Baked eggs with mushroom filling – just 52p per portion!

I’ve previously featured baked eggs with chorizo from the Hairy Dieters on this blog and finally got round to trying the vegetarian option in their ‘Good Eating’ book. Frozen spinach has quite a strong taste, a little too strong for my liking, but at a cost of approximately 50p per portion baked eggs with mushroom filling makes for a cheap vegetarian breakfast.

Due to the current food shortage in my local supermarket because of the coronavirus pandemic, I’m trying to make what ingredients I do have in go further with no wastage. Given I had some frozen spinach in my freezer and a few tired looking mushrooms in my fridge this recipe fitted the bill perfectly for these uncertain times.

Recipe: Baked eggs with mushroom filling for 52p per portion!

Calories: 155 calories per portion

Serves: 4

Book: Hairy Dieters – Good Eating

Prep time: Approx 10 mins

Cooking time: Approx 15-20 mins

Ingredients: oil (for spraying), 4 large eggs, 4 tsp finely grated cheese (cheddar, Gruyere or other hard cheese), flaked sea salt, ground black pepper

Mushroom filling: 1 tbsp olive oil, 4 button mushrooms (wiped and finely sliced), 1 garlic clove (finely chopped), 4 squares of frozen spinach (defrosted and liquid squeezed out), a grating of nutmeg

Cost per portion: Approx £0.52

Method: Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C / Fan 170 degrees C, Gas 5. Very lightly mist 4 ramekins with oil.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the mushrooms and cook them until soft. Add the garlic and season with salt and pepper, then cook for another minute. Make sure the spinach is as dry as possible before adding it to the mushrooms in the pan. Grate over a little nutmeg and stir well to combine.

Divide the filling between the ramekins. Break an egg into each ramekin, on top of the filling, and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle a teaspoon of cheese over each egg and cover each ramekin with foil.

Put the ramekins in a roasting or baking dish and pour in hot water to come about two-thirds up the sides of the ramekins. Bake in the oven for up to 15 minutes, checking them after 10 minutes. You can cook the eggs to your liking, but after 10 minutes the whites should be set and the yolks should still be runny.