) in a food mason jar. Shake or whisk to combine. Measure out 30ml of dressing. The remaining can be kept in the fridge for about a week.
3. Assemble salad by putting all the salad ingredients in a large bowl. Pour measured Italian vinaigrette dressing over the salad and toss to coat the salad evenly in the dressing.
4. To serve, divide tossed salad into two plates, leaving a well in the middle to place the baked egg English muffin.

Cooking Note(s):

1. Use small eggs (preferably 45 grams) so that they can sit atop the halved English muffin without much spillage.
2. Check out my Italian vinaigrette recipe for more detailed ingredients photos and step-by-step photos. You can also use any store-bought Italian dressing as a short-cut, but I really love home-made dressing as I can tweak the tanginess and flavour to my liking.
3. As I had only one English muffin which was a leftover, I maximised my oven by roasting some Ikea meatballs which took about the same time as the baked eggs.

Ingredients Used: bell pepper • butter • cherry tomato • dried parsley • egg • English muffin • extra virgin olive oil • honey • Italian seasoning • jalapeno • japanese cucumber • red onion • red wine vinegar • romaine lettuce • zero-calorie pancake syrup