Ultimate Salad with a poached egg

Salad loaded with goodies and extremely filling.

Alright so I have a bit of a confession to make. This was mostly just a 'I have a bit of leftover salmon and avocado' situation. Smoked salmon and avocado are my go to staples to buy whenever I go to the store. I might have a teenie weenie obsession, but that's okay, it's the least worrisome I have. ^^
This salad turned out pretty good, though I'm not a 100% sure on my decision to caramelize the onions, kind of missed the sharpness of a bit of raw onion, but you can decide for yourself.
These kind of recipes are just more as an inspiration to draw upon if you need it. It was also just an excuse to experiment a bit: my first poached egg ever, turned out pretty neat if I do say so myself. Though to be perfectly honest I did lose some of the white since I had no idea on how to go about it.

Salad - 1 serving - 300cal - 20min

 (19g fat, 3g saturated; 18g carbs and 19g protein)



- Raw spinach (or other preferred salad greens, again I just worked with what I had)

- Smoked salmon (this is about 25g)

- Egg (1)

- Avocado (half)

- Shallot/Onion (whole/half)

- Tomato (1)

- Dressing: 0.5tsp olive oil + 0.5tsp lemon juice + 1tsp balsamic + Salt + Pepper

(- Optional: Chives) 

- If you want to caramelise your onion like I did, start with those. Chop your onion/shallot into half rings and put them in a pan with olive oil on a low to medium heat. Just cook them slowly very slowly, stirring occasionally for about 15minutes. When they're soft and golden add a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and let cook for 5 more minutes.

- Meanwhile put a pot of water on for you poached egg (best at least 3inches / 8cm deep). And start cutting up your tomato, avocado and salmon.

- Once the water boils it's time for the exciting part: poaching an egg. If your water is boiling heavily (my mistake was here) put the heat lower, so it's not boiling all over the place. Crack your egg into a bowl (without breaking the yolk). With a wooden spoon stir the water so a whirlpool is created in the middle of your pot. Tip your egg in the middle of this whirlpool and watch the magic happen. Because of the spinning boiling hot water, the egg white swirls around the yolk and become done first, so your whites are done, but your yolk stays nice and liquid. Cook for about 3 minutes. Poaching is made easier if you use really fresh eggs and apparently adding a splash of vinegar to your water should also help. Since my water was boiling quite heavily a lot of my egg white didn't stay contained in the whirlpool, so my egg was a bit smaller, but it still turned out great! Just lost some egg to the whirlpool, they will be missed. ;) When you remove your egg just cut off those whispy pieces of egg white that might have escaped your whirl as well.

- To serve: Start with generous portion of your spinach (or other salad greens), add your tomato, avocado and salmon on top. Drizzle with your dressing. Add caramelised onions and top off with your poach egg. Add a bit of freshly ground pepper on top of your egg and a sprinkling of chives.

Vegetarian alternative: This is probably also really good without the salmon, I barely used any, just had some left over. The star here is the poached egg.