One of my favorite breakfasts as a child was something so simple I’d nearly forgotten about it. It begins with an egg and a slice of toast, but is somehow elevated to something fancy when you stick the egg inside the toast. While I’ve since heard it called by various names, in my house it’s a toad-in-the-hole. (Oddly, I always assumed the name came from my English great-grandmother, but according to Simply Recipes, a British toad-in-the-hole is another dish entirely. The Pioneer Woman goes with the more descriptive “Egg-in-a-Hole.”)
I’m also a sucker for greens with my eggs, so when I spotted eggs with crispy kale on Pinterest I immediately gave it a try.* Fabulous. Hop on over to Happy Jack Eats for the recipe. As for the toad-in-the-hole, butter both sides of a piece of whole wheat sandwich bread. Use a biscuit cutter or glass to cut a circle out of the center. Put your skillet on over medium heat, add the toast (cook the cut-out circle on the side), and crack an egg into the center. Cover and cook about 2-3 minutes, until white is set, flipping for the last minute if you prefer your egg over easy.
(*Every time I type “crispy kale” I have to fight the urge to write “krispy kale.” I don’t want to get into a trademark battle with the doughnut chain, but wouldn’t that be something, a kale-centric breakfast food chain?)
Start your Leap Day off right with some frogs and greens, and enjoy the “extra” day!
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jacqui // Feb 29, 2012 at 2:55 pm
i love that you found this through Pinterest, and that you pinned it to a board called “Eat More Kale,” and that you tried it and liked it. currently my fav way to eat kale!
2 Jill // Apr 10, 2012 at 11:41 am
That’s funny–my dad’s family’s British, but we always called it Toad-in-the-Hole, too! My research suggests that the name is more commonly used for this dish in Australia. It’s currently my four-year-old daughter’s favorite breakfast (or lunch, or dinner…). Her dad is the only one who can make the toast crispy enough and the eggs runny enough for her taste, though–I’ve been ordered by Her Majesty to “stick to scrambled, Mom.” He’s also a pro at “dippy eggs,” (soft-boiled with toast fingers for dipping into the runny yolk), which my grandfather refers to as “Eggs and Soldiers.”
Our go-to eggs-and-greens dish is Cooking Light’s Fingerling Potato-Leek Hash with Swiss Chard and Eggs: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/fingerling-potato-leek-hash-50400000111137/.
It works great with kale or even spinach, but rainbow chard is best, I’ve found. We like a more greens-and-egg-centric dish, so we reduce the potato-y-ness (and the cooking time) by using frozen shredded or diced hash browns. (The Alexia ones are good, and they don’t have any artificial additives.) A little diced bacon does wonders for the flavor, too–and, of course, some Cholula hot sauce at the table. It took some practice to get the technique and the proportions right, but we must have made this at least once a week during greens season with our CSA.
3 foodietots
Twitter: foodietots
// Apr 11, 2012 at 4:48 pm
Jill — Ah, gotta love constructive criticism in the kitchen. 🙂 That hash looks great — and Cholula is a must on my table, too!
4 maggi // Apr 19, 2013 at 11:18 am
love your crispy kale.
my kids really like toad in the hole, which we know as
sausages cooked in a yorkshire pudding,also delicious with crisy kale. the trick to a good yorkshire pudding is to pour the batter into a pan with really hot fat. we bake the sausages in the oven, and then add the yorkshire pudding batter.