Sardine, Collard, and Sesame Breakfast Squares
Shredded collard greens cooked down with onion and garlic, folded through eggs, almond flour, and flaked sardines, baked in a tray under a crust of toasted sesame seeds.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is the tray I bake on a Sunday afternoon when I want breakfast handled for four mornings. It goes into an eight-inch square dish, comes out set and sliceable, and cuts into eight squares that reheat in a pan in about three minutes. Sardines are the reason it works. Tinned, they need no cooking, they break down into the eggs without any fuss, and they season the whole tray on their own so very little salt goes in. If sardines have ever tasted too assertive to you on toast, spread through a set custard with greens and lemon they read as savory rather than fishy.
The collards go in first and they are not a garnish. Shredded thin and cooked down with onion and garlic for a good eight minutes, they lose their squeak and turn dark, silky, and slightly sweet, which is a completely different vegetable from the tough leaf that went into the pan. Almond flour goes into the egg mixture to give the squares a tender, faintly nutty crumb and to keep the set from going rubbery at the edges, and the sesame seeds go on top where the oven can toast them. Lemon zest in the batter and juice at the end keep it bright.
A square of this eats like a real breakfast rather than a snack, and two of them with a tomato salad is a proper plate. I like the second and third days best, once the lemon and garlic have settled into the eggs and the whole thing has firmed enough to eat with your hands standing at the counter. Cold from the refrigerator it is good, warmed in a skillet until the sesame crust crisps again it is better. Cut the tray the moment it cools and the squares keep their shape all week.
Ingredients
- 3 tins whole sardines in olive oil (about 3 3/4 oz each), drained, soft bones left in
- 1 large bunch collard greens (about 8 oz), thick ribs cut out, leaves stacked and shredded thin
- 3 large eggs
- 5 large egg whites (about 2/3 cup)
- 3/4 cup almond flour
- 3 tbsp sesame seeds, divided
- 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- Juice and finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
- 2 1/2 tsp olive oil
- 3/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Prepare the tray and the greens: Heat the oven to 375°F and line an 8-inch square baking dish with parchment, leaving an overhang on two sides. Stack the collard leaves, roll them into a cigar, and slice across into thin ribbons. Wash and spin them dry, since wet greens will water down the set.
- Cook the collards down: Warm the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and cook the onion for four minutes until translucent. Add the garlic for thirty seconds, then the collards and the salt. Cook eight to ten minutes, stirring often, until the ribbons have gone dark green, silky, and reduced by half. Spread them on a plate to cool for five minutes.
- Mix the batter: Whisk the whole eggs and egg whites in a large bowl until completely uniform with no ropes of white left. Whisk in the almond flour, the black pepper, the lemon zest, and 2 tbsp of the sesame seeds. The batter will be loose and slightly grainy, which is what you want.
- Fold in the sardines and greens: Lift the sardines out of the tin and break each one into three or four pieces with your fingers, leaving the soft backbones in place since they crush to nothing in the bake. Fold them and the cooled collards through the batter with a spatula, using as few strokes as you can so the fish stays in recognizable flakes.
- Bake until set: Scrape into the lined dish, level the top, and scatter the last tablespoon of sesame seeds over. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until the center no longer wobbles when you nudge the dish and a knife slid into the middle comes out clean. The top should be gold and the sesame seeds visibly toasted.
- Rest, then cut: Let the tray sit for at least fifteen minutes before you touch it. Cutting into a hot egg bake tears it and lets steam out through the cut faces, which makes the squares weep. Lift it out by the parchment, squeeze the lemon juice over the surface, and cut into eight squares.
Variations
- Tomato and oregano: Press halved cherry tomatoes into the surface before baking and add a teaspoon of dried oregano to the batter.
- Hot and smoky: Add half a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a good pinch of cayenne with the garlic for a warmer, redder tray.
- Herb heavy: Fold a large handful of chopped parsley and dill through the batter at the end for a fresher, greener square.
- Tinned mackerel: Swap the sardines for two tins of mackerel fillets, broken up the same way, for a softer and richer result.
- Tahini drizzle: Thin two tablespoons of tahini with lemon juice and cold water and spoon it over the warm squares as you serve them.
Storage & Leftovers
Cut squares keep four days in a sealed container in the refrigerator, stacked with parchment between the layers so the sesame crust does not stick. The flavor improves overnight as the garlic and lemon settle into the eggs, and by day two the sardines have gone milder and rounder.
Reheat in a dry nonstick skillet over medium heat, sesame side down for two minutes and then flipped for one, which brings the crust back. A microwave heats them through in forty seconds but leaves the top soft and the texture spongy, so use the pan when you have the three minutes.
The squares freeze for up to two months. Wrap them individually, freeze flat, and thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating in a skillet. Reheating straight from frozen makes the outside tough before the center is warm, so give them the night to thaw.
Notes & Tips
- Dry the greens properly: A salad spinner is worth the counter space here. Water clinging to collard ribbons is the single most common reason a tray like this sets loose.
- Break the sardines by hand: A fork mashes them into paste. Fingers give you flakes you can still see in the finished square, which is far better eating.
- Line the dish with parchment: The overhang lets you lift the whole slab out to cut it on a board, so you get clean squares rather than scooped corners.
- Toast the sesame on top, not in the pan: Seeds scattered over the surface toast in the oven's dry heat and stay crisp. Stirred into the batter they simply soften.
- Let it rest before cutting: Fifteen minutes lets the egg finish setting and the steam settle. Cut it hot and the squares fall apart and weep onto the board.
- Go light on the salt: Tinned sardines carry a fair amount of their own, and the tray concentrates as it bakes. Taste a spoonful of the cooked greens before the eggs go in.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Sardines, collards, eggs, and sesame stack up in one tray. The fish carries the protein and most of the calcium, the collards add a second helping of it along with their fiber, the eggs hold everything together, and the sesame seeds on top bring more of both.
- Sardines are small fish meant to be eaten whole, and the soft backbone that crushes into the batter is where their calcium sits. They also carry vitamin D and the long-chain omega-3 fats, which is why three tins anchor a whole tray this comfortably.
- Collard greens cooked down slowly go silky and faintly sweet, losing the toughness they have raw, and they are one of the vegetables whose calcium your body actually absorbs well. They bring the fiber and the dark color to every square.
- Sesame seeds toasting on the surface smell nutty and turn crisp in the oven's dry heat, and seed for seed they are among the highest-calcium things in the pantry.
- Almond flour gives the squares a tender, faintly sweet crumb and adds vitamin E along with it, and between the fish, the eggs, and the flour a couple of squares eat like a full plate rather than something to tide you over.
- As you eat, notice the sesame crust cracking before you reach the soft green interior, and take the squares sitting down with a fork rather than in your hand on the way out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I really leave the bones in the sardines?
Yes, and they are the point. The backbone in a tinned sardine has been softened by the canning process until it crushes between your fingers, and it disappears completely into the batter. That bone is where most of the calcium in a sardine sits, so picking it out throws away the best thing about the fish.
Can I use another green?
Kale works well and needs about the same eight minutes to soften. Mustard greens are sharper and very good here. Spinach is the one to be careful with, since it holds so much water that it will loosen the set, so if you use it, wilt it first and then squeeze it hard in a clean towel.
Mine came out watery at the bottom.
Wet greens, nearly always. Collards hold a lot of water in their folds, so spin them properly and cook them until the pan is dry before they go anywhere near the eggs. Undrained sardines will do the same thing, so tip the tin against the lid and let it sit a full minute.
Can I bake this in muffin cups instead?
You can, and it is a good idea if you want single portions. Grease a twelve-cup tin well, divide the mixture between the cups, and bake at 375°F for 18 to 20 minutes. They set faster and firmer, so watch them from sixteen minutes and pull them as soon as the centers stop moving.