You only need mushrooms, eggs, kale and garlic to cook this tasty one-pan brunch. Egg recipes up this tasty rice salad for a healthy vegetarian lunch. A star rating of 5 out of 5.
Double up on party nibbles using eggs that are stuffed with either salmon and dill, or a chorizo crumb. Spice up your baked eggs and get two of your five-a-day with this Turkish-style breakfast or brunch dish. Treat yourself to a shakshuka with a difference. A star rating of 4 out of 5.
This curried fish and rice dish is suitable for brunch, breakfast or a main course at dinnertime. This traditional Spanish take on ratatouille uses delicious seasonal ingredients. A star rating of 0 out of 5. Dunk flatbreads into these salsa verde baked eggs to soak up the lovely juices. This gutsy dish is genuine street food and a brilliant family dish for brunch, lunch or supper. When you’re in need of a brilliant brunch, light lunch or speedy supper, eggs are your friends. Our selection of egg recipes has everything from essential techniques for perfect scrambled eggs or beautifully boiled eggs to the more adventurous homemade Scotch eggs or Spanish tortilla.
For best results, always opt for really fresh free-range or organic eggs from happy chickens. A star rating of 5 out of 5. Make a classic Spanish omelette filled with pan-fried potatoes and onion. A star rating of 4 out of 5. Start the day right with vibrant green veg and a dippy poached egg on buttered wholemeal toast. Hens’ eggs are the type of egg most frequently used in cooking. Duck eggs, gull eggs and quail eggs are less frequently used and are generally eaten on their own, rather than in baking.
Quail eggs are small with dark-brown speckled shells. Duck eggs are larger than hens’ eggs and richer in flavour, lending a creamy depth to baked dishes. The majority of eggs available are hens’ eggs. They come in various sizes, from small to extra large, and various shades of brown, white and, less commonly, blue. Farm fresh’, for example, is a meaningless description, and the eggs could have been laid by chickens farmed in battery cages. Barn eggs’ come from chickens kept inside, where there are a maximum of nine birds per square metre. Free range’ egg production provides chickens with daytime access to runs covered with vegetation, with a maximum 2,500 birds per hectare.
Eggs should always be stored in a cool, dry place, ideally in the fridge. However, it is preferable to bring them up to room temperature before cooking, so try to remove them from the fridge in advance. Remember that egg shells are porous, so store eggs apart from other foods, especially strong smelling ingredients. To freeze whole eggs, break them into a bowl and beat a little to blend.
Tip into a freezer bag or airtight plastic container and use within three months – freeze them in small batches, as these will be most useful, and be sure to label the number of eggs that go into each freezer bag. Whites and yolks can also be frozen separately. Never use eggs after their ‘Best Before’ date and never use eggs with damaged shells. Eat dishes containing eggs as soon as possible after preparing them. Otherwise, cool them quickly and store them in the fridge. Eggs are a fantastically versatile ingredient and the mainstay of many cuisines.
They combine well with many ingredients to create a huge variety of food – from simple omelettes, quiches, tarts and flans to lemon curd or delicious sauces. To peel hard-boiled eggs, roll them around on a hard work surface until the shell has broken into small pieces all over, then peel. Do allow extra time for cooking larger eggs such as goose, turkey or duck eggs. Homemade mayonnaise, béarnaise and hollandaise sauce, some salad dressings, ice cream, icing, mousse, tiramisu and other desserts might all contain raw eggs, which can contain salmonella. The Food Standards Agency recommends that pasteurised egg should be used in any dish in which the egg will not be completely cooked.
Pasteurised egg is available in frozen, liquid or powder form and eggs pasteurised in their shells are also available. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking. Start your day off right with egg recipes, from cheesy scrambles to loaded breakfast sandwiches. A freelance journalist and avid home cook, Cathy Jacobs has more than 10 years of food writing experience, with a focus on curating approachable menus and recipe collections.