Not Eggactly What I Wanted

A few days ago I was looking for something a little different for breakfast. Often I eat a salad just because it allows me to choke down a couple of vegetable servings and then have less guilt if lunch is a sandwich on the fly and a diet drink. This particular morning I had nowhere to be all day so the issue about lunch was not even a problem, but I decided to eat the salad anyway. I thought it needed a protein and looked through the fridge for the ever present leftover chicken, beef, fish or whatever, only to find there was none. Looking through ideas on the internet there was a different spin on the traditional salad. It was a breakfast salad that the recipe originator claimed was the best one ever! Fine! I'll Bite!

 So I started prepping this different salad. I should have known when it called for a soft boiled egg that this was not the recipe for me. I should go on the record saying " I just don't like eggs" I will eat an omelet on occasion or a few bites of scrambled eggs, but the lowly egg is never, ever, not in a million years a comfort food for me. You will notice with the above mentioned ways there is no mention of any runny yolk variety. Probably because I do not enjoy a soft yolk or the white either. Enough said about my personal taste.

 1/2 cucumber, seeded and cut into small cubes
1 small tomato seeded and cut into a small dice'
1/4 bell pepper seeded and cut into a small dice
1 tablespoon flaxseed oil or olive oil
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
 about 1 cup of soft greens lambs quarter or watercress
1 soft boiled egg 1 ounce goat cheese
1 teaspoon sunflower seeds (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

 Mix the cucumber cubes with the tomatoes and peppers. Pour the oil over the top and add the vinegar. Stir to coat and let sit while the egg cooks. When the egg is done (boiling for about 2 1/2 minutes at my personal homes altitude) add the lettuce and toss until it is coated. Top with the soft boiled egg and the cheese. Salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle the seeds on top of the salad. Cut the egg and let the yolk run over the greens tossing again to coat everything. Enjoy???????

 I made the salad but not really as it said. First I had no lambs quarter lettuce in the crisper, and no goat cheese either ( which honestly is something I keep on hand, but had used just prior to this) I substituted a mix of romaine and iceberg lettuce and used crumbled feta in place of the goat cheese. Also I am from the south and we do not see cucumber seeds and tomato seeds as bad things so I left them in. I think I cooked the egg a little too long. The recipe called for cooking it for eight minutes before I realized it must be someplace with a much higher altitude, for an 8 minute egg is a hard boiled one here. The yolk on my egg was a little thicker than it should have been. The verdict? I did not like this at all, but I am not an egg person. The flavor was quite good but I could not get past the yellow yolk coating everything. It is not something I will try again but if I made it for someone else the egg would be poached instead of soft boiled. It would be a prettier presentation and should be a little better flavor since the whites on a poached egg are softer. The rice vinegar did not enhance the dish. It would probably be tastier with champagne vinegar instead. If you are an egg person some toast points would be a good addition to the meal. I only ate about half of mine and then just couldn't get past the idea that I was eating eggs. If you like eggs try it. If not, DON'T!