When you find yourself staring into the pantry wondering how to magically transform the contents into dinner, all you need is this 20-Minute Pantry Dinner recipe for warm white bean and beet salad with poached eggs. These simple pantry ingredients will come together to create a quick and easy weeknight dinner!

a white bowl with grilled baguette, poached eggs, white beans and sliced beets

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Why We Love This 20-Minute Pantry Dinner

This simple meal of cooked beets, poached eggs, sauteed beans and bread is made from pantry staples. Pretty unassuming ingredients when considered individually, but as a sum of the parts, this meal is far greater. If leeks aren’t one of your pantry staples, you can easily swap in a diced onion!

If you don’t have any of these ingredients on hand, you can totally improvise. No eggs? Sub in left-over or baked chicken thighs. Got some Swiss Chard, spinach, or kale to use up? Throw in a few handfuls! Don’t like white beans? Use kidney or black beans. You get the idea. It can be made to suit your needs. 

Recipe Highlights

  • Totally customizable to your pantry and your preferences
  • Made from simple and healthy ingredients
  • Bold dressing for added flavor
  • Takes only 20 minutes
  • A great way to save money
2 bowls of 20 minute pantry Dinner with a hand using a baguette slice to dip into egg yolk

Key Ingredients for Warm White Bean and Beet Salad with Poached Eggs

  • Eggs
  • Kitchen Staples: Red wine vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, honey or sugar.
  • Coarse ground or brown mustard
  • Seasonings: Salt, dried tarragon
  • Leek: Sliced, washed and drained. If you have never cleaned a leek before, no worries, here’s how to clean a leek. You can also sub in scallions or green onion.
  • Beans: White beans such as cannellini, drained and rinsed in a colander.
  • Baguette: or crusty bread
  • Cooked Beets: you can use jarred cooked beets, drained. Or if you have leftover Roasted beets or pickled beets, all the better!

Step By Step Instructions to Make Beets and Beans with Poached Eggs

Step 1: Preheat

Preheat your grill or grill pan to medium-high heat.

Step 2: Poach Eggs

Bring a skillet of water to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add a splash of vinegar. Poach your eggs and then drain them of excess water on a plate lined with a paper towel, plus cover to keep them warm.

Step 3: Combine Dressing

Meanwhile, whisk together the oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, salt, and tarragon in a small bowl. Set aside.

Step 4: Cook Leeks and Beans

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add leeks. Cook, stirring often until the leeks are softened and starting to brown, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add the beans and cook until they’re heated through, which should take about 2 minutes. Remove this mixture from the heat and drizzle on a couple of tablespoons of dressing.

Step 5: Toast Baguette

Brush the remaining tablespoon of oil over the baguette slices and grill them until they’re just toasted and browned in spots. This should take about two minutes per side.

Step 6: Serve

Arrange the white beans and beets in four large shallow bowls. Drizzle them with the remaining dressing, dividing evenly. Top each dish with a poached egg and sever with baguette slices on the side. Enjoy!

A white bowl with white beans and leeks, beets, a runny yolk egg and grilled baguette. With a wooden handled spoon resting on the dish.
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FAQs and Expert Tips

What’s the key to cooking leeks?

Make sure you properly soften them in oil. Leeks brown easily, so make sure your burner is set to medium-high, and keep stirring it pretty often. This will take about 4 or 5 minutes. If you’re substituting onions, they will take slightly longer.

How do I prepare canned beets?

The beets in this recipe are jarred Aunt Nellie’s Beets, which are simply beets, water, and salt. I just drained them and added them to the dish. 

How to Poach Eggs

  1. Get a skillet or sauté pan simmering. I add a splash of vinegar when I make poached eggs. The vinegar helps to keep the egg proteins tight together as the egg is added to the water.
  2. To poach the egg, crack one into a small dish. Then slide the egg one at a time into the simmering water. Doing this ensures you won’t get any shells into the poached egg, and it makes it easier to be gentle, and the whites won’t spread out as much.
  3. Keep the water simmering very gently, as big violent bubbles from an actual boil will break the egg apart and tear off the more delicate parts of the egg white albumin (protein.)
  4. It takes about 4 minutes to poach the eggs, but it depends on how strongly your water is simmering. To check if the eggs are ready, use a slotted spoon to lift it out of the water and give the spoon a little shake. The yolk should still be soft enough that the egg will noticeably wobbly when you do so. But you don’t want to see any visible sign of uncooked whites. 
  5. Transfer the eggs to a paper towel-lined plate to remove any excess poaching liquid from them.

More Pantry-Friendly Recipes To Try

Thanks so much for reading! If you are new here, you may want to sign up for my email newsletter to get a free weekly menu plan and the latest recipes right to your inbox. If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought!

Happy Cooking! ~Katie

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a white bowl with grilled baguette, poached eggs, white beans and sliced beets

20 Minute Pantry Dinner

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5 from 5 reviews

  • Author: Katie Webster
  • Total Time: 20
  • Yield: 4 servings 1x
  • Diet: Vegetarian
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Description

A simple vegetarian dinner made from pantry staples: white beans, jarred sliced beets, poached eggs and bread. Perfect for those evenings when you need to make dinner in a hurry, but don’t have many fresh ingredients on hand.

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, plus a splash, divided
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
  • 2 teaspoons coarse ground or brown mustard
  • 1 teaspoon honey or sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Pinch dried tarragon
  • 1 large leek, sliced, washed and drained
  • 1 15–ounce can white beans, such as cannellini, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 baguette, sliced
  • 1 16–ounce jar Sliced Beets, drained

Instructions

  1. Preheat grill or grill pan to medium- high heat.
  2. Bring a skillet of water to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and add a splash of vinegar. Carefully crack 1 egg at a time into a small dish, then slide them into the simmering water while making sure they are spaced evenly. Let simmer gently until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny, about 4 minutes. Drain on a plate lined with paper towel and cover to keep warm.
  3. Meanwhile, whisk together 1 tablespoon oil, the remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar, mustard, honey, salt and tarragon in a small bowl.
  4. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring often until the leeks are softened and starting to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add beans and cook until heated though, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and drizzle on 2 tablespoons dressing.
  5. Brush the remaining tablespoon oil over the baguette slices, and grill until just toasted and browned in spots, about 2 minutes per side.
  6. Arrange the white beans and beets in four large shallow bowls. Drizzle with the remaining dressing, dividing evenly. Top each with a poached egg and serve with baguette slices on the side.

Notes

If you don’t have a leek, a sliced onion works well in this recipe too.

  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 20
  • Category: Main Course
  • Method: stove top
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 3/4 cup bean mixture, 3 slices baguette, 1 egg, 1/3 cup beets
  • Calories: 395
  • Sugar: 11 g
  • Fat: 18 g
  • Carbohydrates: 37 g
  • Fiber: 5 g
  • Protein: 17 g

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