This is one of my favorite quick, savory breakfasts and I’ve made about a hundred versions of it. It’s going to seem gross or weird to a lot of you, but I LOVE it. Plus, I got so many questions about it when I used a picture of a similar version for this soft boiled egg post, that I knew at least some people would be interested. :)
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The basic formula is rice, greens, a soft boiled egg, and a splash of hot sauce. You can use different types of rice, different seasonings, different types of sautéed greens, and even different kinds of fat. My favorite combination is jasmine rice (white or brown), virgin coconut oil, jerk seasoning, and spinach. The coconut oil is absolutely magical in this breakfast bowl, but for the SNAP challenge, I used butter to save a few pennies. I love this Mccormick jerk seasoning, but can’t find it at my usual grocery store, so I made the seasoned rice instead, to hopefully make up for it. So, here is the SNAP version of my favorite savory breakfast, packed with fiber, greens, and a deliciously creamy soft boiled egg. (directions for making a soft boiled egg here)
Spinach Rice Breakfast Bowls
Servings 1 bowlIngredients
- 1/2 cup cooked seasoned rice ($0.11)
- 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach ($0.16)
- 1/2 Tbsp butter ($0.08)
- 1 large egg ($0.21)
- pinch of salt and pepper ($0.03)
- splash of hot sauce ($0.05)
Instructions
- Place one inch of water in a small sauce pan. Bring it up to a boil over high heat with the lid on top. Once it reaches a full boil, add the egg in the pot, replace the lid, and let boil/steam in the shallow water for exactly six minutes. After six minutes, pour out the hot water, rinse with cool water, then peel immediately.
- While the egg is cooking, add 1/2 cup of precooked seasoned rice to a bowl along with 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach. Microwave on high until heated through (about two minutes, stirring once half way through). Season the spinach and rice with butter and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Once the egg is cooked and peeled, add it to the bowl with the spinach rice, drizzle hot sauce over top, and eat.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!See my full tutorial and video on how to soft boil an egg here.
How to Make Spinach Rice Breakfast Bowls – Step by Step Photos
Begin by bringing one inch of water to a full boil in a small pot. Once it begins to boil, add the egg, cover the pot, and let it boil/steam for exactly six minutes. After six minutes, pour out the hot water, and rinse with cool water. Peel the egg immediately.
While the egg is cooking, add 1/2 cup of precooked seasoned rice to a bowl along with 1/2 cup of frozen, chopped spinach. Microwave on high for about two minutes (stirring once half way through), or until the rice and spinach are hot.
Once the rice and spinach are fully heated, season with 1/2 Tbsp butter (or virgin coconut oil) and a pinch of salt and pepper. You can experiment with adding extra herbs here. Sometimes I add a little thyme and red pepper flakes.
Finally, add the cooked and peeled soft-boiled egg and drizzle with hot sauce (I use sriracha! Woo!). And that’s one of my all time favorite breakfasts! (yes, I’m a little unusual)
I just made its wonderful love the hint of sirracco cause it’s excellent will make again!!thanks!
I’m gonna try this now for breakfast!sounds great and easy
Absolutely perfect…and Easy!!
Yay oh yay!!!my new breakfast favorite!!!
Same here!
This is my second-favorite recipe of Beth’s. I make it religiously. (FIrst is Black Bean Pizzas, which I had last night.)
This morning I am making bowls for my roommate and I, and he is making an over-easy egg for himself (because I stink at those), and I will have good ol’ fried with the awesome yolk all over the bowl!
Guess it’s a Beth Weekend!
I sauteed some kale instead of using frozen spinach ( we just happened to have kale and not spinach). I added some rice vinegar to the kale on a whim and I really enjoyed that flavor. This is was the first time I had a soft boiled egg and that was surprisingly great too.
Awesome breakfast. I’ve used quinoa instead of rice, avocado, various greens. Very filling and i don’t get hungry for quite a while. Best of all it’s healthy and delicious
hi!
this is exactly what I was looking for!
EXCEPT: I don’t own a microwave, and I’m not experienced in the kitchen.
Could you help me out with an alternative??
Thank you in advance
Greetings frm Switzerland,
alexandra ❀
Unfortunately I’ve never tried to reheat rice without a microwave. You may have to just cook your rice fresh. :)
Add a little water to the rice and stir it around in a frying pan or saucepan.
This is my new favorite dinner. I give myself a weird look every time I make it, but I’m hooked. It shouldn’t work, but it does!
This was really great! I needed to use up leftover cooked rice and other spare ingredients from a potluck dish. I added potatoes and onions since they were chopped and leftover, plus poured a fair amount of Worcestershire sauce over it instead of hot sauce. I liked it better than the ‘real’ dish I was making!
This was so easy and sooo yummy!! I even forgot to add hot sauce, since after adding egg we couldn’t resist it. :P
Thanks for this healthy yummy recipe :)
I’ve become such a fan of the Big Bowl meal! This is so versatile just by reading all the comments-Looking forward to inventing my own version-
Vicky
I love this. It’s so easy and delicious. I like to use a sunny side up egg instead of a hard boiled egg, and it tastes just as good.
I’m a diehard for oatmeal at breakfast but i love this as a quick lunch or dinner. I make up a brown/wild rice blend with garlic, black pepper and chillies and freeze it in one cup portions then soft boil two eggs and throw half an avocado on top with the sriracha. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you for this recipe. I came upon your site when I was looking for a savory breakfast that would use up some leftover rice. As I struggle to eat healthy, I like that this helps get a serving of vegetables in at breakfast.
I make this dish regularly now. Sometimes adding a little ground sausage or bacon, if I happen to have them. Today I made it with black forbidden rice which gave it an even richer flavor.
Looking forward to trying more of your recipes!
Delicious, filling, and so so easy! I made this for the first time this morning, adding a cup of broccoli as well, and this is definitely going to become one of my go-to breakfasts.
I made this with barley, your creamed spinach recipe I had around, and chipolata Tabasco… SO yummy and filling!
Would this work with frozen broccoli?
Yes, I actually do this quite often with broccoli. :)
I feel like this would have worked a lot better had I used a microwave. Since I don’t have one, I opted to boil the rice on the stove and then steam the veggies in the rice after it was done cooking.
Also, I just could NOT get these eggs to peel! I don’t care as much about it when I have hard boiled eggs since they usually get chopped anyway, but when there’s a delicate yolk, it becomes an issue. Do you have any tips for easy peeling?
Surprisingly, I really haven’t had problems peeling them, so I haven’t had to test any egg peeling tricks. :/
I saw on Buzzfeed that sprinkling some baking soda into the pot helps with peeling eggs, but that was in reference to hard boiled. It may work with soft as well, I don’t know from experience. Just thought I’d put that out there in case it works. Also, if/when I try it out myself, I will share my findings.
I used to have a lot of issues peeling eggs but have found if you run them under running cold water (not put into the pot but hold them in your hand and run them under the coldest water under the stream from the tap) it makes it a lot easier. Also do this immediately after removing them from the heat
It’s kind of like a poor man’s Bibimbap! Love it! Your soft boiled egg method is the best too!
This is so easy and amazing! I love mixing in leftover veggie/chick pea curry or taco seasoned shredded chicken. Some kind of runny yolk egg is necessary for extra deliciousness (and my body loves the protein.)
Wow. This one made me raise an eyebrow initially, but I wound up with some leftover rice and thought “what the heck”. It’s actually delicious! My brain keeps insisting that it shouldn’t but my mouth doesn’t care.
Beth, I will never doubt again.
Yum! I love overeasy eggs over fried rice so I cooked the egg overeasy and used a combination of brown rice and white rice mixed together. This was very tasty and filling. The sriracha adds a nice kick.
This is great. Trying it for a healthy lunch alternative to my regular sandwich, and loving it. I don’t have hot sauce, so I tried it with barbecue sauce. No regrets. Works wonderfully! I also cooked the rice in part water, part vegetable broth to add some extra flavour. I’ll be having this regularly. :)
Awesome and Weight Watchers friendly! There is so much that I want to say about this dish I just really love it. I pretty much always have rice cooked and in my fridge because I keep needing it for this and other recipes on this site. Softboiled eggs are my new best friends! Beth is right, they are just all kinds of yummy. And to top it all off this and many other recipes on this site are Weight Watchers friendly because they are so darn healthy! Beth, I can’t thank you enough for what you share here. It has been hard to find recipes that are healthy and budget friendly, so often if they are healthy they use a lot of expensive, perishable ingredients, if they are budget friendly they are often loaded with fat, sugar and salt! You are awesome!!!
I just made this and this came out great!!! I used fresh spinach however and I added some baby onions and cilantro!! It was so cheap and simple and I will be making it in the future. I didn’t use hot sauce instead I added homemade salsa verde I already had in my fridge! But thank you Beth!! As a student you’re website really helps out :).
I *finally* made this for brunch this morning after meaning to for ages, and I wish I’d done it before, because this is going to change my poor college breakfast from now on. :D I added a little fresh sage, basil and sweet marjoram (from pots on my windowsill), and it was absolutely delicious. Even if it hadn’t been, the smell of the seasoned rice cooking would’ve made it worth it. :)
This is so delicious! I made it for dinner because I happened to have everything the recipe called for and it came out amazing! Rich and filling. Truthfully, I have never made a soft boiled egg before, I have always been cautious off it because uncooked egg whites are gross… I was surprised the egg came out so picture perfect and tasty being boiled in only a half inch of water, but IT DID! Put that over the rice and spinach, heaven. Thank you for all of your amazing recipes, I plan on regularly making this one.
I just made this for lunch after the gym. SO. GOOD. I’ve been making the seasoned rice often enough to always have some extra in the freezer, which makes this meal super easy to whip together!
Just tried this recipe for the first time and it was delicious! I had it for dinner instead of breakfast, but who cares? I’ve certainly had pancakes for dinner before. I added a second egg to be a little more substantial, but it was wonderful. This is definitely going to be a regular in my cooking repertoire. Thanks so much for sharing it!!
This sounds like a dish I’ve been obsessed with (it happens). Cook up some rice and top it with a fried (runny yolk) egg, some scallions, a splash of soy sauce, and some avocado. EMG. They used to serve it at the Chinese restaurant where I worked, and it is sooo good and cheap.
I need to try this way too. Fried eggs are easy to mess up, but soft boiling looks more forgiving and hands off :)
My hot sauce of choice is Frank’s Red Hot, I believe you can get that in Australia.
I’m going to try this as breakfast with my kids. Both are getting into their autumn sports, hours of training per week, and complain that they can’t get enough protein in the mornings… and an egg on toast every day gets painfully repetitive.
This bowl has become my new everyday breakfast. I crave it. And your other recipes? The sesame chicken, veggie lentil soup, the chickpea curry!?
Beth, I don’t know you but I love you.
Before you came into my husbands’ and my life, we worked 10-12 hour days and couldn’t muster up the energy or creativity to cook a two hour healthy meal that didn’t cost $20-30 worth of ingredients. I also could never convince my husband to eat a meal without meat! You’re just the tops, Beth-you and your recipes. Keep on keeping on, girl.
Awww, that’s the sweetest thing ever! Thank you! :)
It’s been a while since I was here (back when I was doing a year without buying anything new I was a regular visitor), but since reconnecting, I’ve made a bunch of your college fav recipes, as well as the SNAP dijon soy chicken, and these breakfast bowls. I love them!! So thanks for inspiring me to cook, keep it simple, and be thrifty and healthy. It’s a lovely thing you are doing here :)
What would be the equivalent of hot sauce in Australia? Is this like tabasco? Love the sound of this dish. :)
Tabasco would work, yes. I used sriracha, which is a Vietnamese hot sauce. It’s thicker than tabasco and almost has a slight sweetness. But, any hot sauce would work. :)
I’ve been eating this all week for breakfast, except with grits instead of rice because I’m a proper southern girl. It is my new favorite. Thanks for the recipe! And I love your blog!
Holy yummy! I just made this with microwave minute brown rice (you know, the pouch kind) I had on hand for a quick delicious lunch. My 3 year old twins even liked it! I think I found my regular weekday breakfast!
Have been wanting to try soft boiled egg with spinach for a couple months and when I saw this post, just got up & tried it. No microwave, no froz spin, no rice. Washed, spun & sauteed (in coconut oil) fresh spinach & used a jumbo egg. Lots of ground pepper to finish.
All totally yummy but needs some tweaks: a minute or two more for the jumbo. While there was no water in the saute pan, the spinach released some water when I plopped the egg into the bowl on top of it. How can I release that water earlier in the process? Thank you for this wonderful addition to my bkfst repertoire!
Sorry, tried to give five stars! ***** :)
Try leaving the spinach in the sauté pan for a few minutes after you turn off the heat. The spinach will release the water as it cools and then you can separate out the spinach from the water.
Thank you! I’ll try this for lunch today & report back :)
That worked, squeezed out some green water…seems like that should be saved to add to another recipe later. Thanks so much!
I made this for dinner and loved it! It was the perfect comfort food. Easy and cheap too!
I made this for dinner and loved it! A perfect, easy, and inexpensive comfort food.
I’ve now made this twice. So, so good! I had a big bag of bulgur so I used that instead of rice, still came out great.
Just made this with your savory coconut rice recipe. Completely heavenly!
I’m making soft boiled eggs tonight…kind of scared!! I have a ton of tomatoes from the garden that I’m going to sauté up with markdown kale. I would totally recommend hitting up the markdown produce cart to help stretch the budget! Also, coupons!! I get markdown Earthbound Farm kale and freeze it…after coupons it’s usually 50 cents!
Similar to Bibimbap, one of my favourite Korean dishes. I use Gochujang and a bit of sesame oil instead of hot sauce and butter, raw shredded veggies, and a fried egg. My rice bowls are constantly changing depending on what veggies I have available. If no egg in the house, I’ll use tuna, or chicken (though those are normally for supper). If you can find Gim (seasoned seaweed), shred some on there, really delicious. Love how cheap of a meal it makes! I never realized just how cheap. Your SNAP challenge is certainly making me re-think my budgeting and cooking strategies. Love your site.
I for one am 100% into greens with breakfast! Especially greens with egg and hot sauce — so good. I would eat a bowl like this pretty much any time of day, and since it’s so fast & affordable, there’s no reason not to. Yay!
I am definitely going to try this one. I like the soft-boiled egg idea in particular, because it is healthy like a poached egg and has the runny yolk, but seems easier to cook than a poached egg.
I think im going to try the skillet. Life is hard without a microwave.
Oh, thank you for reminding me about this! I loved this idea when I initially tried it and then it gradually got forgotten in a sea of recipes, meal plans, cold breakfasts, etc.
This is actually one of my favorite easy warm breakfasts, so I’ll have to remember to get it back into the rotation as the weather cools!
I use broccoli and onion with an egg, served with a side of homemade kimchi.
I chop the broccoli and onion once or twice a week, and keep a container of each in the fridge so it’s not a pain in the morning.
Just made it this morning with the coconut oil. So delicious! I can’t believe I’ve never tried a soft-boiled egg before. I’m clumsy at frying eggs, so this is the perfect solution. I’ve been daydreaming about eating soft-boiled eggs all morning now!
I don’t like cooked spinache (I know, I know), but I can definitely see doing this with maybe some grits in the morning and maybe adding some sauteed cherry tomatoes (those are very cheap where I live) with the egg. Yum!
Man, this looks so good… I recently heard that there are some health risks associated with runny egg yolks, though, which makes me sad. :(
I make this every morning! It’s so tasty! I like to switch up my greens: spinach, kale, collard greens (whatever is cheaper) Everyone should eat this tasty and nutritious breakfast filled with whole grains (fiber) , protein, and tasty greens with more fiber and vitamins!
I love a soft boiled egg atop a lot of dishes that usually wouldn’t involve an egg. Creamy pasta, anything with sauted or fried potatoes, even a burger…I’m all over it! Now that I’m living in South Korea, a hard boiled, soft boiled or even partially raw egg atop a meal is not uncommon at all. Given the fact that I was all about it back in the States, I’m surprised at how off putting it can sometimes seem to me now. Trying to get over that!
I used seasoned rice to make this:http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/sausage-spinach-rice-bowl-50400000120279/
I had some mushrooms that needed to be used, so I added those. Leftovers with an egg sounds like a meal to me.
I’ve never made a soft boiled egg before, but this breakfast bowl is definitely calling my name! Love how easy this is to whip up for breakfast…Will try it tomorrow morning:)
If you don’t feel like cooking an egg, a dollop of plain yogurt works well with this, too.
Good idea Ali. I’m trying to avoid all the fat in yolks.
man oh man, who would think this is gross? put an egg on anything and I’ll eat it! I do basically this same thing but on top of a sweet potato instead of rice. but I am super stoked to try rice (why did I never think of that..? ;) ) Love the SNAP posts, keep em coming!
This sounds amazing! I’m not a fan of hot sauce. Could you suggest something else that would work well as a replacement?
You could use soy sauce or no added sauce at all. Let the runny yolk be the sauce.
Soy sauce or teriyaki sauce would probably be good.
Use salsa or a red pasta sauce. Fresh tomatoes within dried herbs and salt are also great.
This dish sounds really yummy to me! Since we don’t own a microwave, can you see sauteing some fresh spinach (with perhaps some onion, garlic and tomatoes) and then warming the rice over the top? I know the above add might take you over the SNAP Challenge requirements.
Also, how many minutes more would I need to cook that egg to get it a bit more hard without going over the top (the hubs doesn’t like runny yokes, but I love them)?
Brenna,
I don’t have a microwave and I often to a quick saute of already cooked rice, greens and whatever else sounds good…and then put an egg on it!
I learned how to soft boil from Beth and left poaching behind. I do a 7 minute egg and the yoke is soft but not too runny. I just experimented with the time until I got what I wanted.
Yep, you could definitely saute both the rice and the spinach in a skillet. It will almost be like fried rice with an egg on top. :) I haven’t experimented with longer cooking times on the egg to know how many minutes will get you a solid yolk, but I would guess around ten.
Sent this recipe to my son (in college). He loves it!
I’m probably going to make it myself with fresh arugula (I have a ton that needs to get eaten) and leftover couscous.