Spinach Salad -- with a Poached Egg and Roasted Sweet Potatoes



My daughter Kate asked her FB friends about the absolute best way to poach eggs so you don't get those ugly, wispy bits of white to mar the picture.


Kate, in her younger days.


If you were cooking for the Queen you could just snip off those bits with a pair of kitchen shears, but we want perfection for the entire cooking process, right?

Of course Kate broke the egg into a cup first, not directly into the water. And yes, she did put a bit of vinegar in the water itself. Yep, she swirled the water as well. Here are some of the FB replies she got that she hadn't tried:

--Let a bit of water go into the cup first and let the egg begin to turn white before finishing sliding the egg into the water.

--Use a bit less water to begin with.

--Poke a tiny hole in the egg and boil it for 10 seconds. Reduce the heat to a slow simmer, and add the vinegar. Scoop the egg out just before you think they are done (Julia says 2 minutes, but others say that is too long) and put them in cold water to rinse off the vinegar.

--Forget about the water and poach the egg in a couple inches or so of salsa with indentations made for the eggs. Cook for 10 minutes.

I must confess though, when it came time for me to poach the eggs for tonight's spinach salad, the only tip I remembered was holding the egg in the cup part way into the water. Maybe I wasn't patient enough, but the egg wasn't turning white at all. Maybe the water wasn't hot enough? Maybe the cup wasn't big enough, or too big? Anyway, my egg ended up with those wispy white bits.  I will give these methods another try next time I need an egg to go on top of something (Kate had hers over polenta).

That said, our spinach salad with sauteed mushrooms, roasted sweet potatoes, feta cheese and a poached egg was really a great dinner (of course it wasn't my own invention -- I saw Antonia put an egg over a spinach salad one season on Top Chef).  If there had been any bacon around the house, I would have added that too (fat chance in my house!).

I made this because 1) I had a carton of spinach that needed to be used, and 2) we really love to order the spinach salad at the TreeHouse Cafe. Their salad has feta, walnuts,  bacon and a warm maple vinaigrette dressing. Don gets a whole salad and I get a 1/2 portion -- it's huge. You really need to try it if you ever visit Bainbridge Island.

TreeHouse Cafe