Quail egg and spinach salad

Name: Quail egg and spinach salad
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients: Quail eggs 10 (90 g); Baby spinach 4 cups (120 g); Cherry tomatoes 10 (150 g); Olive oil 2 tbsp; Lemon juice 1 tbsp; Mustard 1 tsp; Salt 1/4 tsp; Pepper a little

Boil quail eggs for three minutes, no more. And count them onto the plate — each one carries 76 mg of cholesterol.

2 servings15 min

Ingredients

Quail eggs10 (90 g)
Baby spinach4 cups (120 g)
Cherry tomatoes10 (150 g)
Olive oil2 tbsp
Lemon juice1 tbsp
Mustard1 tsp
Salt1/4 tsp
Peppera little

Method

Bring water to the boil and cook the quail eggs for 3 minutes — half the time of a hen's egg.
Plunge straight into cold water for 2 minutes. A gap opens between shell and white, which makes peeling possible.
Roll to craze the shell, then peel. If the membrane clings, peel them under water.
Cut them in half. Whole, they are a choking hazard.
Wash the baby spinach and dry it completely. Any water left and the dressing slides off.
Halve the cherry tomatoes.
Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, mustard and salt into a dressing. The mustard holds the oil and acid together.
Just before serving, toss the spinach and tomatoes in the dressing, lay the quail eggs on top, and grind over the pepper.

Cooking note

Three minutes is the number. A quail egg is about a fifth the size of a hen's egg, so giving it the same time leaves the yolk chalky. For soft, 2 minutes 30; for definitely hard, 4.

Cutting them in half is a safety matter. One quail egg is exactly the size that blocks a small child's airway. If children are eating, always cut them.

Counting them out is about cholesterol. One quail egg (9 g edible) holds about 76 mg. Ten make 760 mg — close to four hen's eggs. Over two servings that is five each, 380 mg, which is a reasonable line for one meal.

The tomatoes and lemon are here for the iron. Spinach iron is non-haem and poorly absorbed, but vitamin C in the same place raises that absorption. The 150 g of cherry tomatoes and the lemon juice do that job.

Spinach oxalate survives better raw. With a history of kidney stones, use blanched spinach instead of baby leaves — blanching leaches a good share of the oxalate into the water.

Dress it at the last moment. Spinach wilts within minutes of meeting acid and salt.

Ingredients used here

Dairy & eggs

Moderate evidence

Quail eggs

At 844 mg per 100 g, the cholesterol is double a hen's egg. But one quail egg is 9 g, so it carries about 76 mg — less than a hen's egg (about 206 mg). Change the unit and the conclusion flips.