Egg In A Squash Hole

Egg In A Squash Hole - A delicious, healthy, fun gluten-free breakfast the whole family will enjoy. These eggs are baked sunny side up in the oven, which makes it quick, and easy to clean up. 

After nearly eight years of living in Sweden, the food scene has improved tremendously in all but one department: squash.

If you like butternut squash, no problem. If you want any kind of squash that is not butternut, well, you're likely out of luck. Unless, that is, you are lucky enough to find a carnival squash like the one below, and, friends, the only place you can find a carnival squash is at the florist for $10-15 a pop. It's squash-less insanity!

Kale used to be in dire scarcity and now it's literally everywhere. But kale is trendy. So, we need to start a global squash trend, okay? I think that will help.

To kickstart the global squash trend, I've dug deep in to The HNL archives and freshened up an old and sadly neglected post: Egg in a Squash Hole!

What's in Egg-In-A-Squash-Hole?

This recipe requires a total of two ingredients. Ok, five if you include salt and pepper. You're gonna need:

• A winter squash
• Eggs
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

That's it!

Remember egg-in-a-hole where you cut out circle in the center of a piece of bread and fried an egg in it? That always blew my mind as a kid. The idea here is similar, but perhaps a bit more grown up.

Instead of bread, we're roasting rings of squash. Good news - the butt end of a butternut squash works great for this! But you can put lots of other squash varietals into play as well. Acorn would be great (and pretty, with the ruffled edges) or even a small pumpkin would be fine. It just has to have a hole in it big enough to accommodate an egg.

How do you make Egg-In-A-Squash-Hole?

First you've gotta roast up your rings of squash. I took the skin off to make eating easier, but you can totally leave the skin on as well. A little brush with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper and into the oven they go.

You're gonna roast your squash rings for about 10 minutes. Then you're gonna flip them, and carefully crack an egg into the hole. I like to brush the parchment with a little extra olive oil before the egg goes in, but it's probably not totally necessary.

You might have some egg overflow. Don't panic. You can either trim it off before serving, or you can embrace life's little imperfections. You can see which route I chose.

The egg + squash is going back into the oven for about 12 minutes. At this point the white should be firmed up, and your yolk should have a bit of jiggle going on. You can obviously cook longer if you like a firm egg, or less if runny is your style. I'm a medium-done egg person my self, and 12 minutes was just right.

Serve with hot, buttery toast if you like, or you can just freestyle with squash on a plate. I think these egg in a squash hole's would be a fun thing to serve for weekend brunch. A sprinkle of salt with the sweetness of the squash hits those salty-n-sweet notes in just the right way for brunch, and they're fun to look at - and to eat!

Honestly, they're not a lot of work. You can totally roast the squash rings in advance to and be slinging out egg in a squash hole in a matter of a dozen minutes or so.

What kind of squash is best for this recipe?

Anything with an egg-sized hole will do! Butternut, acorn, or a small pumpkin would all work.

Can I make this recipe in advance?

You can roast the squash rings in advance, but the egg part is best baked at the last minute.

Is this recipe gluten-free?

Yup! Choose a gluten-free bread if you want to serve it with toast on the side.

Is this recipe Whole 30 compliant?

You bet your booty it is!

Hey Nutrition Lady, what's the deal with eggs?

Eggs are a natural, nutrient-rich whole food and an amazing source of high quality protein. Eggs contain all 8 B-vitamins, along with folic acid. Vitamin B12 and choline are particularly abundant in eggs.

But what about cholesterol? Well, several large-scale studies conducted recently have suggested that the cholesterol content of eggs in relation to heart disease may be less of a concern than previously thought.

Is one part of an egg better than the other? As it turns out, the nutrients found in an egg are distributed fairly evenly between the white and the yolk. The white has more protein, magnesium, potassium, and B3, whereas the yolk has more omega-3 fatty acids, folate, choline, B12, and fat soluble vitamins A, D, E, K.

Other winter squash recipes you might enjoy:

Baked Pumpkin Risotto
Roasted Acorn Squash Salad
Butternut Squash and Black Bean Chili
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut, Miso, and Lime
Butternut Squash and Black Bean Freezer Burritos

 

Originally published October 28, 2013. Recipe re-tested, updated, and most recently updated October 23, 2018.