Prep:
10 minutes
Cook:
20 minutes
Makes:
4 portions
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 1 red (Shepherd) pepper
- 2 cups mushrooms, sliced
- 1 small sweet potato
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ tsp smoked paprika (hot or sweet)
- ½ tsp sumac
- 1 cup quinoa
- 4 eggs
- 150 ml white vinegar
- 2 cups spinach, washed and chopped
- 1 avocado, sliced
- Salt & pepper, to taste
Method
- Heat oven to 200 C (with fan if available).
- Half pepper and remove seeds and stems. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Clean and slice mushrooms. In a medium size bowl, toss with salt, one tablespoon of olive oil and place on baking tray with the peppers.
- Peel and cut sweet potatoes in 1 – 1.5 cm cubes. Using the same bowl as for the mushrooms, toss with olive oil, cumin, paprika, sumac and a ¼ tsp salt. Place on baking tray. Roast veggies for 15-20 minutes flipping halfway.
- Meanwhile, add 1.5 cups water, quinoa and ¼ tsp salt to a small pot on medium heat. When it reached boiling point turn down the heat and cook for 15 minutes. Depending on the size of your pot you might need to add more water.
- To poach the eggs, take a second pot and fill with 1.5 liters of water. Add vinegar and bring to boil over medium heat. When it boils, turn down heat until you can only see small bubbles coming to the top. But make sure you still have some bubbling as that will push the eggs up.
- Break the eggs one by one into the water making sure you drop them as close to the water surface as possible. Cook for 3.5- 4 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and place in a bowl with cold water to stop them from cooking farther.
- When veggies are ready, slice the pepper and mix all with the quinoa. Add fresh spinach. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Serve warm on individual plates, topped with poached egg and avocado slices.
Tips and variations
If the mushrooms cook faster than the rest, remove them from oven and leave aside. I prefer oyster or porcini mushrooms for their meaty texture and chewiness but any mushroom type works in this recipe.
The roasted vegetables are juicy and flavourful so you don’t need to add dressing to the salad.
If the eggs are getting too cold you can return them to the slightly boiling pot of water (with or without vinegar) for 1-2 minutes. If you have the salad ready by the time you remove the eggs from poaching liquid you can serve them right away without placing in cold water.
