Cauliflower Eggs Benedict
The following recipe and photography was provided by recipe developer and food photographer, Ashley Durand of Plate & Pen.
I’m a big fan of eggs, cheese and bread, so breakfast has always been the meal I look forward to the most. It is the most important meal of the day after all!
Because of my obsession with breakfast, Eggs Benedict is a repeat recipe in my household, but since I have it so often, I wanted to keep the same concept and introduce a few new tasty elements. One of the reasons I chose to switch things up is because I could never get homemade hollandaise sauce to turn out the way I wanted. Well, que the applause, because the recipe below makes it super easy and only requires a blender. For a full tutorial on how to make authentic hollandaise, click here.
Cauliflower is not new to my diet, but it is new to this dish. I love a good cauliflower mash or pizza crust, so I figured, why not use a cauliflower medallion for the base of this Eggs Benedict? I was not disappointed by the result and I don’t think you will be either!
Cauliflower Eggs Benedict
Servings: 3-4
Ingredients
For the Hollandaise Sauce
- 3 Heinen's cage free egg yolks
- 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp. Heinen's Dijon mustard
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. Heinen's cayenne pepper
- 1/2 cup Heinen's unsalted butter
For the Eggs Benedict
- Cauliflower, cut into 1/2-inch thick medallions
- Heinen's extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. Heinen's dried thyme
- A splash of white wine vinegar
- 3-4 Heinen's cage free eggs
- 6-8 slices Heinen's CARE Certified Canadian bacon
- Heinen's provolone cheese, sliced
- Fresh basil
- Fresh tomato, sliced
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a saucepan until it is simmering. Turn off the heat and set aside.
- In a blender, quickly add the egg yolks, lemon juice, Dijon, salt and cayenne. Blend for 5 seconds.
- With the blender on medium-high speed, slowly stream the hot butter in until the mixture emulsifies.
- Pour the blended mixture into a serving bowl and set aside. The hollandaise sauce makes enough for 3-4 Benedict stacks, so make more if you need to feed more.
- Coat the cauliflower medallions on in olive oil and generously season with black pepper, salt and thyme.
- On a grill pan, grill each side of the cauliflower medallions for about 7 minutes. Flip the medallions gently, as they are delicate.
- Fill a small, deep saucepan about 1/2-3/4 full with water. Add a splash of white wine vinegar.
- Strain the cracked eggs to filter out the extra bits of egg whites. This will result in a cleaner poach without stringy whites.
- When the water is boiling, turn the heat off and swirl the water gently to create a calm whirlpool. With the egg still in strainer, drop it softly into the whirlpool and let it cook for 4-5 minutes. Let it poach in the hot water untouched.
- After that 4-5 minutes, gently remove it with a deep spoon and set it on a plate.
- On a grill pan, cook for the Canadian bacon for about 2 minutes per side to get a slight char. When they start to bubble in the middle, flip them. Plan to use 2 pieces of Canadian bacon per stack.
- Place the cauliflower medallions on a plate followed by the cheese, Canadian bacon and tomatoes.
- Spoon on the hollandaise sauce and finish with basil leaves and an egg. Top with more hollandaise, if desired.
