Though it may not look like much from my photos, this this spinach salad with poached eggs is one hell of a meal. When the runny egg yolk commingles with the hot bacon dressing, it makes the hearty greens seem even more savoy. The pops of citrus keep it buoyant.
Prep the salad:
I included baby spinach, baby romaine, cucumber, mandarin orange, grape tomatoes, and yellow bell pepper. Follow your own instincts. Five ounces of spinach plus five ounces of romaine will make six-to-eight generous salads.
Make the dressing:
Ingredients for 8 servings:
1 lb. bacon, diced
2 shallots, minced
1 cup champagne-pear vinegar (substitute white wine vinegar)
Salt and pepper
How to make the dressing:
- Place the bacon into a cold skillet, turn the heat to medium, and cook the bacon until crispy, about 12 minutes. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and place it on a paper-towel-lined plate. Reserve the bacon. Leave the fat in the pan.
- Add the shallots to the pan and cook them in the bacon fat until softened, about 2 minutes.
- Add vinegar and boil over high heat until the dressing is reduced to somewhere between 2/3 and 1 full cup. You’ll know that you’ve reached this point when the cooking sound changes from a “boil” to a crackling “sizzle.”
- Pour the dressing into a heatproof container. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
You may not need much or any salt, depending on the saltiness of the bacon. The dressing will be much too hot to safely taste. Place a teaspoon’s-worth into a ceramic coffee cup, swirl it for a few seconds, and it’ll cool down enough to let you taste it.
Poach the eggs:
Ingredients:
One egg per serving
How to poach the eggs:
You can do this any number of ways, but I’m recommending a sous vide method I found at America’s Test Kitchen.
- Fill a vessel with a 4-inch depth of water and heat it to 167°F.
- Place cold-from-the-fridge eggs into the container quickly, but carefully.
Using this method, you can cook up to 16 eggs at once. You want all the eggs to cook evenly, so you want to avoid too much time between adding the first egg and the last one. However, if you add them too carelessly, it’s easy to crack their shells.
- Let the eggs sous vide for 12 minutes.
- Carefully remove the eggs to an ice bath, and let them rest there until they’re cool enough to handle, about 1 minute.
Assembly:
Ingredients:
Flaked sea salt
Finely shredded Parmesan
How to assemble the salad:
- The greens must be at room temperature, otherwise they will cause the dressing to congeal.
- If the dressing’s been resting, reheat it in the microwave. It should be hot … hot enough to slightly wilt the greens.
- Add dressing to the salad, to taste, and toss.
- Plate the salad, garnish generously with reserved bacon bits and lightly with Parmesan.
- Crack an egg over the salad. Optionally, cut it open to let the yolk flow. Sprinkle lightly with flaked sea salt. Serve immediately.
You can do all of this well in advance – even a day or more. The greens will take time to come to room temperature. The poached eggs, once they’re at temperature, need to be served more-or-less right away. It can be fun to serve the dressed salad, and let your guests crack their own eggs over their salads.
Social Learning
Poaching eggs have such a mystique about them, but I honestly don’t think they’re much harder to make than from-scratch pancakes (which is something many people might never dream of doing … I get that). On the one hand, I roll my eyes at the idea of getting out the sous vide equipment to do this.
Having said that, though, the sous vide method is flawless, and so incredibly easy – and there’s absolutely no mess. I recommend that if you do this, that you make way more eggs than you need. They keep well in the fridge. To reheat them, you simply place them in a bowl with the hottest water your tap will produce, 110°F or so. Let the eggs bathe for about 20 minutes, changing the water once or twice. You can have poached eggs over toasted English muffins for breakfast as easily as pouring yourself a bowl of cereal – and poached eggs are so exquisite. You’ll start out the day with incredible satisfaction.
Spinach Salad with Poached Eggs
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man!, unless otherwise indicated. Thank you, Kesor. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything.
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Yes! Though I’ve never tried it with poached eggs — it looks delicious this way. I just peered into my fridge, and lo: spinach, bacon, eggs, shallots, parmesan. I can make this work! Thanks for the nudge. I may have to have it for lunch rather than dinner; I don’t want to wait.
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It’ll make a terrific lunch!
This is lovely. Years ago I lived in Utah in the mountains, and when my mother and I had to go to Salt Lake City, we’d have lunch at Marie Calender’s. It was a pie place turned café. I remember because there was a pie that I loved (sour cream raisin) but also a salad called Wilted Salad, because of the hot bacon dressing. God i loved that salad. More simple than yours, but when the vinaigrette hits that lettuce… yummmmm!
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My parents used to frequent Marie Calender’s and they’d rave about it.
Wow! This salad with the yolk spilling out of the egg looks so appetizing that it’s making my mouth water. And the champagne pear vinegar in the dressing with the bacon – oh my. I am so hungry for a really good salad these days and yours is definitely intriguing. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! Yes, I can’t get enough salads these days.
It looks incredibly delicious and runny yolks are the best, esp. when paired with bacon dressing :-))
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Yes! I’ve heard about the idea of using sous vide to poach eggs. In fact, a chef I met used to make Carbonara pizza with pancetta and then crack a sous vide’d egg on top before serving. It was definitely a fork and knife pizza, but damn was it good. Well done on this salad, sir. This is like an upscale version of scrambled eggs and bacon!
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I love this kind of salad ! She is very hearty.
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I love poached eggs and spinach salad!! Have a great day!
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I have a feeling this would be a hit with the hubby—he’s not much for entree salads, but with bacon, egg and spinach, it’s hearty and delicious enough to serve for dinner (or maybe I should start with lunch)!! We actually have ALL these ingredients in the house.
It’d make an extraordinary lunch!
Your Spinach salad with poached eggs reminds me of a wilted greens salad my granny used to make. It was usually dandelion greens with a hot bacon dressing. But, I don’t remember having it with eggs. Your version sounds fantastic.
Sous vide eggs is the only way to make a perfect poached egg among other things.
I love dandelion greens! They’re extra special, because you can find them only when they’re in season, and their season is short, and even then they’re hard to find.
This dish looks amazing Jeff! Love poaching eggs! Great recipe, thanks! 🙂
You’re welcome!
Oh yum, this would be such a nice healthy salad. Though I prefer slightly firm yolks over a bed of greens, but my husband and daughter adore the runny yolk.
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I hate to burst your bubble, but this is probably not a healthy salad. I mean, yes, it does have a lot of fresh produce in it, but if it turns out that slathering that produce in bacon fat is healthy, I will be the first to celebrate!
This is one lovely salad! The combo of the citrus, parmesan, greens and the poached egg sounds heavenly. I haven’t poached eggs in forever, and you’ve definitely inspired me Jeff! Need to try this.
I’m telling you, I enjoyed having leftover poached eggs as much as I enjoyed this salad.
I had a look at the Sous Vide video and found it quite interesting. It looks like they were simply creating a soft boiled egg with the shell on, but when they cracked the egg open, it really did look like a poached egg! I usually do the traditional method of first swirling the water with a spoon, then dropping the egg in. Yes, the combo of the egg and the hot bacon dressing does look delicious!
I had that same impression of the video. It’s not in the spirit of sous vide in a sense, because you’re not heating the food to a uniform temperature. Instead, it’s more in the spirit of traditional cooking, in that you’re counting on the temperature to radiate. The difference is that the sous vide machine makes that radiation as controlled as a scientific experiment, and you’re guaranteed perfect results. Even so, when I realized what was going on, I had the same thought about my comfort with traditional methods. It takes care and practice to learn to poach an egg, but I swear that by the third or fourth one, you’ll be good at it. When it occurred to me, though, that I could poach a dozen eggs at onece sous vide, keep them in the fridge, and easily warm them up for breakfast, I was hooked.
Poached eggs are SO good! And taste wonderful. And looks totally gorgeous. Perfect topping for a salad. And speaking of which, yours is so nice — love spinach in salads. Good recipe — thanks.
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I love salads that are hearty enough to be the whole meal, this one is exactly that. Reading through the dressing ingredients is mouth-watering and those poached eggs are cooked to perfection. I’m in! 🙂 ~Valentina
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I love this idea! That warm dressing, poached eggs, slightly wilty spinach and bacon. Yes please!
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Poached eggs on salad once seemed weird to me, but then, in France, I had a Salade Lyonnaise and my mind was changed. Now I love eggs on salad. Wish I could get into the sous vide world… it would be worth it for the eggs alone.
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Salade Lyonnaise is in the same ballpark as this one. I’ve never had one, though. I think I should!
My mom put a little sugar in her bacon dressing. I don’t think they adult me would care for that. GREG
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A loyal of people put sugar in salad dressing. I think it’s a thing.
I really love these, Thanks for the recipe.
my family will love this.
Mmm, this is my kind of salad! Bacon, spinach, runny eggs, what’s not to like?? Putting this on my to-make soon list now!
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This reminds me of my salad days, when I was a young buck savoring the delights of Paris. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun…) Anyway, it’s an oldie but a goodie. Still make this from time to time and it’s always a joy.
Yes, it is old school!
The salad really looks so delicious, spinach and runny eggs. I will try it with my family; full of nutrition; indeed, a healthy recipe.
Thank you, Ricardo!