Soft Boiled Egg & Seasonal Vegetable Salad

We get through a lot of eggs in this house, whether they're baked into cakes, scrambled on top of toast, cooked into an omelette or just plain boiled. Since getting an induction hob we've found a new love for soft boiled eggs, as it's easier to keep the pan on a rolling boil than it was with our old gas hob.

I'm particularly enjoying a soft boiled egg smashed on top of a crumpet for breakfast or on top of a salad for lunch. The beauty of having a soft boiled egg on a salad is that the egg forms part of the dressing - a bit like a healthy mayo.

 

This seasonal vegetable and egg salad can be eaten warm or cold, but I chose to eat this one cold, smothered with a zesty lemon dressing and runny egg yolk. You don't need to use exactly the sam ingredients as I've used - use whatever you fancy, have in the fridge or is in season.

Soft Boiled Egg & Seasonal Vegetable Salad - serves 2

1 or 2 room temperature eggs

bunch of asparagus

sprouting broccoli

handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 red onion, sliced

1/2 red pepper, sliced

few slices of cucumber

juice of half a lemon

tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

sea salt & pepper to taste

• Bring a small pan of water to the boil, add the eggs & simmer for 4.5 minutes
• Remove the eggs & place into a pan of cold water until you need them
• Bring another pan of water to the boil and add the asparagus & broccoli for a minute or 2 (depending on how crunchy you like it)
• Remove and place into a pan of cold water, and then drain
• Add the asparagus, broccoli, tomatoes, onion & pepper to a large bowl
• Mix together the lemon, oil & mustard 
• Drizzle over the dressing & toss to coat the vegetables
• Divide the salad into two bowls/plates
• Peel & slice the eggs & add to the top of the salad
• Season with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper & serve

  

This recipe has been created for a #shortcuteggsperts challenge. I have been provided with shopping vouchers to cover the cost of my ingredients. More egg recipes can be found here.

Sous Vide BBQ Sausages

Before I had my Sous Vide I used to think that it was just a posh way of cooking meat and not something that would fit into a family kitchen. Over the past couple of weeks the Sous Vide has definitely proved its worth in this busy family kitchen and has become and ideal solution to cooking dinner whilst I'm out of the house.

A slow cooker is great for making stews and casseroles but what about when you plan to have chops or sausages for your dinner.  With the sous vide the meat can sit in its warm bath of water for anywhere between one & four hours (depending on the cut of meat and temperature of the water) and then be finished off in a hot pan, or even a bbq.

Last weekend the weather was lovely again and perfect for a spot of outdoor cooking, but instead of risking the sausages ending up like a lump of charcoal I popped them in the sous vide at 65C for a couple of hours and then straight onto the hot bbq to brown off. Remember that the sausages are already completely cooked through in the sous vide hence avoiding any risk of them being undercooked.

These were our usual brand of Cumberland sausages but I can honestly say that they had a much more intense flavour than normal, which I assume is due to the cooking method.

I can't wait until the Summer now for plenty of hassle free barbecues with friends.

I also managed to cook some boiled eggs, although I've realised that I didn't take a note of the temperature or cooking time after the 2nd successful attempt so I'm kind of back to square one with that one!

The eggs were good though so I will be trying them again and taking notes next time.

Sous Vide recipes

Ostrich & clotted cream mash

Pea & Potato soup

72 hour BBQ ribs

I was provided with the Sous Vide Discovery Thermo Circulator for the purpose of review