Spring Baked Eggs with Feta Yoghurt
Celebrate the spring with seasonal fruit and vegetables
My garden is an absolute meadow right now - although, forget wildflowers, those long tufty grasses are definitely weeds - but if it was bigger, more meadow-like, I would certainly be frolicking out there because today the sun is warm, glittering through the hedge, and I can finally taste spring. And so, I’m celebrating with spring-baked eggs, a perfect breakfast for the long weekend.
A few years ago, I wrote a little guide that I called ‘Eat the Seasons’ about the produce of spring, what fruit and vegetables are available at this time of year, and which are coming in and going out of season. My dream is to one day do my weekly shop at a local farmers’ market, maybe with a big wicker basket over my arm, haggling those stall owners over the price of radishes or butter or whatever. However, until that idyllic day arrives, along with the finances to afford it during the cost of living crisis, I am stuck with my local supermarket.
Everyone who loves food has an issue, however small, with the supermarkets of the world. Why do they sell blueberries in winter? And figs in spring?! And don’t get me started on the pre-peeled oranges in plastic packaging - that’s for another day.
We need our supermarkets to sell the foods that are actually locally available at that time of year - not only does it mean no blueberries from Argentina, but we also need to be reminded that food grown in season always tastes better. Think about it, a leek grown out of season in a greenhouse in Spain then flown to a supermarket just doesn’t have the same flavour or even nutritional value as one grown nearby that has literally been yanked out of the soil that morning.
Admittedly, in this spring baked eggs recipe, I use frozen peas - yes, I hold my hands up to it! Nowadays, convenience foods are a fact of life (although those pre-peeled oranges are taking it to another level), and personally, I think spring is the most difficult season to navigate. The fruit is limited to winter’s leftover citrus and a few straggly sticks of rhubarb (I have seen rhubarb only once this year! Why supermarkets can’t celebrate one of the best bounties of the season, I will never know), and vegetables are predominantly greens - spring onions, kale, spinach, and purple-sprouting broccoli, if you’re lucky.
Here, in Toulouse, the displays of root vegetables have been replaced by shiny courgettes, aubergines and big muscly beef tomatoes. They’ve all come up the road from Spain. It’s as though spring ingredients don’t exist; their existence has been barred from the supermarket displays and therefore the consciousness of the customers. Therefore, we have to make do with what we have.
Next month will be dedicated to the worship of asparagus and gradually more summer fruit and vegetables will appear, so until then, we need to balance that tightrope of convenience and celebrating local produce. And I’ll set aside a nice little nest egg for my farmers’ market dream.
Spring green baked eggs with feta yoghurt
A spring breakfast or brunch to celebrate the season's vegetables!
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Course: Breakfast, brunch, Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Keyword: baked eggs, feta, leek, peas, spinach, yoghurt
Servings: 2
Ingredients
A piece of butter, around 10g
1 leek
1 small clove of garlic
A handful of mixed chopped soft herbs - dill, chives, parsley and mint work well
100 g fresh spinach, rinsed
65 g frozen peas
70 g crème fraiche
¼ lemon zested
4 eggs
100 g yoghurt
30 g feta
Pinch of za'atar
Instructions
Finely slice the white part of the leek and rinse to remove any grit. Melt the butter in a deep-sided frying pan and once hot, add the leek slices and sauté until softened which should take around 5 minutes. Season with some salt.
Crush the garlic and add to the leeks along with the chopped herbs. Stir briefly then add the spinach – it will seem like a lot! It will be easier to add it in batches, stir with the warm leeks and cover with a lid for it all to wilt.
When the spinach is all wilted and everything is easier to stir again, add the peas and half of the lemon zest. Stir in the crème fraiche and add some salt.
Make four rivets in the leek and spinach mixture and carefully crack in the eggs. Season the egg whites then cover the pan with the lid and leave to steam on low heat for 5-10 minutes, checking regularly to make sure the eggs don't overcook.
Meanwhile, crumble the feta into a bowl and smooth with the back of a spoon until creamy. Gradually add the yoghurt while stirring to ensure it is relatively smooth then season and add the remaining lemon zest.
Once the eggs whites are cooked and opaque and the egg yolks are still runny, remove from the heat and sprinkle with some leftover chopped herbs and some za'atar. Serve the yoghurt.
I have to say that here in NZ there is more reliance of locally produced produce so we do eat more seasonally. Oranges just now are nowhere to be found unless imported (and the signs say 'imported'), for example. I couldn't understand the lates fuss in the UK about cucumbers when it was the middle of winter. I love to see the seasons changing through vegetables and fruit :-)