Top Your Next Salad With A Poached Egg For A Total Texture Upgrade

Breakfasts and brunches are rarely without eggs, and they're especially spectacular when you've got poached eggs as part of the spread. Although quite simple and familiar, their magic never seems to dwindle. Any time your dish needs something effortlessly impressive, poached eggs are an exceptional choice. Marvelous as they may be on toasts and bagels, poached eggs are good for so much more than that. If you've never added them to your salads, it's time to give it a try. Laid over a bed of colorful veggies, they're the unexpected textural twist you never knew you needed.

Of course, when it comes to texture, salads are hardly lackluster. In a colorful bowl of veggies, and occasionally fruits and nuts, you can easily find crispiness, crunchiness, softness, and everything in between. Each bite is nothing if not diverse. So what difference does a poached egg make? Delicate and tender, it brings an elegance that makes any ordinary salad feel like it's just come straight out of a restaurant's kitchen. With a gentle slice, the silky yolk seeps out and coats the remaining ingredients in its lusciousness and mildly buttery taste. It's a change from the light and fresh taste typically expected from salads, but do not worry; the dish's essence is still there, with only a rich depth that makes it much more outstanding.

Since there's already a poached egg, a breakfast salad is a good place to start. It's a healthier, more refreshing change from all the typical pancakes and omelets, and yet is still substantial enough to kickstart your day with energy. As always, leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, spinach, etc. make a great base and fresh canvas for other ingredients, possibly even ones from your usual breakfasts. Maybe add a few slices of avocado for a spin on the ubiquitous avocado toast or roasted potato cubes for a hash brown reminiscence. Feel free to sprinkle in bacon bits or smoked salmon to impart a smoky touch.

Taking a page out of French cuisine, salade Lyonnaise is another poached egg salad that you might enjoy as well. It features chicory, bacon, and croutons, topped with a creamy mustard dressing. This combination creates an exquisite richness in earthy, tangy, and slightly bitter flavors, backed by a variety of crispy textures. The poached egg balances all the crunch with some richness, so you get a bit of everything.

Within the comforts of familiar salads, you'll also find a poached egg to be a toothsome addition. It could be a Caesar salad that's gotten too repetitive, a spring vegetable salad loaded with freshness but lacking some pizzazz, or a creamy potato salad in desperate need of protein. Whatever you have in mind, just give it a whirl to discover new ways to enjoy old dishes.

Much like many culinary skills, knowing how to poach an egg the right way is an art in itself. It starts with using the right eggs. We recommend fresh, cold eggs because the whites will be firmer and don't separate easily like old or room-temperature ones.

Moving on to the actual poaching process, you'll need to set the water to a simmer and not a boil to prevent the eggs from breaking apart. When the tiny bubbles at the bottom of the pot start rising to the surface, that's when you can start adding one egg into the water at a time. Don't crack the egg straight into the pot, however. Crack it into a ramekin or a teacup so you can slightly submerge it into the water before tilting the egg out, ensuring a fall that won't splash the egg white everywhere.

The timing is also quite important, as it determines how cooked the poached eggs turn out to be. A soft poached egg should take around 3 to 5 minutes, medium might be a few minutes extra, and a hard poach could go up to 7 or 8 minutes. Last but not least, don't forget to strain your eggs on paper towels and let the surface dry for about 10 seconds before adding them to the salad. You don't want the sogginess to ruin the whole dish.