
Quick kedgeree makes a bright and tasty meal at any time of day - and it only takes 15 minutes.
Kedgeree is the strangest of dishes - an unlikely fusion of Scottish and Indian dishes, dating from the 18th Century. Still, smoked fish and curried rice with chunks of hard boiled eggs works amazingly well together, hence the enduring popularity. Although it's traditionally served at breakfast, we like it as an easy evening meal. To absolutely minimise the cooking time needed for this quick kedgeree, we've used every trick in the book. Pre-cooked rice; hot smoked salmon that comes ready-flaked; and tiny eggs that boil in just a couple of minutes.
Ingredients
- 6 quail eggs
- About 30g (1oz) butter
- 4 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
- 280g pack ready-cooked pilau rice
- 125g (4oz) hot smoked salmon, flaked
- Smoked paprika or chilli powder, optional
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
WEIGHT CONVERTER
Method
- Add the quail eggs to a saucepan of gently boiling water and cook for 2½ mins. Drain, cover eggs with cold water and set to one side for a few mins to cool.
- Put half the butter in a large bowl with the chopped spring onions. Microwave on High for 30 secs. Stir in the rice, cover and microwave on High for 2 more mins.
- Meanwhile, peel the eggs and cut them in half. Add the salmon straight into the rice and carefully stir it in to cook the fish.
- Add the rest of the butter and the quails’ eggs. Sprinkle with paprika, or chilli powder, if using, and season.
Top tip for making quick kedgeree
Flaked smoked mackerel works really too, instead of the salmon.
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Octavia Lillywhite is an award-winning food and lifestyle journalist with over 15 years of experience. With a passion for creating beautiful, tasty family meals that don’t use hundreds of ingredients or anything you have to source from obscure websites, she’s a champion of local and seasonal foods, using up leftovers and composting, which, she maintains, is probably the most important thing we all can do to protect the environment.