Photo by Michael Piazza / Styled by Catrine Kelty

Salad for breakfast? Yes indeed. If your weekday morning schedule is anything like mine, by the time I get around to feeding myself it’s often closer to lunchtime than breakfast, so a fried egg salad is just the thing. In my kitchen there are generally a few odds and ends of vegetables floating around the countertop, and there are always leftovers cluttering up the fridge—adding these things to breakfast makes good sense, to use them up before they go all squashy and clearing space for more cooking to come. Topped with an egg, sprinkled with the essential toasted breadcrumbs from this recipe and a liberal shower of grated cheese, this salad is filling (but light), takes almost no time to put together and keeps me going all day. Feel free to sub in whatever lingering veggies you have around depending on the season; cherry tomatoes and cucumbers are perfect for spring and summer, but in cooler months, leftover roasted roots or sliced citrus and avocado make a nice change.

Serves 1

2 cups mixed greens or wild arugula
6 cherry tomatoes (or Massachusetts- or Maine-grown hothouse cocktail tomatoes), halved
½ a cucumber, sliced
1 tablespoon prepared vinaigrette (or 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar, and ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard, whisked until emulsified)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon minced chives
1 egg
1 tablespoon toasted breadcrumbs (see recipe on page 30)
Parmigiano Reggiano, for grating

Fill a plate with mixed greens, tomatoes, and cucumbers, or whatever vegetables you have on hand. Drizzle with vinaigrette, then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and chives.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet and crack in the egg. Fry, spooning the hot oil over the top to set the white (alternatively, flip your egg and cook it over easy). Slide the egg out of the pan and onto the salad, season it with salt and pepper to taste, then sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and lots of Parmigiano.

Eat, preferably while sitting down.

This story appeared in the Spring 2016 issue as part of a larger story on Breakfast and Brunch.