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No meal is simpler or more delicious than smoked salmon with eggs (truffle eggs!) and a pile of greens. Even better, it’s brain food!
A friend shared with me a saying from a wise man named Goethe. He once said: “Cease endlessly striving for what you would like to do and learn to love what must be done.” Zing.
How easy it is to strive for where we aren’t: sipping margaritas on a crystal blue beach. Working at a better job in a more exciting city, in a shiny life where people don’t get mad and there are no bad hair days and it’s sunny every single day. But here in real life, there are simple tasks that are necessary for life. Like keeping your children alive. Flossing your teeth. Paying bills. Getting an oil change (even typing it makes me cringe). Traffic jams. Loving people who are hard to love.
Something about the human heart makes it easy for discontentment to creep into the everyday. But what if the things that are part of the everyday, the things that must be done, could also be things we love? Keep reading for this brain food smoked salmon with eggs recipe, and some thoughts on loving the process of making nourishing food.
Related: 10 Brain Food Recipes to Boost Your Mood
Learning to love the process
As fundamental as it is for our souls to be wishing for something better and brighter, perhaps the simple perspective change in this quote could be put into practice. And actually, I believe it can be: up until 8 years ago, the simple everyday task of preparing food was an absolute chore. Hate is not too strong of a word for it (people in my life at the time can attest). There was nothing that interested me less than making food, and I loathed that I had to do it multiple times per day.
Long long long story short, people began to enter my life who loved it: loved the process, the grocery shopping (what?!), the cooking, the conversation, and the breaking bread together. This daily chore could actually be…gulp, fun? The moment I started to open my mind, my life changed forever. Joy was born into this simple daily task. Not that every day is rosy, but I have grown to truly love feeding myself and other people.
What is brain food?
And in that spirit, here’s a smoked salmon and eggs recipe that’s so simple to put nourishing and elegant food on the table, you can’t help but love it. You may have heard our recent podcast on brain food with Dr. Drew Ramsey (if not, listen to 50 Shades of Brain Food). He’s a psychiatrist and an expert on how the food we eat can affect our mental health. Basically, if we eat a diet colorful diet full of nutrients instead of the typical American brown-and-white one, we can can combat things like depression and anxiety, and fuel our brains. Pretty powerful stuff.
Dr. Ramsey has a little rhyme for good brain food: seafood, greens, nuts, and beans. This smoked salmon with eggs recipe features the first two. We occasionally flex from our mostly vegetarian diet to eat fish and meat, and smoked salmon is in both Alex and my hall of fame for top taste treats. Here it’s combined with a fried egg drizzled with my other favorite flavor, truffle oil! (Here’s what truffle oil is and where to get it.)
The truffle eggs are accompanied by a pile of greens. So easy and so good. A great brunch or even dinner option, it’s from Dr. Ramsey’s new cookbook, Eat Complete; it’s one of our favorite new cookbooks, and the link to buy it is below.
Here’s to learning to love what must be done, every delicious bite at a time.
Listen
Listen to Dr. Drew Ramsey talk about brain food on the A Couple Cooks Podcast: 50 Shades of Brain Food
About the book
Get the cookbook here! Eat Complete: The 21 Nutrients The Fuel Brainpower, Boost Weight Loss, and Transform Your Health
Want more truffle recipes?
If you’re into truffles, we’ve got some recipes for you! Might we suggest:
- Parmesan Truffle Fries: crispy and perfectly seasoned
- Truffle Pizza: incredible and a must-make
- Elegant Parmesan Truffle Risotto
- Cozy Truffle Mac and Cheese
This truffled egg recipe is…
This smoked salmon and eggs recipe is pescatarian, gluten free, and dairy free.
Truffled Egg with Smoked Salmon (Brain Food)
No meal is simpler or more delicious than smoked salmon with eggs – truffle eggs! – and a pile of greens. Even better, it’s brain food!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 pasture-raised eggs
- 2 teaspoons truffle oil
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 shallot or 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- 8 ounces watercress
- 2 tablespoons balsamic or cider vinegar
- 8 ounces smoked salmon
Instructions
- Coat a large skillet with half of the olive oil and warm it over medium-high heat. Crack the eggs into the skillet, drizzle with the truffle oil, and sprinkle with paprika. Cook 3 to 4 minutes until the whites are cooked through but the yolks are still soft.
- While the eggs are cooking, prepare the watercress. Coat a separate large skillet with the remaining olive oil. Add the shallot or onion and cook to 2 to 3 minutes until the shallot starts to soften. Add the watercress and cook for 1 minutes until wilted. Sprinkle with the vinegar.
- Divide the mixture among four plates and top each with an egg and 2 ounces of the smoked salmon. Serve immediately.
Notes
Printed with permission from Eat Complete: The 21 Nutrients The Fuel Brainpower, Boost Weight Loss, and Transform Your Health by Drew Ramsey, MD
Such wise words Sonja. They remind me of a similar idea Marie Forleo talks about, which is to bring passion to everything we do. It’s a simple mindset shift to realize passion is something we choose, not something we find. I think this especially applies to the mundane things, like cooking. ;-) It obviously worked for you!
And thank you so much for posting this recipe. I’ve been wanting to see it even though it’s super simple since hearing about it on your podcast. Won’t get my hands on his book until back in the US next month. ;-)
Love this post! You’re absolutely right… The desire for self-improvement can be all consuming and I often need to remind myself to enjoy the little tasks that make up my days! Thanks for sharing such wise words, not to mention a lovely recipe!