Baked eggplant mixed into ham and egg, then smothered in freshly made hollandaise sauce. This twist on the classic breakfast uses spongey eggplant as a stand-in for English muffins, but if that’s not your thing then feel free to substitute zucchini. It seems like an overly decadent breakfast but it’s packed full of vegetable, and uses a lot of ingredients you probably have in your kitchen already.
This hollandaise is lemony and smooth, but the secret’s in the vinegar.
There’s a lot of steps, and step by step photos, so this recipe might look a little intimidating. It’s OK to break it up into smaller chunks by prepping the clarified butter ahead of time. If you don’t have a skimmer to create this, then you can also use a spoon and just be careful not to remove too much oil.
Yields 8 servings of Eggs Benedict Casserole.
The Preparation
- 8 ounces unsalted butter
- 19 1/2 ounces eggplant, peeled/chopped
- 16 ounces cooked ham, diced
- 12 large egg, for casserole
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns, crushed
- 1 tablespoon water
- 6 large egg yolk, for sauce
- lemon juice, to taste
The Execution
Clarified Butter
1. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. We’re going to make clarified butter for the hollandaise sauce. You can do this far in advance if you’d like to save time when you make this recipe.
2. Once the butter is melted there will be a foam that comes to the surface, skim it off. It can be helpful to have a large bowl of cold water to dip your skimmer in.
3. Continue to skim the foam off the surface. When the butter looks clear and golden but is no longer producing foam, then it’s done. Carefully pour the clarified butter into a heat safe container. Don’t let any solids on the bottom pour into the container.
Eggs Benedict Casserole
1. Wash and chop the ends off of the eggplant. Peel with a vegetable peeler.
2. Dice up the eggplant then place in a well-greased casserole dish.
3. Dice up the ham then layer it on top of the eggplant.
4. Crack the eggs open into a mixing bowl.
5. Season well with salt and pepper. Add the heavy whipping cream then whisk together.
6. Pour the eggs into the casserole dish. I like to stir the eggplant around a little to make sure that any cubes that are sticking up get coated with some egg.
7. Cover the casserole then bake at 375°F for 30 minutes. Uncover the casserole then bake an additional 20-30 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the egg is completely cooked through.
Hollandaise Sauce
1. While the casserole is baking you can make the hollandaise sauce. Make sure the clarified butter is still liquid, and warm but not too hot. This is especially important if you clarified butter in advance.
2. Heat up a separate skillet. Add the vinegar and crushed peppercorns. Cook down until the vinegar is almost completely evaporated. Add the water.
3. Transfer everything to a metal mixing bowl. You need a bowl that will fit over one of your saucepans and act as a double boiler.
4. Add the 6 egg yolks to the metal mixing bowl and whisk together.
5. Place the bowl over a small saucepan of boiling water. Turn the heat down and whisk until the eggs thicken up.
6. Take the bowl off of the heat and slowly drizzle in the butter while whisking. You almost want to add it a drop at a time at first. Too quickly and the emulsion will break. Add lemon and salt to taste. Add 2-3 tablespoons of water to thin the consistency of the sauce. Be careful and only add it a tablespoon at a time.
7. Pour the sauce over the hot casserole. You will want to serve this hot and eat right away. If you want to save the casserole for additional meals then you will want to leave the sauce off of the top – it does not keep.
8. Garnish with fresh chives or green onion.
This makes a total of 8 servings of Eggs Benedict Casserole. Each serving comes out to be 474 calories, 39.2g fats, 3.9g net carbs, and 25.1g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 8 ounce unsalted butter | 1626 | 183.7 | 0.2 | 0 | 0.2 | 1.8 |
| 19 1/2 ounce eggplant | 138 | 1 | 32.5 | 16.6 | 15.9 | 5.4 |
| 16 ounce cooked ham | 630 | 23.1 | 4.8 | 0 | 4.8 | 100.6 |
| 12 large egg | 944 | 62.8 | 4.8 | 0 | 4.8 | 82.9 |
| — salt and pepper | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream | 202 | 21.5 | 1.6 | 0 | 1.6 | 1.7 |
| 2 tablespoon white vinegar | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns | 1 | 0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 1 tablespoon water | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 large egg yolk | 328 | 27.1 | 3.7 | 0 | 3.7 | 16.2 |
| — lemon juice | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 3876 | 319.2 | 47.9 | 16.7 | 31.2 | 208.7 |
| Per Serving (/8) | 485 | 39.9 | 6 | 2.1 | 3.9 | 26.1 |
Eggs Benedict Casserole
Ingredients
- 8 ounce unsalted butter
- 19 ½ ounce eggplant peeled/chopped
- 16 ounce cooked ham diced
- 12 large egg for casserole
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoon white vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon black peppercorns crushed
- 1 tablespoon water
- 6 large egg yolk for sauce
- lemon juice to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F. The first step is to make clarified butter for the hollandaise sauce. You can do this far in advance, if you'd like to save time when making this recipe. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat.
- Once the butter is melted, there will be a foam that comes to the surface; skim it off. It can be helpful to have a large bowl of cold water close by to dip your skimmer in.
- Continue to skim the foam off the surface. When the butter looks clear and golden but is no longer producing foam, it's done. Carefully pour the clarified butter into a heat safe container. Don’t let any solids on the bottom pour into the container. If you will be making the hollandaise sauce at the same time, keep warm until needed.
- Wash and chop the ends off of the eggplant. Peel with a vegetable peeler.
- Dice up the eggplant, then place in a well-greased casserole dish.
- Dice up the ham, then layer it on top of the eggplant.
- Crack the eggs (for casserole) open into a mixing bowl.
- Season well with salt and pepper. Add the heavy whipping cream, then whisk together.
- Pour the eggs into the casserole dish. I like to stir the eggplant around a little to make sure that any cubes that might be sticking together get coated with some egg.
- Cover the casserole, then bake for 30 minutes. Uncover the casserole and bake an additional 20-30 minutes. You'll know it's done when the egg is completely cooked through.
- While the casserole is baking, you can make the hollandaise sauce. Make sure the clarified butter is still liquid and is warm, but not too hot. This is especially important if you prepared the clarified butter in advance.
- Start a small saucepan of water on to boil. Heat a separate skillet over medium heat. Add the vinegar and crushed peppercorns. Cook down until the vinegar is almost completely evaporated. Carefully add the water.
- Transfer everything from the skillet to a metal mixing bowl. You need a bowl that will fit over one of your saucepans and act as a double boiler.
- Add the egg yolks to the metal mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Place the bowl over the small saucepan of boiling water. Turn the heat down and whisk until the eggs thicken up.
- Take the bowl off of the heat and slowly drizzle in the butter while whisking. You almost want to add it a drop at a time in the beginning. Too quickly and the emulsion will break. Add lemon to taste. If needed, add up to 2-3 tablespoons of water to thin the consistency of the sauce, being careful to only add it a tablespoon at a time.
- Pour the sauce over the hot casserole. You will want to serve this hot and eat it right away. If you want to save the casserole for additional meals, you will want to leave the sauce off of the top as it does not keep well. You can serve it with the individual servings.
- Garnish with chopped fresh chives or green onion.
