Hands peeling hard boiled white eggs on cutting board
Cooking Tips

Level Up Sad Dinners with Eggs

We all have those leftovers in the fridge that never sound good. Read more about bringing those lame leftovers back to life.

Real Talk

You’re not going to whip up a gorgeous, Instagram-worthy, three-course dinner every night of the week. And neither are we. Most nights, we’re gonna heat up some leftover takeout rice, slice up some cold steak, or, yeah, just toast some bread. That’s perfectly fine. But if you want to take things to the next level (i.e. make your dinner a little less sad), all you have to do is put an egg on it. Or in it. Heck, any way you involve an egg is guaranteed success. You know this already.

But when should you scramble ‘em? When is a fried egg ideal? What foods really need a poached egg? George Weld, chef and owner of Egg, Brooklyn’s obsessive homage to the incredible, edible protein, has the answers. Here’s his guide for making even the saddest dinners better.

Three-Day-Old Pizza

Bake the Egg

You can dress up sad pizza by baking an egg onto the slice as you reheat it. Just cook until the white is set—that should give you enough time to get the slice hot. It’d be especially good on a slice with spicy meats like soppressata or pepperoni.

Close up of sunnyside eggs on pepperoni pizza

Last Night's Leftover Fried Rice

Semi-scramble or Sunny-side up

For fried rice, whisking the egg and throwing it in at the end of cooking—going the classic egg-and-fried-rice route—is still hard to beat. But if you fry the rice hard, so that it gets a little crunchy, laying a sunny side egg on top of the plate once you’ve cooked it would be a nice alternative.

Mixed fried rice with sunnyside egg on top

Cold, Sliced Steak From Friday's Tinder Date

Scrambled

For steak, if you’re not worried about appearances, go for scrambled—the juices run together with the eggs, and you get it all in one perfect bite. As a bonus, you get the benefits of a fancy sauce like bérnaise without any of the trouble.

Farmer's skillet with steak and scrambled eggs

Leftovers Still Not Sounding Good?

Read some of our recipes for tonight's dinner

A Big Ol' Tray of Roasted Vegetables

Mayo

For roasted vegetables, go for homemade mayonnaise, maybe spiced up with some cayenne and heavy on lemon. It’s an egg preparation that people forget about, but it’s super easy and delicious and worth the 5 minutes it takes to make.

Small clear bowl of mayo

Sorta (Definitely) Stale Loaf of Bread

Scrambled

If you’re reduced to eating toast for dinner, I’d go with a scrambled egg. Scooping eggs onto your toast will give you something fun to do to distract yourself from your empty shelves. Also scrambled eggs on toast is really one of the best things on earth.

Sunny side egg on white toast

Canned Chicken Noodle Soup

Soft-Boiled or Poached

I’d drop a soft- or medium-boiled egg into chicken soup, or else a poached egg—the yolk will thicken the broth, making it richer in texture and taste. But, that said, I’m never so sad that I’d eat chicken soup for dinner.

Clear chicken soup with two halves of a hard boiled egg

Now You're a Leftover Connoisseur

You have the framework for some great leftovers. Take the things you've read and try adding eggs to things we didn't mention.

View Our Delicious Recipes!

Try out some of our favorite recipes using Dakota Layers eggs.