A recipe doesn’t have to try hard to get me to like it. All it has to do is say the words “poached egg” and I’m sold.

I’ve had my eye on this recipe for sorrel rice with poached egg for a while. It comes from Jessica Koslow, the mastermind chef at Sqirl in L.A. I’ve always wanted to go there and try their toast and breakfast bowls. Brown rice porridge with toasted hazelnuts? Avocado toast with hot pickled carrots? Yes, please.

Since I can’t (at the moment) bring myself to Sqirl, I decided to bring Sqirl to me. Thankfully, Bon Appetit helped me make this dream a reality by publishing the recipe for Koslow’s sorrel rice with poached egg.

I was worried about where I would find sorrel, but then I saw it when I went to the farmers’ market last Sunday. If you can’t find it at the grocery store or market, you can substitute kale. Just make sure you add more lemon juice, because sorrel is very tart and kale is more subdued.

Something I’ve been doing lately when I cook is tasting all the ingredients as I add them to the dish. Well, besides raw egg. I think it’s a good way to see how the flavors will all come together.

I also like smelling the ingredients as they cook. I’ve never experienced anything like the sorrel pesto, preserved lemon, rice and dill. It’s spicy and it definitely wants to be noticed. But it’s also comforting; you’ll want to curl up around the bowl in a chair and breathe in the lemon scent.

Here is a song to guide you through your egg-poaching, sorrel rice bowl-making experience. It has a lot of spunk, just like this bowl.

Sorrel Rice Bowl with Poached Egg (from Bon Appetit)

Ingredients

2 cups short-grain brown rice
Kosher salt
1 cup (lightly packed) sorrel or kale leaves (ribs removed, if using kale)
¼ cup olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
4 large eggs
1 large watermelon radish or 2 red radishes, very thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
½ preserved lemon, flesh removed, peel finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, plus more for serving
2 oz. feta, preferably sheep’s milk, crumbled
hot sauce
flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)

Directions

Cook rice in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender, 45–50 minutes. Drain rice, return to pot, cover, and let sit 10 minutes. Spread out on a baking sheet and let cool completely.

Purée sorrel, oil, and 1 tbsp. water in a food processor until smooth; season with kosher salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, bring 2” water to a boil in a large saucepan; reduce heat so water is at a gentle simmer and add vinegar. Crack an egg into a small bowl, then gently slide egg into water. Repeat with remaining eggs, waiting until whites are opaque before adding the next (about 30 seconds apart). Poach until whites are set and yolks are still runny, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer eggs to paper towels as they are done.

Toss radish with 1 tbsp. lemon juice in a small bowl; season with kosher salt.
Toss rice, preserved lemon, 1 tbsp. dill, remaining 1 tbsp. lemon juice, and ⅓ cup sorrel purée in a medium bowl; season with kosher salt and pepper and mix in more sorrel purée, if desired.

Serve sorrel rice topped with poached eggs, radish, feta, hot sauce, more dill, and sea salt.