Try making Joe’s special, a hearty scramble made with spinach, eggs, and mushrooms, using this recipe. Enjoy this Seattle classic for dinner, lunch, or breakfast.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 35 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 1 (8 ounce) package sliced fresh mushrooms
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
- 6 large eggs, beaten
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground beef; cook and stir until browned and crumbly, about 8 minutes. Pour off any excess grease, then stir in onions, mushrooms, and garlic. Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook until onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in spinach, nutmeg, oregano, salt, and pepper; cook until spinach is heated through, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add eggs to the skillet; cook and scramble until incorporated with beef and spinach mixture and cooked to your liking, 4 to 6 minutes.
- For an alternate version that’s not scrambled, after reducing the heat in Step 2, use the back of a spoon to make six wells in the beef and spinach mixture. Crack an egg into each well; cover and cook until eggs are done to your liking, 4 to 6 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 441 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 11 g |
| Cholesterol | 281 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 36 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 198 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 28 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’ve eaten Joe’s Special for many years now and this recipe is really good! One thing missing was Parmesan cheese sprinkled liberally into the mixture before serving.
I halved the recipe but added 7 eggs and shredded cheddar. I also used fresh baby spinach and doubled the garlic. Even halved this made a lot. Very good low carb dinner
I don’t like Nutmeg so I didn’t add it. I did increase the oregano.
Love the Joe Special like every one else. The ones that said it was bland didn’t add enough Onion or not enough of the cheese on top when serving it. When cooking the meat added a little bit of Red Wine to it. Served it with French Bread or Garlic Bread. Always a winner even for the first time eaters. Been making it for years. I Never ADD The Eggs Though so it is your choice. Love It.
I can see why you call the dish “Joe’s” I have enjoyed Original Joe’s restaurant scramble in San Francisco since childhood. (I’m 90 years old ) It is a very tasty meal.
I didn’t include the mushrooms, am not a big fan of them. But I loved the mixture of texture from the spinach, onions, and eggs (which I cooked just under hard).
Yum! We had leftover burger patties, so I thought Joe’s Special would be a great way to use them up. Just added them in at the end. Was delicious, used another review’s suggestion of adding Parmesan cheese, the perfect final touch.
The only change I made was using one pound of ground pork instead of one of the two pounds of beef. I thought this was dry and not very flavorful. I think maybe adding some chopped tomatoes might help. Was hoping this would be an easy go-to recipe to add to my list
I make a variation of this recipe that comes from the 13 Coin Restaurant in Seattle. I start by browning the ground sirloin, adding minced garlic while cooking. I set the ground sirloin aside to drain, and using the same skillet, start with a bit of olive oil and butter to sauté one cup of chopped onion. After it is translucent, about 5 to 7 minutes I add fresh spinach and sauté it till I have a nice mixture of onion and spinach. Next I add back in the meat, along with a couple of teaspoons of Seasoned salt, stir till the meat is hot, then add 6 eggs that have been beaten. Cook over medium heat, and as the eggs start to form, add 1/4 cup of a combo of Asiago and Romano cheese, grated, or the 3 cheese grated fresh from the store. Continue to stir till the eggs are set but not dry. Spoon on to plates, and sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan cheese to taste. One can add salt and pepper to taste at the table. My wife and children love this recipe and I make it about twice a month for breakfast. It’s also great for dinner on a cold night.
I grew up in San Jose and Original Joe’s was a special occasion favorite (now I’m aging myself!). I found this recipe and followed it precisely, even though I knew I’d always had it with the eggs scrambled. I’m so glad I didn’t scramble the eggs. Like other reviewers, the eggs were everyone’s favorite part! And with eggs on everything being a bit ‘en vogue’, it seemed to modernize the dish and certainly looked prettier than the old scrambled version. Makes me wonder if the restaurant has made the same change. If not, they should! I like it even better.
I made it exactly by the recipe. It was quite yummy and my husband and toddler daughter loved it. It’s a tad tricky to judge when the egg whites are set while the yolk is still easy. I thought mine was ready, but when I went to dish it up, the whites under the set top ran out. Nothing that a quick stir over higher heat couldn’t fix, but the yolks were sacrificed by doing so. Next time I won’t trust the time on the recipe and will try to gently lift an egg to see if it’s actually set. As I’m not the biggest spinach fan, I look forward to trying it again with Kale.
Easy and tasty. I substituted baby kale instead of spinach, just because I had it on hand. Otherwise I followed the recipe. Simple, nutritiously good.
I reduced the quantities to serve two and added fresh diced tomato and one cup of chicken broth to add a little more depth for the eggs to cook in. Great fast dinner for a week night. Will definitely make this again! And it’s boyfriend approved!
I had the original at the SF restaurant and it’s been a regular in my home ever since! Many times I will make this with the morning star vegetarian crumbles. Everything else is the same (but I prefer the scrambled eggs instead of whole) Delicious! Serve this with a side of cottage cheese topped with peach halves.
Joe’s Special Scramble Haiku: “Halved the recipe. Sprinkled w/ Parmesan cheese. Weird, but oh so good!” Other than scrambling my eggs into the spinach mixture rather than cracking them into indentations, I followed the recipe as written. Very similar to Chef John’s version, both ways to make Joe’s Seriously-wacky (is it breakfast or dinner?) Scramble are really great. It’s not pretty to look at, but nom-nom good!
There is an almost identical recipe on the site. The two differ slightly in cooking technique and seasoning. I kinda straddled them to get what I thought would be the best. The nutmeg used in this recipe gives a unique flavor to the dish. Go big on all seasonings. I would go big on seasoning. Mushroom, egg, and spinach do not contribute much taste. The other recipe uses cheese. I used mozzarella. Next time I will use a strong cheese like bleu or feta. Great bachelor dish. I will get 4 or 5 breakfasts out of this.
This recipe was great! Very flavorful and great. I loved how the eggs are cooked at the end, and I think that is what makes this dish unique. I wasn’t sure if my three boys would like it, but all of them ate it and asked for more. It took a while to chop up all of the veggies and cook the meat, but it was worth it. I will definitely make this one again! Thank you for sharing, JULIEP!
cut the beef in half, add at least 1/4 cup of parmesan and at least 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper. Frozen chopped spinach and fresh mushrooms are perfect in it.
This is a great dish for low-carbers, like me :). My boyfriend didn’t think he’d like it, but he ended up having a huge second helping. I used fresh spinach instead of frozen. Topped off with a few shakes of tobasco – cause we love heat!
I made this with Johnsonville Pork and Chicken Italian Sausage and fresh spinach. Delicious. I’ve had this dish downtown at Orignal Joe’s lots of times.. really good
Unfortunately, this recipe is terribly bland. It may be fine for those who like this kind of thing, but if you like flavor, skip this. I looked at other recipes for Joe’s scramble, and this at least had some garlic and nutmeg. I blame Joe, not the cook who posted this