This recipe is coming at you thanks to my friend, pro snowboarder (+ new mama!) Leanne Pelosi, who fell in love with these scrambled eggs at Sister Summit and has requested that the recipe be shared, specifically. I’m so flattered, Leanne, it’s ridiculous.
I mean, I knew that they were really good. That the texture was much more creamy and fluffy than so many other scrambled eggs. And I KNEW that they were better for digestion, absorption, and assimilation than pretty much any other egg preparation out there. But all of that aside, to say that a scrambled egg is a standout recipe during a 10-day trip to a remote ski lodge where we ate (truly) so many delicious things, is really an honor. And so here they are.
Scrambled eggs?! You may be thinking. “I KNOW how to make scrambled eggs.”
But do you?
Are these the words that you’d use to describe your scrambled eggs? If so, then excuse me – I’ll step out of your way. But my guess is that most of the time when you turn scrambled eggs out of the pan and onto your plate, they’re a little bouncy, a little stiff, and lacking a little bit of flavor. That’s probably because no one has ever walked through the science of the scramble with you. Here’s what’s happening. As your eggs heat up in the skillet, the bonds holding their different chains of amino acids (read, proteins) break down. As the proteins denature, the chains lose their shape and make links to other parts of other chains, forming a new opaque structure that no longer looks like a yolky little egg. The mass of proteins gets more and more interconnected (as well as harder, bouncier, and more opaque) the longer the egg cooks. So, by cooking quickly, over low heat, we can create an optimally creamy scrambled egg. We can also add ingredients to the eggs during the cooking process to impact the strength of the protein structures (read: make creamier eggs) by adding different substances; water of any kind will gently steam the bonds, fat will lubricate and soften them, and acid with soften them even more. (This is why many *secret* scrambled egg recipes call for a splash of orange juice, milk, or cream. The acid in the dairy denatures the protein bonds, making luxuriously creamy eggs. Kenji Lopez-Alt has shared some really mind-bending methods for making ultra-luxe, creamy scrambled eggs, and (trust me) they all work like a dream! But there’s just one major problem with most of these methods.
Now you’re REALLY rolling your eyes at me. I can feel it! But hear me out.
Dairy is already an acid-rich food. When we combine it with other acid-rich foods – for example, eggs, meat and beans; all foods that are high in amino acids, we curdle the dairy in the digestive system. Since all of the foods that we consume in one sitting move through the digestive tract together as a ‘bolus,” the acidic or alkaline state of this bolus impacts the acid state of the digestive system. For most of us, we’ll notice that we have more digestive distress (gas, bloating, inconsistent bowels, loose stools, general discomfort or indigestion – none of these ‘normal’ or ‘ideal’ conditions for a healthy gut) when we consume proteins together. If you think back to occasions when cheese is consumed with meat, beans are consumed with meat, or cheese is consumed with eggs, we’ve likely experienced some of these symptoms.
For best results, digestively speaking, leave cream and milk out of your eggs. Leave cheese out of your omelet too. Use ghee to cook your eggs (which contains no dairy products as the milk solids have been removed,) and you’ll be on the right track to the BEST creamy, soft scrambled eggs ever.
This fascinating philosophy on food combining, Ayurvedic consumption of proteins, and a few other digestive practices are on topic in my recent blog post
Yes! What IS with the turmeric? This is an easy one. The tremendous nutrition in a little egg (and the dense fat that is contained in that yolk,) is actually remarkably difficult for our weakened, modern digestion (called agni in Ayurveda) to digest. Eggs are sweet in flavor, and foods that are sweet are dense, cooling, and reduce vata and pitta in the system. But, if we don’t have a substantial digestive fire, we may find that this cools down our digestion too much and leaves a weight in the gut after breakfast. And this is where the turmeric comes in. By adding a pinch of pungent turmeric and a few cracks of pungent black pepper, we warm up the sweet flavors of the eggs and make them easier to digest. Add to that a little pinch of astringent cilantro or parsley, and now the sweet, heavy (but nutritious) little egg we started with has been transformed into a nutritional powerhouse of flavor that’s easy to digest and absorb. Boom. (You’re welcome!)
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