I went back through some recipes I had kicking around in my "Drafts" folder and realized that I've been holding onto this one for a few weeks now. Sorry about that! Sometimes these things get lost in the shuffle. Another recipe takes precedence and then months go by and I see that I've totally neglected the ones I photographed.
If I'm remembering correctly (who knows... it was such a long time ago) but these breakfast sandwiches came about after a trip down to New Jersey. You see, I'm a bagel snob. I almost never buy bagels up here. Not that there aren't some good attempts being made... they just don't compare to what I grew up with. So I rarely eat them here at home and reserve them for those trips to see my family. The same goes for pizza. I grew up surrounded by countless Italian restaurants (the land of The Sopranos), so I have very specific criteria for how my pizza is supposed to look and taste. And, really, it's probably for the best. Because I'd eat bagels and pizza every day if I could.
There are so few vegetarian breakfast sandwiches out there in the world and that's really a shame. Now, I know bacon and sausage are magical things, but I hope that this runny, cheesy, egg bagel is proof that it can be just as decadent without the meat.
Spinach Florentine + Egg Breakfast Sandwich
Yield
1 breakfast sandwich
Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup spinach, rinsed and dried
3-4 white button mushrooms, rinsed, dried and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon sriracha
1 large egg
2 thin slices of sharp cheddar
Salt
1 toasted plain or seeded bagel
Directions
1. Set a small skillet over medium heat, add butter and, once it's melted, add sliced mushrooms and cook until browned on each side. Transfer cooked mushrooms to a small bowl.
2. Return the skillet over medium heat and add spinach. Cook until wilted. Transfer the cooked spinach to the bowl with the mushrooms.
3. Stir the sriracha and mayonnaise together in a bowl until combined. Set aside.
4. Set the skillet over high heat and add remaining amount of butter. Once the butter has melted, crack the egg into the pan and cook until whites have set, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and then flip the egg. Top the egg with sliced cheddar, remove the pan from heat, and then place a lid over the pan to let the cheese melt. Let it stand for another 3 minutes to let the whites set.
5. Build the sandwich by spreading the sriracha mayonnaise on both cut sides of the bagel. Top the bottom half of the bagel with the egg, followed by the cooked spinach and mushrooms. Cover with top half of bagel.
