Let’s be perfectly honest: is it possible to go wrong with a combination of spinach and mushroom? When they are sauteed in a delicious amount of butter and seasoned with garlic paste? And then baked to crispy, rich perfection?
The answer is no.
It is, however, possible to make it even better – with eggs.
I saw this recipe when I was looking around for a side dish to make for a Sunday lunch and I was infatuated at first glance. Yes, infatuated. There is no other way to describe my reaction to this powerfully seasoned, deliciously buttered bake. The best thing about the recipe is it is so ridiculously easy to make. I literally spent about fifteen minutes on it (while popping out for cocktail breaks with my family and friends and snacking on appetizers) and everyone loved the result.
This is a slightly altered version of the recipe:
Spinach, Mushroom and Egg Bake
Ingredients
500 g spinach, washed
250 g mushroom, washed and sliced thin
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp butter
2 tsp of garlic paste
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup fresh cream
3 eggs
Method
Cook the washed spinach in a wok with a bit of water. Keep turning it over so that the leaves cook evenly. In about five minutes, it would have wilted down to around 1/4 of its prior volume.
Tip it out of the wok, drain it and then chop finely.
Brown the butter in a pan and add the garlic paste. Once it sizzles, add the chopped onion and saute till the pieces turn transparent. Then add the sliced mushrooms and salt. Cook till the mushrooms have browned and soaked up the butter and then add the chopped spinach.
Stir in the cream and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
Grease a baking dish and spoon the spinach-mushroom mixture into, pressing down with a spatula so it’s packed densely. With a ladle or teaspoon, make three sockets and crack an egg into each. Sprinkle the pepper evenly over each egg.
Bake at 180 C for 10-15 minutes. When it’s done, the egg yolks should still be creamy.
