Spinach, Feta and Red Pepper Egg Muffins

Thirty minutes on Sunday buys four breakfasts. Squeeze the spinach dry before it goes in, or the muffins weep water and turn spongy.

Breakfast

Makes 12 (serves 4)

Twelve golden egg muffins with spinach, feta and red pepper in a muffin tin

Ingredients

10 large eggs
100g spinach
1 red pepper, finely diced
4 spring onions, sliced
100g feta, crumbled
50ml milk
A pinch of chilli flakes
1 tsp olive oil, for the tin
Black pepper. No salt: the feta brings plenty.

Method

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan). Brush a 12-hole muffin tin generously with oil, or use a silicone tray. Egg sticks to thin non-stick far more than batter does.
Wilt the spinach in a dry pan for a minute, tip it into a sieve and press out every drop of water you can with the back of a spoon, then chop it. Wet spinach is the reason egg muffins go spongy and grey.
Divide the spinach, pepper, spring onions and feta between the holes.
Whisk the eggs with the milk, chilli flakes and plenty of black pepper, then pour it over the filling. Fill each hole only three-quarters full; they rise in the oven and sink again as they cool.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until puffed and just set in the middle. A knife pushed into the centre should come out clean.
Leave them in the tin for five minutes before lifting them out; they shrink slightly from the sides as they cool, which is what frees them. Keep them in the fridge for four days, or freeze them for a month and reheat from frozen in the microwave for about a minute.

Why it works

Egg muffins solve the problem most high-protein breakfasts have, which is that they need cooking on the morning you are shortest of time. Three of these carry about 24g of protein, and they reheat in under a minute.

Eggs provide almost all of it. A breakfast built on protein keeps appetite quieter through the morning than one built on toast or cereal, and it barely moves blood sugar, which is why these carry all three goal tags rather than just one.

For women after menopause the protein matters for a less obvious reason. Muscle loss speeds up as oestrogen falls, and some research suggests spreading protein across the day, rather than loading it into dinner, supports muscle better; breakfast is the meal where most people fall shortest: losing weight in menopause. For men, the same muscle is part of the picture in foods that support testosterone.

Spinach adds folate and magnesium, and the red pepper brings vitamin C, which helps the body absorb the iron in both the spinach and the egg yolks.

A note on salt. Feta is one of the saltiest cheeses in the fridge, which is why the recipe adds none. Nearly all the salt in the batch comes from 100g of cheese, and that is enough.

If you would rather cook one fresh portion, the same flavours work as a spinach and feta omelette in eight minutes. More on the first meal of the day: breakfast mistakes that work against testosterone.

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