Earlier this year I was asked to contribute a recipe that is typical of what I eat for breakfast, and I tell you, I was a bit stumped. What do I eat for breakfast? It’s not an easy question to answer.
If I look at the breakfast recipes I have on this site, they’re mainly weekend breakfasts—waffles, pancakes, muffins. I do eat these things, but not often. These are not my average breakfasts, especially on a weekday. My weekday breakfasts are a bit odd.
I’ve spent a chunk of my life either living in other countries or traveling. The result of this is that I’ve developed an appreciation for savory breakfasts—Chinese congee, Japanese miso soup, bread with cheese and sliced meats. Most of the world eats savory breakfasts.
I often eat a savory breakfast as well—like this curried oatmeal with caramelized onions (have you tried this recipe? You really should). If I could I would eat Asian Grandmother jook every day of my life. Another thing I like to make is steel-cut oats with olive oil and a fried egg. That makes for an incredibly delicious morning as well.
I also try to get some vegetables into my breakfast. That way, even if my nutritional intake goes off the rails later in the day, I’ve had a good start. In the summer I make green smoothies with fruit and handfuls of spinach, but when the weather turns cold, I turn toward things like this recipe: polenta with kale and a poached egg.
We’ve got plenty of kale in the garden, and sautéed with garlic it makes a savory polenta that can be topped with an egg for a solid and comforting meal (good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner). The garlic and the cheese jazzes up the porridgy polenta, and the rich, runny egg yolk binds it all together. It’s all a really good reason to get out of bed on a dark and cold morning.
Often I cook up a batch of polenta and keep it in the fridge a day or two (this can be done easily while making dinner the evening before). That way, in the morning, all I have to do is warm up a serving of polenta while the egg poaches and it all comes together easily. Make sure not to skip the Parmesan, it really makes the dish.
This is the sort of thing I eat on a fall or winter morning. It’s a tasty breakfast, a solid serving of vegetables first thing in the day, and the bright happiness of a sunshiny egg on my breakfast plate. Sign me up.
What is your favorite weekday breakfast? I’d love to hear.
POLENTA AND KALE WITH POACHED EGG
Serves two
1 tbs olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
2 cups slivered dino kale
2 ½ cups water
1 cup polenta (I like coarsely ground polenta, avoid the instant versions)
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
2 tsp white distilled vinegar
Parmesan cheese shavings to top
Optional: crushed red pepper flakes
Wash the kale and remove the center rib before slicing thinly into ribbons.
Mince or crush the garlic (I use a Microplane to grate it into a paste)
Heat a medium sized pot and add the olive oil and garlic. Saute 2 minutes, until fragrant, before adding the kale, which should still retain some water from the washing. Stir regularly until the kale wilts, about 2-3 minutes. If the mixture begins to dry out or stick to the pot, add a bit of extra water to moisten (1-2 tsp).
Once the kale has fully wilted, add 2 ½ cups of water. Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a boil (4-5 mins).
Pour the polenta into the boiling water in a slow stream, stirring constantly, and turn the heat down to a simmer. Continue to simmer until the polenta is fully cooked, stirring regularly. This will depend on how coarsely ground your polenta is, but six minutes is a good benchmark. Add the salt and pepper to your liking and remove the pot from the heat.
In a small pot heat two cups of water with the vinegar added. When the water has begun to form small bubbles, turn the heat down slightly and crack one of the eggs in (you may want to crack it into a tea cup or small bowl and then slip into the hot water, until you become comfortable with the procedure). Allow the egg to poach for three to five minutes, depending on how runny you like your yolk. Remove with a slotted spoon or small mesh strainer and repeat with the second egg.
Serve the eggs on top of a mound of warm polenta with pepper (black or crushed red pepper flakes) and shavings of Parmesan on top.
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I usually have oatmeal because it’s easy, but I also really love polenta with chard/kale and a fried egg.
Toast with hummus and avocado is great too.
I went to Turkey over the summer and really fell in love with the savory breakfast platter idea – bread and cheese and tomato-y eggs. So good.
Turkish breakfasts sound right up my alley. I’d love to visit and taste!
Ditto on the Turkish breakfasts… although I’m biased
On the island in the summer times, we’d have toast with apricot or rose petal jam, wedges of cheese, olives, tomato and cucumber slices with salt. Sometimes there would be yogurt, sometimes eggs. Heavenly.
Here, I’m more likely to eat savory breakfast. Savory oats, or eggs with salsa. Lately though I’ve been on a sweet porridge kick. I bought a mini crock-pot, and have been making porridge with steel cut and thick cut oats, and topping it in the morning with this fabulous strong dark honey and some cream.
It DOES sound heavenly. Though I’m a big fan on overnight porridge as well. Have you read Rachel Cole’s Porridge Manifesto? She got me hooked on it. Perfect for winter.
I usually stick to a bowl of oatmeal with walnuts and fruit that’s in season. But lately I’ve been all over savory breakfasts. Egg sandwiches with a big pile of sauteed kale on the side, so good! I love the idea of using polenta in the morning though, yum!
Egg sandwiches with sauteed kale? YUM. Where can I order one of those?
This is literally EXACTLY what I had for breakfast today and yesterday. So, soo good on these crisp mornings.
How funny, Sarah. Great minds think alike!
love this! Sounds delicious – even though I am skiddish with poached eggs, I can handle them when there is something soft (like polenta), for them to run into. For months I have been eating the same thing every morning, I can’t get past it. A brown rice tortilla filled with sauteed chard, two scrambled eggs and a swipe of homemade lemon herb hummus. I am waiting for the day I tire of it, but hasn’t come yet
Oh, this looks so delicious. Most days I have a smoothie, with a base of greek yogurt, flax seed and half a banana, and then I add in whatever I have around. Other days it’s steel cut oats with nuts and a drizzle of honey or agave nector. Poached eggs on some kind of hash is a huge weekend favorite, so this particular one will go into rotation immediately!
I also love savory breakfasts. The ones I had in Europe were the best. Bread, cheese, and liverwurst was really good in Austria. Usually, steel cut oatmeal with milk and a tiny tiny bit of sugar. I’m trying to add more protein to my diet to help with muscle retention.
Mybreakfast is a cup of tea and a wheat biscuit. Around 10am I will then have fruit and yogurt. For years oatmeal was my usual breakfast but Ican’t face it at the moment.
Last week a friend of Chinese heritage invited me for brunch and served congee wiich included salted duck eggs. A first for me.
To be honest, I don’t usually eat breakfast until 11 or 12. Most would call that lunch
How did you like the congee? I’ve never had salted duck eggs. What did you think of them?
I absolutely love savory breakfasts as well and would also totally eat this for dinner! I have to ask though if you have some kind of secret trick with polenta – six minutes seems like such a short time. I’m Italian and make polenta all the time for dinner, and I find it usually takes more like 20-40 minutes, depending on how fresh it is. Maybe you like yours much more al dente? Or are you using grits that cook more quickly? I must know!
You know, I have wondered about this as well. I use a coarse ground polenta that I get from the bulk bins in the grocery store–as you can see in the picture (they sell an instant polenta here too, but this is not it). I’ve made this a number of times and it really does cook that quickly. The resulting mixture is soft, not crunchy or al dente, and it truly takes six minutes–definitely not 20-40.
Because the polenta is sold in bulk, there’s no box to see the details of the product, so I can’t be more specific. But six minutes has been my experience making this often–and I’ve bought the polenta from two different stores. Very strange, isn’t it? But I am not complaining. I don’t have that much patience to cook something 20-40 minutes first thing in the morning
i LOVE polenta! with kale, egg, and those slices of parmesan, your breakfast looks over-the-top delicious!! oh my gosh I’m so hungry now…
Tea, this looks wonderful – I’m looking for more ways to incorporate kale since it’s such an uber-goo-for-you thing to eat. And I love my eggs. Been craving more savory bkfsts since I got home from my trip and it feels like fall. My weekday bkfst routine varies depending on where I’m working – if I go onsite to a client’s, I usualy cook up a bowl of steel-cut/thick rolled oats mixed, top with toasted nuts ‘n sunflower seeds, raisins, and whatever fruit is on hand – like frozen blueberries I picked, banana, or apples, etc. then mix in ground flax seeds. I actually like this cool after I’ve carried it to work. If I’m working at home, like lately, I like to sautee slivered greens like chard or spinach with shallots ‘n shrooms (hmm chanterelles lately) in EVOO and then scramble in an egg, topped with some feta or parmesan. + some fruit like pear or apple right now. I’m going to add this to my life, might try tomorrow!
ooh, make that uber-good-for you!
I am so hungry right now. I’d like to have this for dinner! Breakfast around here usually consists of fruit and grape nuts or oatmeal.
Lately it has been sliced apples and cougar gold cheese. Red delicious should be at the farm stands finally, yumm! At Timberline last week the best part of breakfast was a jam tasting! Three types of jam and warm bread!
Your breakfast does look warm and healthy, I will try it on the week-end.
I tend more toward sweet breakfasts, but I like savory as well. Quinoa is one of my favorite breakfast grains. I definitely want to try your polenta with kale, though.
Baked eggs! I toss any left over veggie odds and ends, grains if they are in the fridge i to a ramekin while the oven is preheating. I crack an egg or two depending on how many veggies I have foraged and top with fresh herbs and a sprinkle of cheese. Toss it in the oven, drink some coffee, get a little work done and pull out a satisfying little warm breakfast! I am a savory morning gal as well.
Mmm, I love poached eggs & polenta. Sounds great with kale. So far our chickens are still laying so hopefully they keep going all winter.
My standard quickie breakfast is toast & peanut butter. Or fried egg on toast. If not quickie than pancakes for the kiddo.
Yes! I far prefer savory breakfasts.
There’s a collard greens & tomato dish a neighbor from Kenya introduced me to, and I like that scooped onto half a bagel with cream cheese.
Another of my favorite breakfasts is also greens – a Roman recipe from Apricius’ cookbook led me to tweaking it into a lovely dish of kale with a poached egg… but a bit different from yours. For one thing, there’s fish sauce.
I often have eggs over sauteed greens, or sliced cold beef I cook just for this purpose (or get the thai beef salad from PCC). In the summer cold salmon is common. Sweets for breakfast make me feel ill!
oh this looks SO yummy. my mouth literally started to water (just a bit) when that first photo showed up in my google reader. i’ve never made polenta before but i’m definitely going to have to give this recipe a try!
It’s almost 3am, but I really want this right now! Lucky for me I have everything to make this tomorrow (today?) with spinach, polenta, cheese and an egg.
I do sometimes have a sweet breakfast but prefer savory. My favorite lately involves a high fiber tortilla, any chopped veggies (sauteed or microwaved) rolled up with some cheese, an egg or refried beans (or all three…) and some hot sauce. I figure I’ve got a good start on my veggie intake and I feel like I had something healthy.
My only breakfast rule, is no rules. I do want to try your curried oatmeal with carmelized onions! Yu,!
My daily breakfast is toast with peanut butter and a huge cup of black coffee. I can’t seem to function without either. This looks absolutely delicious, but any activity involving more than 2 steps seems overwhelming for me first thing in the morning.
Most days I eat either oats with milk and sugar (common Danish breakfast) or yoghurt with müsli. I don’t often eat bread; it doesn’t sit right with me that early in the day.
I often don’t bother to do anything special for breakfasts because I’m usually zombie-like when I wake up. But every now and then I make oatmeal with a little golden syrup, cinnamon and apples or bananas. It’s really yummy, very filling and really comforting to eat in the wintertime. I believe it’s from a Jamie Oliver recipe.
I usually stick with something simple for weekday breakfasts – homemade porridge with a little maple syrup, bread and butter or toast with avocado and a little chilli. I love the idea of this dish though, and would happily eat it for a simple supper too.
It makes a good dinner–that’s how I started making it. And avocado on toast? Yes, please.
I love a scrambled egg in a tortilla with salsa.
Me too!
This looks so good as a breakfast or quick lunch or dinner! I love kale and have been getting into eggs. I’d probably fry the egg though, poaching always seems harder.
For most of my life I was a cereal-for-breakfast girl, but in the last few years I changed to oatmeal (milk, sugar, sometimes fruit/nuts) and then more recently added eggs (when I moved in with a housemate who eats a lot of eggs). For a while it was just eggs and toast — I have to have some sort of carb in the morning — but recently I’ve been making an egg sandwich with melted cheddar, one fried egg, 1/4 avocado sliced, and some green chile/tomato sauce (any salsa-like thing would work). It’s the best egg sandwich ever and I’m now obsessed with it.
Whoa, I think I’m now obsessed with your fried egg sandwich as well!
Breakfast? Usually sweet and creamy iced coffee, but I like to grab a little something before I catch the train. This tends to be along the lines of a breakfast bar or meaty sandwich.
Do you drink iced coffee year-round? I always have to switch to warm beverages when the weather turns cold. I don’t even like juice in the winter (except for mulled cider, mmmm).
Sounds like a fantastic breakfast idea!
HOW could i have never thought to combine polenta and kale? and plus a poached egg?! you genius, you.
(the perfect way, incidentally, for parents of greens-loathing children to satisfy both sides: make up the kale separately, and offer it up as a stir-in for those who like it — ME ME ME!)
Clever girl, you. Though I will say the precooking of the kale softens it a bit. When stirred in at the end (because I’ve taken that route too) it gives you a bit of a chewing workout. Just be warned
My usual morning breakfast is a small whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and a mug of earl grey tea. But when I want a treat I do a poached egg on toast (with a lick of mayo and half a mashed avocado if I have it) or a whole wheat tortilla with a lick of lemon hollondaise or mustard, avocado slices, boiled egg slices and some salt. Also I do love a fried egg sandwich with avocado and mustard and tomatoes if they are in season. Maybe I need to find some more variety with my eggs – I do a boiled eggs with cheesy creamed mushrooms and spinach dish for supper sometimes that I love. This polenta dish looks yummy for supper – and would work with spinach or chard – both of which I have growing in my garden.
I think your breakfasts sound delish! Yum.
This sounds so amazing. I’m drooling right now….Wish someone makes it for me when I’m still in bed…:)
Me too!
This looks divine! My favorite if-I-have-time breakfasts are always savory, yolky, and involve whatever veggies I have on hand. I am trying to find ways to incorporate more veggies in my breakfasts too. I was thinking of making some sort of breakfast casserole over the weekend to eat on it over the next few days. Make-ahead polenta is great idea! We make it every once in a while as a weeknight dinner-slice it and fry it in a little butter till crisp, then serve it with maple syrup, yolky eggs, and ham. Yum! Thanks for sharing!
Mmm. I’ve recently become hopelessly addicted to making creamed kale, and I’ve been doing it practically every week and having the leftovers with a fried egg (often for breakfast, too). I’m really glad you reminded me of polenta, though. It’s one of my winter favorites, and now I can mix it with kale, ’cause you told me how. Joy!
As a 14 year old with literally 2 feet of counter space in her kitchen, I don’t really enjoy cooking and avoid it.. but the pictures in your blog are so so so so so so SOOOOO gorgeous! You must be a very talented photographer and cook:)