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Kedgeree
Kedgeree is one of my favourite comforting dishes – flaked smoked haddock stirred through warm spiced rice with a hint of curry, soft-boiled eggs, fresh herbs, and a squeeze of lemon. It’s gently warming, full of flavour, and incredibly satisfying. I love making it for brunch or a cosy midweek dinner, and it’s surprisingly easy to pull together. Perfect for using up leftover rice or elevating simple ingredients into something really special.
Ingredients
- 400g smoked haddock
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 tsp coriander, ground
- 1 tsp turmeric, ground
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 2 cardamon pods, crushed
- 250g basmati rice, rinsed
- 450g water
- 4 eggs, boiled and quartered
- 25g flat-leaf parsley, diced
- Salt, to season
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Place smoked haddock fillets on a baking tray and place in the centre of the hot oven for 15-20 minutes, or until cooked through. Set aside.
- Heat butter over medium heat, and cook onion for 5 minutes or until soft and turning translucent.
- Add coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, curry powder, and cardamom pods and cook an additional 2 minutes or until fragrant.
- Add basmati rice and stir through spices until thoroughly coated.
- Next, add water and a good pinch of salt and bring to the boil.
- Once boiling, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until all liquids have been absorbed. Fluff up the rice using a fork.
- Using a fork, break the cooked smoked haddock into pieces. Toss through the cooked rice along with the parsley.
- Divide between four dishes and top with boiled eggs.
What I Cook With
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 332Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 271mgSodium: 1004mgCarbohydrates: 25gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 34g
Please note, this nutrition information is to be used as a guide only. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.
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Kedgeree with Smoked Haddock recipe
A Brunch Favourite That Works Overtime
Today I thought I’d share with you another of my favourite brunch dishes. Although to be fair, I do quite like this for supper as well when the mood takes me. I’m talking about kedgeree with smoked haddock, of course! With its gently spiced rice, flaky smoked fish and golden-yolked eggs, kedgeree is like the long-lost cousin of the biryani. Except it’s British. And it’s eaten for breakfast. Weird? A little. Delicious? Absolutely.
Kedgeree is one of those dishes that you probably wouldn’t know much about unless you’ve lived in the UK. I’d seen recipes floating around before I moved to Scotland, mostly in Nigella Bites and the like, but I didn’t quite grasp how much of a classic it is until I actually lived here. It’s everywhere. Brunch menus, weekend family breakfasts, leftover-packed lunchboxes, and I have fully embraced it.
Oh, Nigella. How I adore thee. She was my introduction to British comfort food. I rarely follow her recipes to the letter, but her writing is just so lush and inspiring. I discovered her books and telly specials well over a decade ago now, and they genuinely shaped my expectations of life in the UK. I’m happy to report I’m not disappointed. This version of kedgeree is based on the more traditional kind, with that lovely smoky haddock at its core.
A Curious History
Back to kedgeree. It’s got a strange name, hasn’t it? And a bit of a strange origin story too. From what I’ve gathered, this spiced rice dish with flakes of smoked haddock and boiled eggs can trace its roots back to khichari, an Indian dish made with rice and lentils. It was picked up and adapted by the British during the colonial era, then eventually found its way to the British breakfast table.
That’s right. A rice dish for breakfast. At first, I was a bit sceptical. Rice? In the morning? But once you try this spicy rice with its warming spices and comforting flavours, you’ll understand the appeal. It’s rich without being heavy, and it’s one of those dishes that feels both nourishing and indulgent. The kind of food that hugs you from the inside.
The best thing about kedgeree is you can eat it hot, eat it cold, eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The ingredients are humble, but the end result is glorious. It’s also one of those dishes that improves with time, so leftovers (if you manage to have any) are even better the next day. The colours, the textures, the spices – it’s all just so comforting.
Morning, Noon, or Night
For me, kedgeree fits into that cosy little niche of dishes that can be whatever you need them to be. Brunch when you have a slow weekend morning and want something hearty but not too rich. Supper when it’s late and you want something warm and filling without too much fuss. Even packed into a lunchbox for the office, it somehow works.
I’ve made this on foggy Scottish mornings and during sunny spells too. It never feels out of place. And there’s something deeply satisfying about the whole process – preparing the haddock, stirring through the warm spices, quartering those perfectly boiled eggs. It’s food that you make with care, and you can taste it in every bite.
And let’s not forget the sheer joy of that golden turmeric-stained rice. I’m always a sucker for food that looks as cheerful as it tastes. Especially when it’s this easy to make. Once you’ve got your base recipe down, you can tweak it here and there depending on what you’ve got in the pantry or what you’re in the mood for. It’s forgiving like that.
Ingredients Breakdown
The base of any good kedgeree is, of course, the smoked haddock. I like mine properly smoked, usually done in an indoor electric smoker, because it adds such a depth of flavour to the finished dish. It’s tender, flaky, and just salty enough to carry the rest of the ingredients. If you’ve never tried smoked haddock, this is a perfect introduction.
Butter is essential for softening the diced onion, which creates a rich and fragrant base for the spices. Speaking of spices, I use a combination of coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, curry powder and crushed cardamom pods. It’s not about heat, but about warmth and complexity. These spices are what transform the dish into something special – comforting, aromatic, and deeply moreish.
Rinsed basmati rice forms the bulk of the dish, cooking up beautifully fluffy and light, with water to steam it through. The hard-boiled eggs, quartered and nestled in at the end, add richness and texture, while fresh flat-leaf parsley brings brightness and a pop of colour. A final seasoning with salt rounds everything out, though if you’re like me, you’ll likely sneak a little taste along the way and adjust to your liking. The result? A plate of pure comfort.
Thank you for the recipe. This was the first time we tried kedgeree, and everyone loved it.
We used 1.5 tsp dried parsley, and added it just before the water. Instead of the parsley, used in the recipe.
So glad you all enjoyed it! That’s a really great idea to use dried parsley if you don’t have any fresh parsley to hand!
I am adding this to our menu plan for next week. My husband has been asking for more new recipes to test out. He loves haddock!
I’ve only had kedgeree a few times in my life and have very rarely made my own. This looks delicious, will certainly be giving your recipe a try!
I had heard of kedgeree before, but never actually tasted it so thanks for the recipe! Looks tasty and easy.
I made this for dinner last night and it was incredible! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe!
I am just loving all the flavors in this. This is the kind of dish I could eat any day. Those eggs are gorgeous!