Vegetable Frittata
A frittata is one of my favorite quick meals and a great way to get a lot of different vegetables on to your plate. Eggs are traditionally a breakfast food, but I love a frittata for lunch, because of its easy portability, or dinner because its light and is ready in minutes. One you have the technique down, feel free to put any ingredients you like it. A frittata is a great way to use leftovers!
Chef Jim uses all egg whites here, but adds tumeric for its flavor, anti-inflammatory properties, and yellow color.
Photo by Scott Suchman
Makes 1 Frittata – 4 servings
Ingredients
8 Egg Whites
1 tablespoon, Fresh Basil, chiffonade
1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
½ cup Shiitake Mushrooms, fine julienne
½ cup Sweet Onion, fine diced
½ cup Red Pepper, fine diced
½ cup Zucchini, fine diced
1 teaspoon Fresh Ginger, minced
1 teaspoon Turmeric
¼ teaspoon Salt
½ teaspoon Black Pepper, coarse ground
½ cup Fresh Spinach Leaves – stems removed
Directions
In a bowl combine 8 egg whites, chiffonade of basil and whisk until frothy to disburse basil and aerate eggs for a fluffy frittata. In a 10 inch non-stick sauté pan add the 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and heat pan. When pan becomes hot, add shitake mushrooms and stir continuously until mushrooms begin to color light brown to bring out the umami flavor. Then add onion, pepper, zucchini, ginger and season to taste with salt and pepper stirring frequently.
As soon as the ingredients are stirred and coasted with oil, add the turmeric and sauté until vegetables are just becoming tender. Add fresh spinach and cook until wilted. Add beaten eggs evenly around vegetables and begin to gently fold sides inward from rim of pan where the eggs begin to cook, while tilting the pan in direction of the fold to allow the loose uncooked eggs to fill that area and cook. Continually doing this around the pan will very quickly cook the eggs and begin to create the frittata.
At this point, finish cooking the top of the eggs by putting the pan under a pre-heated broiler or cover the pan with a plate of the same size. Flip the frittata onto the plate and then slide back into the pan to finish cooking the eggs. The pan can also go in a preheated 350 degree F oven until the eggs are just set. If using the oven, be careful not to over-cook the eggs, which will cause the frittata to be dry.