Fresh flavors in the summer are an absolute must to make really tasteful renal diet recipes. My favorite fresh flavors come from fresh herbs. All summer long, we pluck basil and dill and parsley and whatever else was lucky enough to find a spot in my herb garden. Adding these herbs with summer vegetables like carrots, squash, and peppers makes these egg cups nourishing and renal friendly. We also like that these are a quick make-ahead breakfast for the renal diet.
At KidneyGrub, we do everything possible to leave out the salt so our food can be perfect for a kidney diet. Often, we have to make recipes over a couple of times to find something we think is acceptable. One approach we take to replace salt flavor is adding a bit of some sort of sour. These sour or acidic flavors make the mouth water and can really help take the flavor up a notch without too much salt.
The Secret Low Sodium Ingredient
We excitedly whipped these together (without salt) and tasted. They were okay; kind of eggy and herby, but nothing great. (Oh, and I know, I know those aren’t words, but you still understand). I’d added the mayo hoping to get just a bit of the zing from it for a rounded flavor, but unfortunately that didn’t work. Then Rebecca suggested we try zesting some lemon, before starting over with some salt addition. I was skeptical – lemon, basil, dill, egg, brie? Sounded like too much. BOY WAS I WRONG! With the little zip from the lemon zest, this went from blah to gourmet. You think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. I loved them so much (as did my two children) that we finished them for dinner that night. The lemon zest was key though.
KIDNEYGRUB VERDICT:
I’m really proud of this recipe. It is an original recipe that I made hoping to fill a need for a lower carb, veggie full breakfast that could be made ahead for busy people. There has been some really interesting research on kidney disease lately that has again shown how absolutely paramount it is to add fresh fruits and vegetables into the renal diet. So, these kidney friendly egg cups meet all my requirements for a perfect recipe: easy, low sodium, mouth-watering. If you need another great breakfast recipe checkout our sourdough pancakes or our simple english muffin breakfast sandwiches.
KidneyGrub Original: Summer Harvest Egg Muffin Cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup vegetables diced small or shredded (we did 1/3 c carrot, 1/3 c yellow squash, 1/3 c red pepper)
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 8 eggs
- 1 tablespoon fresh herbs we used dill, basil, and parsley
- 3 stalks green onion green and white thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoon mayonnaise
- Brie optional, small slices
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest to taste
Instructions
- Saute vegetables in oil until barely softened. Set-aside to cool. Whisk eggs and mayo together in bowl. Add herbs and sliced green onions. Add cooked vegetables. Pour into 12 individual muffin tins. Top with small slice of brie (opt) Silicon muffin tins are best because the muffins can easily pop out of those. Alternatively, you could make this in an 9x9 dish like a breakfast casserole.
- Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes until middle of each muffin is set. Add sprinkle of lemon zest to top of each muffin.
Notes
*Alternative toppings include feta and very sharp thinly grated cheddar cheese (1/4 tsp per muffin)
* To lower the phosphorus content further, replace 4 eggs with 6 egg whites. With egg white replacement fat content is 3.5 gm and phos is 46 mg. Optional addition of 1 small slice of brie: 48 kcal | 4 gm fat | 0 gm carbohydrates | 3 gm protein | 27 gm phosphorus | 22 gm potassium
Nutrition
P.S. My 4 year old daughter was taking pictures with us on my phone while we were staging these photos and tasting. I had to share!! So talented (says proud mom)!
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