Poached eggs are scary. They seem very fancy and seem to require a lot of technical skill to make. Let me tell you something, though – with a few little tricks, making poached eggs is just as easy and scrambling ’em up in a skillet. I promise! And then you will look all fancy and awesome eating a perfectly poached egg. We can just keep it between you and I that it was super simple. No one else has to know.
You can even drink a cup of tea with your pinky sticking out to up the fancy even more.
The poached egg alone in this recipe is wonderful with the rich, silky yolk and the tender egg white, but throw some perfectly roasted asparagus underneath and some bright, tangy, wonderful lemon vinaigrette on top and you have a BOMB.com meal. A healthy one, too ??.
Okay, so those tips and steps I mentioned…here you go, lovely people:
- Add vinegar to your water. Not a lot – just a couple tablespoons. It doesn’t affect the flavor at all, but it helps the egg whites coagulate and form your pretty little poached egg! It’s a bit odd to use vinegar when you are cooking eggs, but I promise that you really, really don’t taste it!!
- Stir your water before adding the eggs to create a little “whirl pool.” Right after you pull the spoon out, add your egg right in the center. This helps push the egg whites around and form that nice little circle that we all want in a poached egg.
- Crack your egg into a small bowl before adding it into your water. This allows you to gently sink the egg into the water rather than plop it in. Again…helps with that pretty shape.
- Sink the egg gently into simmering water, cover it, turn off the heat, and let it sit for five minutes before removing with a slotted spoon.
And that’s it! The rocket science behind a perfectly poached egg.
I really can’t explain why the combination of poached eggs, asparagus, and lemon vinaigrette is SO good, but it is seriously soooooooo good. Between how delicious it is and now crazy easy it is, I basically want to eat it for every meal for the next week month year life.
Okay, people, listen how crazy this is! Remember on Monday when I was talking about Seth’s car drama? How I had to drop it off at Firestone for several days while they ordered new parts for the oil tank (tank?) so they could fix it? Well I got a call yesterday from Firestone, and guess what they said??? They are going to fix it for free!!
Whaaaaattt??
Whhhaaaaaattttt!?!?!
My mind was blown. I mean, yes, it was supposedly their fault for messing something up with the drain plug last time. But first of all, no one could have proven it was them – they could have easily charged me and made a few extra bucks. Second of all, it was a Firestone from Georgia, and we now live in Kansas! Third of all, I didn’t even allude to the fact that I wanted them to give me discount or do it for free, so I think it’s amazing that they offered without me pitching a fit first.
Usually huge corporations like Firestone don’t do stuff like that! At least not in my experience. It’s usually small local stores or “mom and pop” places that operate that way.
It seriously made my day! Maybe it’s just Kansas. People here are nice. Like the tow truck guy.
Awesome people make me happy ?.
For you 21 Day Fix people, here are the container amounts for this recipe:
- 2 green containers (asparagus)
- 1 red container (eggs)
- 1 orange container (vinaigrette)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil (oil in dressing doesn’t count)
Poached Eggs over Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Vinaigrette [21 Day Fix]

- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 1 1x
Ingredients
- 20 spears of asparagus (2 green containers), fibrous ends broken off
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 eggs (1 red container)
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- For the dressing (1 orange container)
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 4 teaspoons olive oil
- A drop of Dijon mustard
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350
- Roast your asparagus for 10 minutes (or until cooked to your liking)
- Meanwhile, fill a large, high sided skillet a few inches up with hot water
- Add your vinegar, and bring the water to a simmer
- Crack one egg into a small bowl
- When the water is simmering, stir in large circles near the outer edges of the pan until a whirlpool motion forms
- Slowly sink your egg into the middle of the “whirlpool”
- Cover with a lid, turn off the heat, and let the egg sit for 5 minutes
- Remove from the water with a slotted spoon, and repeat the process with your other egg
- To make your dressing, whisk or shake the lemon juice, olive oil, and Dijon mustard together and season with salt and pepper
- To assemble, lay your asparagus down on a plate, top with your poached eggs, and pour your vinaigrette over top of everything
*This recipe is gluten free*
If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!
In the mood for more yummy 21 Day Fix recipes? Check these out:
Dijon Crusted Salmon with Simple Arugula Salad
I absolutely love your recipe! I am writing vegetarian recipe round ups on my blog in 2018 (to encourage people to try meatless monday- everyone has to start somewhere) and would love to feature you. You can check out my blog (for beginner environmentalists) at sunshineguerrilla.com. Is it alright if I share this link to your recipe?
Hey Barbara! I would love for you to feature my recipe – thank you for asking!
I gave this a try this morning for hubby and me…I did have to make a change…I cooked his eggs first following the directions of make the water swirl around and putting egg in middle of the swirl…I did not like that outcome, the whites swirled around and became thready instead of the desired outcome of whites being a bit more compact…half of the whites ended up separated, thin stringy and over cooked so got dumped…so the rest of the eggs got put in the water without the swirl and the whites stayed much more compact and we didn’t have to waste food…the recipe itself was AWESOME, good flavor!!!!…we will for sure be making this again…thanks for sharing!
★★★★
So glad you liked it, Sandi! Sorry my technique didn’t work out quite as well for you!
That is a perfect lg poached egg. It just has to be a runny yolk, doesn’t it!
Yes it does!! Runny yolks are the best!