Favourite ways to make a meal from eggs

When your hens or ducks are laying lots of eggs, what do you cook with them when you don’t want to cook all the typical egg dishes that taste like eggs?

One of my favourite ways is pasta alla carbonara and other homemade pasta.

The carbonara I ate growing up was spaghetti with peas and ham in a lovely creamy sauce. I was a bit surprised when I read Elisabeth Luard’s recipe for carbonara in her European peasant cookbook, where the traditional carbonara is actually based on eggs, not dairy, and I tried it and was very impressed. My family is completely surprised that the sauce has no milk or cream at all - all the richness comes from eggs!

We try to eat a lot of egg-based meals when the chickens are laying well, and having homemade egg pasta with carbonara sauce can sneak a lot of eggs into our diet without realising. To feed 8 people, the pasta I make uses 9 or 10 eggs, and then the carbonara sauce uses 4 egg yolks plus 2 whole eggs, so that’s a lot of homegrown egg goodness going into the meal.

The story behind the carbonara sauce is that it is the sauce that a charcoal burner would often make in his woodland camp - all the ingredients will keep for a while without a fridge, and can be easily transported in a satchel over rough terrain. The sauce itself is just mixed in a bowl, and the hot drained pasta quickly is mixed through, so the sauce cooks in the heat of the pasta, and there’s only the need to have one cooking pot. Good simple food.

When our ham wasn't ready, I was also frying small bits of bacon in place of the ham and it was really good that way.

How I’ve been making carbonara lately:
a small bit of lard
bacon
garlic or garlic leaves or garlic scapes
optional dandelion greens, spinach, or other greens (or some peas)
2 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
optional zest of one lemon or a wedge of preserved lemon
pasta - either homemade or use spaghetti
optional non-cheddar hard cheese, for serving

Heat the lard in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Mix through the bacon and allow to cook on both sides until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan but leave the fat in it. Reduce the heat to medium-low and allow the garlic to slowly infuse in the fat. Mix through some quick-cooking greens towards the end if you like. Cook the pasta.

In a large bowl, whisk together the whole eggs and the egg yolks and set aside. Mix through the optional lemon zest. Once the pasta is cooked, quickly drain it and add it to the bowl as soon as possible. Add the garlic in bacon fat, and the bacon. Mix it all together quickly, coating the very hot pasta in the sauce to lightly cook the sauce.

The cheese gets sprinkled over the bowls of pasta. I like to use homemade tomme or asiago, but basically any non-cheddar hard cheese will work, such as parmesan or pecorino.

What are some of your favourite egg-heavy recipes?

Another favourite way of mine for getting eggs into people who don't like eggs is quiche - my youngest son refuses to eat eggs in any of the usual ways, but he likes quiche.

This is my quiche lorraine recipe:
Ingredients
pie crust for a bottom crust (I like to make a sourdough one)
2 tablespoons lard
1 medium onion (150g), finely chopped
150g bacon (5oz), finely chopped
240ml (1 cup) milk or cream
6 eggs
100g grated hard cheese (1 cup, not packed)

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF).

Heat the lard in a frypan over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and onion and fry together until the bacon is crispy and the onions are browned. Remove from the heat, and stir through the milk or cream.

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl. Mix through the cheese, and add the milk, bacon, and onion. Pour into the pie crust and bake until the middle is set, around 30 to 40 minutes.




I also managed to get the non egg eater to eat this frittata, which had lots of lovely sweet carrots in it.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons lard or other fat
2 small onions, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, grated
small bunch of greens, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 to 10 eggs

Method
Preheat the oven to around 180ºC (350ºF). Heat the lard over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions until tender and fragrant, then stir through the carrots for a few minutes. Mix through the greens and salt until wilted, then remove from the heat. Pour all the vegetables into a bowl, then whisk in eight eggs - if it seems to need more eggs then add more, but not too much. Grease an ovenproof frying pan or baking dish, pour the mixture in, and bake for around 20 minutes, until set and lightly browned on top.

Deviled eggs don't last long at my house.

Dessert is part of a meal and I like angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream.

I got the idea for making Clafoutis from Wheaton Labs.  This can be made with more eggs than my recipes calls for:

https://permies.com/t/101228/RECIPE-Simple-Clafoutis

Although I prefer an actual sit down bacon and egg or omelet type of breakfast I am OK with grabbing a couple hard boiled eggs for something quick and easy.  Also, egg salad is also a favorite, either eaten plain out of a bowl or in a sandwich.  Deviled eggs are always a hit, especially with a small amount of relish mixed in.

My youngest son wont eat eggs, or most anything other than chicken nuggets or bacon or mac & cheese, but he also eats pancakes and I always crack a few eggs into the pancake mix without him knowing so I can get some protein in him.

My GF has a KETO recipe for chocolate pudding made with hard boiled eggs and cocoa powder and some other stuff that is actually quite good.

And, for those in a big hurry you can always crack a couple eggs into a glass and gulp them down.  I watched my older brother do that a few times when I was younger but I never made the effort.  

As a kid, my mom would make angel food cake one day, and save all the yolks for scrambled eggs the next morning.

Hard boiled or
pancakes with 3-4 times the normal count of eggs

I have started to give some to my farms cats too, with their cat food,  when i cannot eat or sell all of them. It cut their industrial food costs.

i love eggs, so rarely have this problem....
but just to add, we also eat a good amount of quiche to use up my chard harvests. I *HATE* pie crust and pastry, but there are great quiche recipes without crust that work just as well (most of them reference "impossible", just like the impossible pumpkin pie without crust). I had no idea it could be done, but it can.

I made my kids breakfast pizza from time to time. For a 14 inch pizza, I use:

16 oz dough ball
4 oz Velveeta cheese as base
Scrambled eggs from 6 eggs
4 oz mozzarella cheese
Choice of diced ham/bacon/ black olives

It usually goes pretty quick.

We eat eggs as a side or a sauce at this point, but my favorite  breakfast is probably rice with runny yoked eggs and some soy sauce.
It's stupid good.

William Bronson wrote:We eat eggs as a side or a sauce at this point, but my favorite  breakfast is probably rice with runny yoked eggs and some soy sauce.
It's stupid good.

Same here, such that when we get Chinese take-out, we order an additional fried rice portion just to have for breakfast the next two days. Two runny eggs over a bowl of fried rice is so good!

Quiche and frittata are both great, and not only to use up eggs but veggies and meats as well. They both reheat well, so it's a couple "bonus" meals without "cooking".

My partner doesn't like boiled eggs, so I rarely make them, or egg salad, or Scottish eggs. We will have omelets for dinner now and then, only grilled cheese sandwiches could be easier, both are comfort food and consolation prize rolled into one!

A large portion of fried rice can have quite a few eggs added to it before it starts to seem ridiculous.

Egg drop soup also can handle a lot of eggs before it gets silly. Just make sure you understand how to cook them. I turn off the heat first. Add the eggs one by one, giving each egg a quick stab and swirl immediately. If you overcoook the eggs, you’ll really notice the eggs.

And since I’m talking Chinese food, lobster sauce uses eggs.

There are some carnivore bread recipes that taste better than I expected. Many of the recipes go heavy on eggs and/or pork rinds.

It doesn't use a ton of eggs, but here in Mexico we eat a lot of "tortitas" little patties, like potato cakes, green bean, cauliflower, spinach, ham and cheese can be added as well (or it just occurred to me that crumble bacon would be great!) and other veggies like little mini omlettes or fritters.  This is the only English recipe I found online, it's Guatemalan, in Mexico they might actually be served in a tomato sauce rather than having the sauce on the side.

Tortitas de Ejote

vegetable pie
2-large deep pie shells

brown 2 large chopped onions in a little butter
mix browned onions with a head of coarsely cut broccoli  and a head of cut up cauliflower and a bunch of broken up asparagus

beat 4 to 6 eggs, for each pie, with some salt and white and black pepper with a little cream

put a thin layer of vegetable mix in pie shell. add some sharp cheddar cheese shredded, not too much.

fill pie shell heaping with vegetable mix. if needed add more broccoli to have both pies heaping.

make depression in middle and add beaten egg mix, add it slowly and let it level out throughout vegetable mixture.

bake at 375 for 50 minutes to an hour.

cover enter pie with layer of shredded mozzarella and provolone cheese . bake an addition 10-12 minutes

bon appetite

I forgot the mention Chaffles.  They taste so similar to actual waffles it is crazy, and very little carbs.  When my GF makes them I will place a couple chaffles in the toaster to make them crunchier like toast, fry a couple eggs over easy, melt some cheese on them, and place the eggs in the chaffles to make a breakfast sandwich.  Ham or bacon is optional.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/278458/chaffles/

Tereza Okava wrote:i love eggs, so rarely have this problem....
but just to add, we also eat a good amount of quiche to use up my chard harvests. I *HATE* pie crust and pastry, but there are great quiche recipes without crust that work just as well (most of them reference "impossible", just like the impossible pumpkin pie without crust). I had no idea it could be done, but it can.

I'm not a 100% sure what quiche is but I make something I think might be similar. I won't give a specific recipe because I don't have one, the only constants are the eggs and the process. It starts with something to cook it in which may be butter, lard, bacon grease, chicken or turkey fat, depending largely on what's on hand and on what I'm gonna throw in it. I put it in an iron skillet and stir up the scrambled eggs and pour them in. Then throw in whatever it might be, maybe some ham or bacon crumbles, or left over steak, chicken or turkey bits. Almost always onions and or garlic, sometimes a little cheese, veggies of whatever type, always some fresh herbs, usually thyme.

I have the oven set to about 250 to 275 degrees and cook the whole mess real slow on the burner, careful to not actually brown the bottom. When it starts to bubble a little, I turn the oven off and put it in there to finish cooking the top. Quiche, egg pie, I don't know what to call it, but I like it.