Recipe: Winter breakfast for any time of day

Last year, I had a hard time coming up with inventive ways to use the mountain of winter produce I got through my Shared Harvest farm share. The day I got my boxes of veggies, I'd wash and chop as many of them as would fit on a baking sheet, drizzle them with olive oil, sprinkle them with salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, rosemary, or whatever other spices suited my whim, and roast them all up in the oven. I highly recommend this method, but after a week or two of eating roasted root veggies with every meal, it does get old. Thankfully, this year I've come up with a new favorite way to prepare winter produce: with eggs!

This summer, I discovered that sauteed baby bok choi and lightly salted slivers of fresh hakurei turnip were fabulous when served topped with a runny-yolked fried egg. The richness of the yolk, the slight bitterness of the greens, and the bright crunch of the turnip make for a lovely contrast in the mouth, and the dish looks beautiful and summery on the plate, too. This fall, I've still got turnips, but instead of bok choi I have cauliflower and kale. I've also got red onions, peppers, spinach, garlic, and a host of other seasonal and storage vegetables. Turns out they're all delicious served with eggs, too.

These dishes are a double-whammy, filling you up with both fiber and protein. They're quick and easy to make with whatever you've got on hand, and can be made in a single skillet, making clean-up a breeze. Here's the version I whipped up for dinner last night:

Cheesy Egg Scramble with Peppers and Cauliflower

Ingredients

• 1 large or 2 small red peppers, roughly diced
• 1 small purple onion, roughly diced
• 1 small head cauliflower, broken into bite-size florets
• 2 cloves garlic, finely diced or pressed with a garlic press (I used my homemade garlic scape pesto instead)
• olive oil for frying
• 6 eggs, scrambled with a splash of milk
• salt, pepper, smoked paprika, dried oregano to taste
• 2 oz shredded cheese (I used cheddar)

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, using just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. When hot, add onions, garlic, and cauliflower. Cook till onions begin to soften and clarify.
2. Add peppers and cook till all veggies have reached the desired texture. (You can speed this up by adding a splash of water to the skillet with the peppers and putting a lid on the pan, letting the vegetables steam for 2-3 minutes.)
3. Season the eggs and pour them over the vegetables. Let cook undisturbed for 1-2 minutes.
4. Slide a spatula under the cooking egg patty and flip it in sections to let the still-wet side cook. Continue to flip or stir as necessary so that the eggs cook through.
5. When eggs are mostly cooked, add shredded cheese and stir to combine.

Serve hot with more cheese to sprinkle on top, or on slices of toasted bread.