Baked Eggs and Greens with Bacon

Recipe amalgamated mostly from Smitten Kitchen and Serious Eats

This is one of my favorite make-ahead egg dishes to serve guests for breakfast. The cream and cheese make it a little decadent without being too over-the-top. And there’s no gluten, so it leaves room for whatever scones/rolls/forbidden pancakes I’m inevitably serving. You can use whatever greens you want. I like the peppery flavor of Swiss chard and mustard greens, but you could use all spinach for a milder dish. Serve with toast, English muffins or biscuits – homemade or from a can. I’m not here to judge.

Ingredients

• 8 ounces slab bacon, chopped into 1/4 inch dice. (Sliced bacon is OK if you can’t find slab bacon)
• butter or olive oil if needed/desired
• 2 medium leeks, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup white wine (Recipes always say to use “dry” wine, but I’ve used the weirdly sweet Chardonnay with the bike on it from Aldi with fine results.)
• 1 Tablespoon mustard
• 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 pounds of greens, tough stems removed and leaves roughly chopped. (I usually go with 1 bunch Swiss chard, 1 bunch mustard greens and 8-10 ounces spinach.)
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 8 eggs
• 1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Add the bacon to a cold, large saute pan or skillet. Saute bacon over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp and brown. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Set aside.
2. If there is less than 2 tablespoons of rendered bacon fat in the pan, add a little olive oil or butter to make up the difference.
3. Add the leeks and garlic to the hot pan and season with salt. Saute until the leeks are soft and starting to brown.
4. Add the white wine and mustard to the leek mixture. Stir, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir until most of the liquid has evaporated.
5. Add the greens, one handful at a time. Once the last handful has wilted, add the next handful. When all the greens have been added, stir until the greens are wilted and some of the liquid from the greens has evaporated. 
6. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Note: At this point, you can either finish the dish, or pack up the greens and the bacon separately and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.
7. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 
8. Spread the greens out in whatever dish you want to bake them in – it can be the skillet you sauteed them in, or a casserole dish or square baking dish. Using a spoon, make eight egg-sized indentations in the greens. sprinkle the bacon over the greens.
9. Crack one egg into each of the indentations you just made. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the eggs.  Sprinkle the Gruyere over the whole thing.
10. Bake for 15-30 minutes (time will vary depending on the dish you’re using), until the egg whites are just set and the yolks are still runny. But if you let them go a little longer, don’t worry. The dish will still be delicious and you will still have value as a person.
11. Serve with toast or biscuits.