Whole Wheat Croque-Madames with Lox and Arugula

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I absolutely love eggs! My husband and I dove into Whole Wheat Croque-Madames with Lox and Arugula for lunch today because everything is better with an egg on top, am I right?

I can eat eggs at any meal because they not only make me feel great throughout the day thanks to their high-quality protein content, but also because they’re a nutritional powerhouse! Yup, you heard that right!

The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines removed the limit on dietary cholesterol and support the consumption of eggs with other nutritiously delicious foods, like fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Even more fabulous, if you consume eggs with foods containing vitamin E, like a raw mixed-vegetable salad, you absorb more vitamin E, which is amazing for your immune system, skin, and eyes. So if eggs are delicious AND they’re good for you, I think it pretty much sounds like you’ve got nothing to lose when incorporating them into your next meal!

Whole Wheat Croque-Madame with Lox and Arugula

Time: 45 Minutes
Yield: 4 half sandwiches
Serves 4

Ingredients
5 oz baby arugula
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1.5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper
2/3 cup gruyere cheese, divided
4 slices whole wheat bread
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 oz Black Forest ham, thinly sliced
2 oz lox or smoked salmon
2 tbsp olive oil
4 large eggs

Directions
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add arugula and blanch for 3 minutes. Transfer to a colander and cool under cold water. Drain and squeeze out remaining liquid. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat. Add flour, and with a whisk, stir constantly for about 3 minutes. Add milk, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and continue to stir for about 5 minutes, being careful not to brown. Stir in 2 tablespoons of gruyere until it melts. Remove béchamel sauce from heat and cover with wax paper so that it doesn’t dry out.

Set one oven rack a few inches from the top and preheat the broiler.

Arrange bread slices on a plate and spread about 1 tsp béchamel sauce over 2 slices of bread and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Spread 1 tsp of Dijon on remaining two slices of bread and top each slice with ham, lox, and arugula. Carefully flip the slices with gruyere over the slices with ham to close each sandwich.

Lightly oil a foil-lined medium baking pan.

In a medium skillet, add 1 tablespoon butter over medium-low heat. Cook sandwiches for 2 minutes on one side until golden brown. Flip sandwiches over and cook for another 1-2 minutes longer, until golden. Transfer sandwiches to baking pan.

Spread remaining sauce over each sandwich. Broil on the top rack for 2-3 minutes, until the sauce bubbles. Remove from broiler and cover with foil to keep warm.

Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Crack two eggs at a time into skillet and fry, spooning over olive oil, until the whites have set, but the yolk is still runny. Transfer to plates and repeat with remaining eggs, adding more oil if necessary.

Cut each sandwich in half to make four half sandwiches. Top sandwich halves with a fried egg. Serve immediately and enjoy!