Recipe: roast garlic mushrooms with parsley and eggs by Gelf Alderson
A simple and classic breakfast combination

I love mushrooms for breakfast, said Gelf Alderson, especially with plenty of garlic. I use nice big flat mushrooms for this simple, classic combination, but it's a dish that would work well with any variety. If you can get your hands on some wild mushrooms such as chanterelles or girolles, they'll take it to another level – just adjust the cooking time accordingly. And make sure you have a nice hunk of fresh crusty bread on the side to mop up any juices.
Ingredients: serves two
- 8 large flat mushrooms
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- a knob of unsalted butter
- a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
- 4 medium eggs
- sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
- buttered sourdough, to serve
Method
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/210°C fan/gas 7.
- Cut the mushrooms into 1cm-thick slices. Place them in a medium baking dish with the chopped garlic and extra-virgin olive oil and tumble together. (Don't be tempted to add salt at this stage as this would make the mushrooms tough.) Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Remove the dish from the oven, add the knob of butter and stir gently. Return to the oven for 3-5 minutes until the mushrooms are nice and soft.
- Take out of the oven, season with salt and pepper and toss through the parsley. Using the back of a spoon, make 4 hollows in the baked mushrooms and crack the eggs into these. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.
- Place the dish back in the oven for 4-6 minutes until the whites of the eggs are just set but the yolks are still runny. Check them often to make sure the yolks don't firm up, unless that's how you like them!
- Serve the mushrooms and eggs with warm sourdough… and a smile.
- Swaps: use any variety of mushrooms you like. Try replacing the parsley with chopped tarragon or snipped chives. And if you're not a fan of eggs, replace them with a ball of mozzarella – thickly sliced and cooked on top of the mushrooms until creamy and stringy.
Recipe from "River Cottage Great Roasts" by Gelf Alderson, published by Bloomsbury at £20. Photography by Emma Lee. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £15.99, call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.
Sign up for The Week's Food & Drink newsletter for recipes, reviews and recommendations.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
May 31 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday's political cartoons include how much to pay for a pardon, medical advice from a brain worm, and a simple solution to the national debt.
-
5 costly cartoons about the national debt
Cartoons Political cartoonists take on the USA's financial hole, rare bipartisan agreement, and Donald Trump and Mike Johnson.
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'
-
6 well-preserved homes built in the 1930s
Feature Featuring a restored 1934 colonial in Arizona and a cold-storage warehouse turned loft in New York City
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow: memoir of 'harsh beauty' after loss
The Week Recommends Chinese-American novelist Yiyun Li's 'devastating' memoir explores the deaths of her two sons
-
Sirens: entertaining satire on the lives of the ultra-wealthy stars Julianne Moore
The Week Recommends This 'blackly comic affair' unfurls at a 'breakneck speed'
-
Mrs Warren's Profession: 'tour-de-force' from Imelda Staunton and daughter Bessie Carter
The Week Recommends Mother-daughter duo bring new life to George Bernard Shaw's morality play
-
Critics' choice: Steak houses that break from tradition
Feature Eight hours of slow-roasting prime rib, a 41-ounce steak, and a former Catholic school chapel turned steakhouse
-
Tash Aw's 6 favorite books about forbidden love
Feature The Malaysian novelist recommends works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and more