Green Eggs No Ham**

A Vegetarian Eggs Benedict with a Spinach-Hollandaise Sauce 

I have frequently shared kitchens with vegetarian roommates and friends.  While I do eat meat, I try to be sensitive to those who do not.  One happy merging of meat-eating and non-meat eating friends was a  weekly Sunday brunch of Eggs Benedict.  The meat eaters would layer ham or sausage--my preference--onto their English muffins.  The non-meat eaters would layer a slab of Monterey Jack cheese instead.  Everyone sat down to eat together.

I woke up the other morning with a hankering for Eggs Benedict, but wondering how it would be to add some of my CSA farm share spinach to the sauce Hollandaise.

I didn't have any sausage handy, having used it up on this pizza.  I also didn't have any Monterey Jack cheese.  However, I did have Icelandic School cheese. (I can hear you now, "Wait, what?  Icelandic School cheese?  Who keeps that in the fridge?"  To you I  ask--where else would you keep it?).  My kids have loved Icelandic School cheese for years, it's very mild, and my folks brought some back from a trip recently.  So I have Icelandic School cheese in my fridge, but you can use Monterey Jack if you aren't planning a trip to Iceland any time soon.

Because it's winter here, my farm share spinach has been frost-kissed, as the farmers so lovingly put it.  That means that even the tiny leaves are tougher than a baby spinach leaf, so I usually cook this spinach unless I am making a smoothie.  I started with 2 very packed cups of washed, torn de-stemmed (stems to the composting pigs, they eat well year 'round) spinach.  After a quick 3 minutes in the microwave, I drained and squeezed dry the spinach and ended up with about 2/3 of a cup.  If you are starting from a box of frozen chopped spinach, I recommend using up to half of the box for this recipe and making a pizza crust with the other half.

Score!  English muffins and whole milk marked down.

Before immersion blender.

After immersion blender.

Green Eggs No Ham (Eggs Benedict with Spinach Hollandaise Sauce) 

2/3 cup (somewhere between 1/2 and 1 cup) cooked spinach, squeezed dry

1 package Hollandaise sauce mix (I use Knorr) plus ingredients to make it (in my case 1 cup milk plus 1/4 cup butter)

In a tall container, blend spinach and milk.  Using the resulting spinach milk, make Hollandaise sauce according to package directions.  Makes enough for 4 to 8 servings, depending on how saucy you like your Eggs Benedict.

For each serving, you will need:

1 or 2 English muffin halves, toasted

1 or 2 thickish slices of mild cheese, or a sausage patty, or ham (your choice)

1 or 2 eggs (I fried mine because we like them that way, check this post from Kitchen Parade if you want to learn how to Perfectly Poach eggs)

Stack the cheese on the English muffin half.  Top with egg.  Pour sauce over top.  Enjoy!
This post is linked with What's Cookin Wednesday at Buns In My Oven, the Wednesday Fresh Foods Link Up at Gastronomical Sovereignty, What's In The Box at In Her Chucks, Taste and Tell Thursdays, The Farm Girl Blog Fest at Let This Mind Be In You,  Strange But Good at Sprint2TheTable, Cookin' Canuck's Easter Recipe Link Up, and Food on Friday:  Sauces (twice).