Finally: sun. Blue skies. Flower buds. Tiny greens poking up shyly from the earth. It’s time for leafy salads, for shaved crudités, for crisp, barely dressed spring vegetables.
Root-to-leaf cooking uses all edible parts of the plant with a focus on seasonal ingredients, grown and sold close to home. Microgreens are among the first produce to pop up in the new season. They’re nearly infinitely renewable; if you have a live planting, shave off the top for your meal and the plant will regrow. We also have a plethora of local farms growing a wide variety of these little seedlings.
This is a minimalist salad, with a tangle of bright greens, a mellow vinaigrette and a poached egg to bring it all home. The beauty of this vinaigrette is the ability to tailor it to your microgreens. Extra-peppery broccoli microgreens? Use less black pepper. Sweetly mild mixed greens? Use a light hand with the vinegar.
Particularly delicate greens may do better with an extra tablespoon of warm water in the vinaigrette. Poached eggs are the best friend of spring greens; once you get comfortable making these, you’ll have an ace in your pocket for every meal. Add an egg (or two) and dinner is done.
Microgreens with vinaigrette
Ingredients
4 ounces microgreens
1 small shallot, finely minced
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar (or sub apple cider vinegar)
1 tablespoon warm water
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon
Generous pinch of salt
Fresh black pepper, to taste
1 to 2 eggs per serving
Fresh herbs, such as basil, sorrel or mint, chopped (optional)
Finely mince the shallot. Add the shallot and the rest of the ingredients to a mason jar. Put the lid on tightly and give the jar a good shake for about 30 seconds until the vinaigrette emulsifies.
Put the microgreens in a serving bowl and salt lightly. Drizzle with vinaigrette, scatter with fresh herbs and let stand while you poach the eggs. Serves four.
Poached eggs:
Poaching an egg can be intimidating. When I committed to learning the technique, I went through a few dozen cartons before making something I would put on a plate for someone else. But part of that difficulty came from the over-complication of poaching. Creating a vortex, adding vinegar, using a spoon to sculpt the egg whites after submerging — I’ve given up every one of these as unnecessary fussiness. If you’ve been poaching eggs and one of these techniques has been effective for you, by all means do what works. For those who are staring blankly into the lightly bubbling depths of a pot of water, go simple.
Basic technique: Slip the eggs into gently simmering water. Don’t touch them. Check for desired doneness and pull them out with a slotted spoon.
Fully detailed instructions: Fill a pot with water 3 to 4 inches deep. You can poach as many eggs as roomily fit in the pot at the same time; think arm’s length, not elbow room. Prepare a medium-size bowl with cool water, about 2 to 3 inches deep.
Bring the pot to a bare simmer. Look for a small ridge of bubbles along the curve of the pot, with some surface movement across the center. We don’t want boiling.
Crack your eggs into individual ramekins or small bowls. Smoothly tip an egg into the pot from the surface of the water. The water will bubble less once the egg is added but will come back up to temp on its own. Don’t be tempted to turn the heat up.
Leave the eggs in softly simmering water for 2.5 to 3.5 minutes. For a barely shrouded egg white and fully runny yolk, leave in for 2.5 minutes. For a firmer egg white and a jammy circle around the yolk, leave in for 3.5 minutes. The time isn’t hard and fast, and will change with a number of variables, including size of the eggs and pot, and how many eggs you’re poaching at once.
After 2 to 3 minutes, gently guide a slotted spoon under one of the eggs and raise it above the surface of the water. If the whites look too loose for your taste, lower it back in and leave the egg for another 30 seconds before checking again.
Using the slotted spoon, scoop up each egg and submerge it gently into the bowl of cool water. The cool water will stop the eggs from cooking and arrest them at your preferred stage of doneness. If you’re serving right away, skip the cool water and put directly on your salad; just give the slotted spoon a very gentle shake from side to side to get rid of any extra water. If you’re serving later, keep the eggs in the cool water until you’re ready to serve.
Place on top of greens, sprinkle with salt, and serve.
Hannah Green’s Root-to-Leaf column runs in print on the first Wednesday of every month.
