Denver Omelette Salad

Breakfast salads are part of the new wave of “trendy” foods. They’re right on up there with avocado toast, chia pudding, and overnight oats.

I tend to steer clear of the trendy foods. Avocado toast sounds like a waste of a good avocado. Chia pudding just sounds…wrong. Overnight oats seem okay, but I like my oatmeal to be made at mach speed. Breakfast salads, well, those sound both strange and intriguing at the same time.

It’s one of those things you’d never think about eating. Salads are reserved for lunches and pre-dinner meals. A salad for breakfast, though? What kind of witchcraft is that?

It’s actually pretty good, if you give it a chance. You do have to follow some rules to make it delicious:

• Choose your greens wisely. A breakfast salad with iceberg lettuce just does not sound appetizing. You need something hearty and flavorful: that’s spinach or arugula. Anything else would be too bland and weird.
• Dress your greens no matter what. You can’t just slap some breakfast foods on top and go to town. Even something as simple as olive oil, salt and pepper will help elevate your salad.
• Keep it simple. There’s a term in the TV News biz: KISS. Keep It Simple, Stupid. The more simplicity in a breakfast salad, the better off you’ll be. That’s why I went with a quintessential Denver Omelette style salad for this recipe. It’s just 5 ingredients on top of dressed greens.

In the end, this breakfast salad was not only tasty but hearty as well. It’s surprisingly filling. You can eat a bowl and then not be hungry again for several hours. Name another salad that can do that. I’ll wait.

As for the salad ingredients…well, you know the drill. Denver omelettes are my favorite, and you’ve probably seen a few other recipes on here that mimic the classic. All you need is a green bell pepper, onion, thick-cut ham, and cheddar cheese.

I decided to fry up my eggs for a change of pace. Cooking them overeasy or sunnyside up is perfect because you can use the runny yolk as a dressing for your salad as well. The eggs then work double-duty. I would recommend staying away from topping the salad with scrambled or hard-boiled eggs.

Enjoy!

Step-By-Step Instructions

Toss spinach with 1/4 cup olive oil, salt, and pepper. Meanwhile, heat one tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Add ham, onion and bell pepper and saute until tender, about 3-4 minutes.

Remove ham & onion mixture from pan. Add remaining tablespoon of oil and fry up eggs, 1-2 at a time, cooking either overeasy or sunnyside up. Remove to a plate.

Build your salad: top spinach with shredded cheese, ham & onion mixture, and one or two eggs. Serve warm.