Smoked Salmon Egg Scramble

I hope you all rang in the new year in whatever way suits you best. We spent the evening with a small group of friends, including a handful of little kids who shockingly all made it to watch the ball drop at midnight. I’m not a very superstitious person and I don’t have any traditions that I follow to usher in the new year. But I do think it’s important to ring it in with good people, to foster more time spent with people we love.

I’ve found I gravitate towards making more breakfast recipes at the beginning of the year. Starting out the day with a great meal seems somehow symbolic of fresh starts in the new year. I had an egg scramble similar to this in a restaurant several months ago and I’ve been meaning to recreate it at home ever since. All the fixings you would normally find on a bagel with smoked salmon are stirred into simple scrambled eggs and the combination is superb. So, let’s start out the day and the new year on the right foot with an awesome breakfast. Cheers!

Yield 2 servings

Ingredients

¼ cup coarsely chopped carrot
¼ cup coarsely chopped celery
¼ cup coarsely chopped green onion
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
4 large eggs
2 tbsp. milk
½ tbsp. butter
½ cup quartered cherry or grape tomatoes
¼ cup finely chopped red onion
About 4 oz. smoked salmon, flaked
Minced fresh dill, for serving

Directions

01
To make the veggie cream cheese, combine the carrot, celery and green onions in the bowl of a food processor. (If you don’t have a food processor, just mince the veggies as finely as you possibly can with a good knife.) Place the cream cheese in a bowl and stir in the minced veggies. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (This will be more cream cheese than you need for this recipe. Save the rest for bagels, english muffins, etc.)
02
In a bowl, combine the eggs and the milk. Whisk lightly just until evenly combined. Season with salt and pepper. Place the butter in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Once the pan is heated and the butter has melted, add the eggs to the pan. Stir gently with a spatula, scraping the bottom of the pan to lightly scramble the eggs. When the eggs are still slightly runny, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook, turning gently, until the eggs are just fully set. Stir in the tomatoes, red onion and flaked salmon.
03
Divide the scrambled eggs between two plates. Top each serving with 1-2 teaspoons of the veggie cream cheese mixture and swirl gently into the eggs. Sprinkle with a bit of fresh dill. Serve immediately.