Spinach with rice and eggs

It's surprising how many dishes can be improved by a poached egg (toasted cheese sandwiches, spicy tomato sauce, various soups, most dishes involving pasta and pesto...). Spinach and eggs are one of those classic combinations which just seems right, whether it's in a salad, omelette, souffle or quiche. And if you add some cheese too, then you really have a match made in heaven.

I'm a big fan of spinach, with its mild but distinctive flavour and slight tang of iron. The frozen stuff is a handy ingredient to have in your freezer (and avoids the disappointment of watching fresh spinach shrink so dramatically) but sometimes only fresh will do. Having bought a couple of bunches of vivid green spinach from Brixton Farmers' Market, this dish is how I decided to celebrate.

It's a fairly simple recipe: spinach, a cheese sauce, brown rice and poached eggs. I've made it a bit healthier by swapping the traditional white sauce base for a low-fat version made with cornflour. You could also experiment with different cheeses (Gruyere perhaps, or even a blue cheese).

Ingredients

Serves 2

1 bunch fresh spinach, the thickest stalks trimmed off
1/8 of a whole nutmeg
1 tbsp cornflour
140ml / 1/4 pint semi-skimmed milk
25g/ 1oz mature Cheddar, grated
25g/ 1oz Parmesan, grated (you can use extra Cheddar if you don't have Parmesan)
Brown rice, enough for 2
2 eggs

Method

Start by cooking the rice according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile, start making the sauce. Mix the cornflour with a little of the milk to form a paste. Mix well so that there are no lumps, then put in a small pan with the rest of the milk. Heat gently, stirring, until the sauce starts to thicken. Add the cheese and continue to heat until the sauce is fairly thick, then turn off the heat.

Wash the spinach well and cook it in a covered pan, with just the water clinging to the leaves, until it is thoroughly wilted (you could do this bit in a microwave if your prefer.) Chop it fairly roughly, but put a quarter of it on one side and chop that finely.

Mix the finely chopped spinach and grated nutmeg into the cheese sauce to make a fiorentina sauce. If you want it really smooth, you could put it in a liquidiser at this point, but I don't necessarily bother.

Bring a small pan of water to a simmer, break the eggs into it and poach for three or four minutes or until done to your liking (I think the yolks should be runny).

Serve the rice with cooked spinach, then put a poached egg on top, and pour over the cheese sauce.