I have to admit I've never understood the popularity of the "Sunday brunch" at otherwise decent restaurants—the lines are ridiculous, the food often subpar, and you know as well as me the waitstaff have plenty of better things to do (like nurse their own hangover). My indifference to this cultural phenomenon doesn't mean I don't love a pile of pancakes and a fried egg or two; it's just that I prefer them from the comfort of my own home.
One of my favorite brunch recipes is the classic Eggs Benedict. When I lived in Los Angeles, I used to make it every week as an early game day breakfast, since we had to watch football on Eastern Standard Time. Back then I only knew how to poach one egg at a time, so it made for a slow moving meal to serve a crowd. (Don't worry, I can now cook eggs at a much faster pace!)
While Eggs Benedict topped with rich and tangy hollandaise sauce is a very delicious way to celebrate nothing in particular, using two sticks of butter for breakfast is not something I really need to do on a regular basis. This in addition to the fact that my fiancé has recently taken up a very strict diet and exercise routine, leaving me to one too many indulgent meals alone.
These days if I want a dining partner, I have to conform to his more lean approach to food, so I decided to come up with a lightened up Eggs Benedict that we can both enjoy over coffee. While it's still not worthy of everyday status, I can at least enjoy it without feeling guilty about my tempestuous offerings to the better half.
Instead of my usual recipe, I've subbed in a whole grain English muffin with turkey bacon instead of ham, and I added spinach and a tomato to up the nutritional value. The best part, though, is the "mock hollandaise." Using light mayonnaise, Dijon, lemon juice, and just a pat of butter, I managed to recreate the flavors of my homemade Hollandaise pretty darn close. The results were so delicious, I may never go back to the old way again!

Lighter Eggs Benedict with Mock Hollandaise
Serves 4 to 6For the base:
8 slices smoked turkey bacon
4 whole wheat English muffins, split in half
2 tablespoons butter, softened (optional)
2 teaspoons white vinegar
8 large eggs
For the mock hollandaise:
1/2 cup light mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Kosher salt and cayenne pepper, to taste
To assemble:
2 cups spinach leaves
8 thick tomato slices, thoroughly dried
Kosher salt and pepper, for garnish
Paprika, for garnish
Preheat to 400°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and arrange the bacon strips in a single layer. Cook on the middle rack for approximately 20-25 minutes, until the slices reach your desired crispness. (For Eggs Benedict, I like it a little less crispy than usual, so 20 minutes usually works for me.) Remove bacon to a paper towel-lined plate and discard foil.
Arrange the English muffin halves on a separate baking sheet. Cook until toasted and lightly golden, about 8-10 minutes. Spread with softened butter, if desired. Lower oven temp to 170° (or warming temperature). Hold English muffins and bacon until eggs are poached and ready to assemble.
While the bacon is cooking, fill a medium to large saucepan with 1-1/2 to 2 inches of water and 2 teaspoons white vinegar. Bring water to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low; water should maintain a few small occasional bubbles. Crack each egg into a small dish (I use a small sake glass), partially submerge the dish in the pan, and tip the egg into water. Cook until the whites are set and opaque, but yolks are still runny, about 2 minutes. Remove each egg with a slotted spoon to a paper towel-lined plate. Trim any excess whites, if desired. Here is a tutorial on poaching eggs. (Note: Eggs can be poached ahead of time and the re-warmed in hot water just before serving.)
To make the mock hollandaise, whisk the mayonnaise, Dijon, and lemon juice. Melt the butter and stir in quickly. Season with a pinch of kosher salt and a generous amount of cayenne pepper.
To assemble the Eggs Benedict, top each muffin half with a handful of spinach, followed by a tomato slice, a piece of bacon split in half, and a poached egg. Drizzle with hollandaise sauce. Sprinkle with additional salt, pepper, and paprika. Serve immediately.

Related: Breakfast Recipe: Eggs Florentine in Hash Brown Nests
(Images: Nealey Dozier)
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Comments (21)
Looks good! Eggs benedict is definitely an at-home recipe. According to Anthony Bourdain: "Hollandaise is a veritable petri dish of biohazards." He also has other ripe words for the food offered for brunch at restaurants in general.
To me, Eggs Benedict is Hollandaise Sauce and no "Mock" sauce will ever do. When ordering Eggs Benedict in restaurants, I'm sometimes served these pretender sauces and I send it back to the kitchen every time. It's always so disappointing because this is one of my very favorite dishes.
While yes Hollandaise sauce is amazing and a mock sauce will likely not do it justice, nor will the instant packaged sauce; it can be questionable at restaurants (as Home Body mentioned) and is a pain in the ass to make-- not to mention uses up all your eggs. A good and lighter substitute that can meet the craving more often would be much appreciated, therefore I will have to give this a try.
I found that if I just used the ingredients of hollandaise, I was generally quite happy. I frequently eat a breakfast of steamed whatever-veggies-are-in-season (kale or spinach through the winter, asparagus in the spring, squash, tomato, then maybe roasted sprouts and back to leafy greens...) topped with a piece of bacon (or ham, or whatever leftover meat I have) and a runny-yolked poached egg. Sometimes a bit of toast or polenta goes under, sometimes not...then pierce the yolk, add a small pat of butter, a squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of salt and pepper. Right there are all the ingredients of hollandaise, but in an every-day way!
I've only made eggs benedict at home one time. It's too hard to get everything ready and warm at the same time. Toasted muffin, crispy ham, runny egg, and perfect hollandaise. No thanks! I'll stick with simpler dishes at home and leave this sort to the pros.
Oh man, I would've loved this hollandaise recipe a few weeks ago when I only had enough eggs left in the house for the poached eggs.
And having had one too many overcooked poached eggs in an eggs benedict at a restaurant, I'm more than happy to make it at home where I know it's cooked perfectly.
Hollandaise is too glorious a sauce to mess with, especially something involving the horror of reduced fat mayonaise. Because of course mayonaise is too perfect a sauce to be messed with. The thought of being served this for breakfast makes we want to gnash my teeth.
If we don't want the calories we just make creamed spinach as one of the layers. Robust, creamy flavor with less fat but enough to make it feel like Saturday.
Instead of using the light mayo, I'm wondering if I could emulsify olive oil with the lemon juice and mustard (well, kind of like homemade mayo, then), and omit the butter altogether. It wouldn't be Hollandaise, I know, but then again I'm not a fan of butter...
Oh, I also don't think I've ever had Eggs Benedict. So thanks for the recipe :)
Mock Hollandaise looks awesome - will definitely try it soon!
However, I suggest you go back to Ham. Even the fattier hams are ~11% fat, while Canadian/Turkey Bacon are still ~28% fat...
Yum! I've made a healthier version in the past but always omitted the sauce. Your "mock" sauce sounds delicious!
whats with all the snotty pretentious comments on here? sometimes a cheat is a great alternative when you haven't got the time on inclination for the real thing, Delia Smith does a great cheats hollandaise with creme friache and its amazing!
Creme fraiche is one thing, but "light" mayo is full of crap (see below) not found in the real thing (I'll make my own sometimes, but Hellman's in always in my fridge).
I'd much rather have a small amount of real Hollandaise any day. It's actually quite easy this way: beat 3 room temp yolks, and beat in alternating dribbles of a melted stick of butter and the juice of half a lemon. Voila! (If you want it thicker, do this in a double boiler on low).
Kraft Light Mayo
Water, Soybean(s) Oil, Corn Syrup High Fructose, Food Starch Modified, Vinegar, Contains less than 22% of Egg(s) Yolks, Egg(s), Salt, Sugar, with Potassium Sorbate and, Calcium Disodium EDTA, Mustard Flour, Phosphoric Acid, Lemon(s) Juice Concentrate, Xanthan Gum, Garlic Dried, Onion(s) Dried, Paprika, Vitamin E Acetate, Spice(s), Flavor(s) Natural, Phylloquinone (Vitamin K1) , Beta Carotene color(s)
Looks very good. I would actually use regular mayonnaise. The light mayonnaise will be sweetened to add taste back in once the fat is removed. A little fat is actually a required element in a healthy diet, (key phrase being "a little") and it also helps slow down the digestion process which is a key factor in appetite control.
Well, I love eggs benedict a lot! And I'm certainly going to try this recipe for light hollandaise. I always try a recipe exactly as presented the first time. For goodness sakes, how would you know you wouldn't like it if you don't try it? If I think it needs to be tweaked, then I'll tweak it. I hope it doesn't, tho.
Mmmm...eggs benedict is one of my favorites. I always seem to have trouble with the real hollaindaise sauce. Eggs getting too thick or clumpy or not thick enough. Maybe I'll have to try this instead.
My absolute favorite brunch recipe--and which can be made ahead of time and warmed , and which no one else seems to have invented--is to make my mother's old 'chipped beef' recipe (what they called SOS or "s** on a shingle" in the army), but using proscuitto. It is an easy, marvelous treat of a breakfast on the weekend. I get a fresh whole loaf (unsliced) of whole wheat bread from the bakery the night before. In the morning, I make a medium- thick white sauce (just flour, butter, milk-- much much lighter than hollandaise, and no artificial ingredients), add chopped proscuitto and pepper, and let it warm until the salty proscuitto flavors the white sauce. The whole beauty of it is the simplicity, and the fact that you just need to warm it long enough to let the proscuitto give the sauce that salty, hammy flavor. Serve on buttered wheat toast --the sweetness of honey wheat is wonderful with the salty, milky gravy--with a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. People will lick their plates, and you aren't fussing at a stove.
Great recipe, easy and quick. Just made this now, I would say 3 tbsp of lemon is enough and another tbsp of butter is ideal.
I ate a poached egg on toast for breakfast for several years. I'm not sure why I went to something different, but I did. This simple Eggs Benedict look-a-like may be my new favorite breakfast.
For Brunch, though, as Francois says, SOS is another big favorite of mine. On my home recipe database I have six SOS recipes from my Alma Mater, USMC, and one Army. Each is a little different and I love them all.
My fiance and I made this recipe this morning for breakfast, and it was really great! The mock hollandaise came together quickly and easily, and I was happy to include less than a cup of butter--although I followed PEEKAY's example and used 3 tbsp instead of 2, and 3 tbsp lemon instead of 4. It was amazing to watch the mayo/mustard/lemon mixture thicken up when I added the butter, but it obviously wasn't as thick as a real hollandaise.
I'm wondering, do you think it would be possible to thicken up the sauce a little by putting it over a very (very) low heat on the stove for a bit, or would that just ruin it? Or maybe using a double-boiler?
Francois, that breakfast of yours sounds DELICIOUS! I might try it this weekend, thanks! :)
I made a classic Eggs Benedict with Canadian bacon (1/3g fat per slice) and Whole Wheat English Muffins and man alive was this good. I made the mock hollandaise as directed except I used regular mayonnaise since light mayonnaise has so much garbage and HFCS in it. The mock hollandaise does not taste exactly like real hollandaise but it is a great substitute. The flavor is wonderful with just the right amount of lemon and butter flavor and the mayonnaise and Dijon mustard give it a rich creamy texture. It goes very well with the heavenly runny yolk of a perfectly cook poached egg and the smokey flavor of the Canadian bacon. You must try it.