Poached Egg Soup
This is the week I planned on launching one of my new features, Frugal Friday; along with alternating weeks of Five Ingredient Friday and Fun Food Friday, you’ll have a lot of choices for Friday posts. Not only is this Poached Egg Soup recipe frugal, it is also only five ingredients and it’s ready for the table in just minutes. Win, win, win!
With just a can of broth or stock (or making your own stock, as I do), toasted bread, an egg, some Parmesan cheese and some fresh thyme, you’ve got a filling meal in a bowl. The type of stock or broth you use doesn’t matter at all; you can just pick your favorite, or what you have on hand. For this recipe, I used some turkey stock I had in the freezer from our Thanksgiving turkey carcass.
It’s good to use a hearty, thick cut bread for this soup since the toasted bread will need to support the weight of the egg while it poaches in the oven atop the broth/stock. I used some mini boule, but ciabatta would work great, too. For a breakfast version you could even use an English Muffin. You just want a nice open-crumb bread that is thick-cut.
If I don’t have any I’ve made myself, I buy mini boule loaves at Kroger for $1.00; A couple of cans of broth can be purchased for about $2.oo; I’m able to buy eggs for .69 a dozen at our local Aldi, so that would be .06 apiece, using four would bring the egg total to 24 cents; four tablespoons of Parmesan cheese? Maybe $1.00 (although, I do buy big blocks of Parmigiano-Reggiano; while that seems expensive when you buy it, lasts a long time). I grow my own thyme, but you’ll only be using about 2 teaspoons of fresh leaves…I’m guessing that would be about 50 cents worth.
Let’s see that broken out by the ingredients:
- Hearty Bread $1.00
- Broth/Stock 2.00
- Eggs .24
- Parmesan 1.00
- Thyme .50
Grand total: $7.74 to feed four people
That is pretty darned frugal, folks. And it is delicious, nutritious, and quickly prepared.
I hope you’ll try it!
P~
- 4 thick slices of hearty bread (I used mini French boule), toasted
- 4 large eggs
- 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 4 cups hot stock or broth
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- Preheat the oven to 375°.
- Using individual oven-safe bowls, place the bowls on a rimmed baking sheet and place a piece of the toasted bread in the bottom of each bowl.
- Carefully crack an egg on each slice of toasted bread.
- Sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper, 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese on each piece, and ½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves.
- Very carefully pour the hot stock/broth down the sides of each bowl, dividing the stock evenly between each bowl.
- Place the baking sheet with the bowls into the preheated oven and bake for 7-9 minutes, or until the eggs have solidified and the yolks still runny (or to your desired consistency).
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven and serve immediately.
Disclaimer: These costs are simply estimates. Don’t hold me to them, as prices for food stuff vary from store to store and from area to area. The prices do not include tax, if you are in an area that subjects food to sales tax.
I love simple and tasty soups like this one 🙂 I started drooling the second I saw that amazing crouton. #breadgirl
addie | culicurious recently posted…Satsuma and Pecan Muffin Recipe
Right? Any excuse to eat bread…and floating an egg? Yes, please! P~