This easy Vegetable Frittata recipe is a great way to use up all the leftover veggies in your fridge at the end of the week. It is a quick dish to throw together and great for either breakfast or dinner, because we all love breakfast for dinner, right?
Frittata is a quick, easy, no fuss breakfast with endless possibilities for mix-ins. You can go fully vegetarian using only vegetables or add shredded Costco chicken, bacon, sausage, ham, whatever you have on hand. And you don’t ever have to eat the same thing twice!
Table of Contents
What is a frittata?
A frittata is either a crust-less quiche or a baked omelette depending on how you look at it. But in general, it is an egg-bake that is meant to use up leftover vegetables, meat, cheese, herbs to create a delicious and economical meal.
For this vegetable frittata, I made it with 100% vegetables I found in our fridge to clean it out. So you don’t have to use the same exact vegetables I used, but take this recipe as a base and substitute whatever you have on hand.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- As I’ve mentioned above, this frittata is meant to use up leftover vegetables in your fridge to create an easy and cheap meal.
- It minimizes food waste and saves you money!
- It is a small batch recipe that will serve just 2 people, but you can easily scale up for more servings if you wish.
Ingredients and substitutions
As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips for each ingredient:
- Oil – I used olive oil to sautee the vegetables before mixing it with the egg mixture to make the frittata. You can use any type of oil you typically use in your kitchen here.
- Onion – I used just a quarter of a yellow onion for this recipe, but red onion will work as well. And if you have shallots instead, that will work too, you’ll just have to use a few shallots since they are typically smaller.
- Garlic – I used just 1 clove of garlic for flavor, if you like more garlic, feel free to add more. If you don’t have garlic, simply skip it or use a dash of garlic powder or garlic salt.
- Tomato – I used 1 roma tomato. If you have a different kind of tomato, feel free to use that. Or you can use a handful of grape or cherry tomatoes instead. Don’t like tomatoes or don’t have tomatoes? Use mushroom, bell pepper or zucchini.
- Spinach – I used a handful of spinach for some greens. You can use other green vegetables like kale, broccoli or asparagus.
- Cilantro – this is the herb I have on hand, so that’s what I used, but you can also use basil, thyme or your favorite herbs. Don’t have fresh herbs? Dig into your spice cabinet for some dry herbs!
- Eggs – these are our main ingredients, you can use either large or extra large eggs (if you happen to shop at Costco).
- Milk – just a little bit of milk is used to create the custard-egg-mixture.
- Cheese – We usually have a big bag of Mexican blend shredded cheese in the fridge so that’s what I used here, but feel free to use other types of shredded cheese and even feta cheese if you’d like.
- Salt – use salt to season the egg mixture to taste. You can substitute garlic salt if you don’t have fresh garlic for this recipe.
- Pepper – use pepper to season the egg mixture to taste.
Tools you’ll need
To make this vegetable frittata, you’ll need an 8″ cast iron skillet or another oven proof skillet since the ingredients will be cooked on the stove top first and then the frittata will be baked in the oven to finish.
How to make vegetable frittata
Prepare the egg mixture: beat together eggs, milk, salt and pepper to taste, and some of the cilantro. I used ¼ teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper in this recipe, you can add more or less to your taste. It’s better to go light on the salt and add more later when you’re serving it.
Sautee the vegetables: heat up your cast iron skillet over high heat, add oil and lower the heat to medium low. Add chopped onion and minced garlic, and cook until translucent. Then add the chopped tomatoes and spinach, and cook until the spinach is just wilted.
Make the frittata: spread the veggies evenly and add the egg mixture, sprinkle cheese on top and let it cook in the skillet for a minute. Then place the whole thing into a preheated oven and cooked for about 15 minutes until the egg is set.
Baker’s tips
- Don’t over bake the frittata. Remove it from the oven as soon as the egg is set. Over baked egg will be dry and tough.
- Season to taste: typically you want to season your vegetables as you cook them as well as season the egg mixture. But in this case, I didn’t season the vegetables because I didn’t want them to release too much water since the tomatoes are pretty watery already.
- Use what you have: this dish is not meant to be complicated, just use whatever you have in your fridge to make it. Change up the ingredients depending on what you have or what you like.
- Cook the vegetables in stages: start with the vegetables that need the most time to cook first like onion and garlic, then heartier vegetables like bell pepper, zucchini and asparagus, finish with tender greens like spinach. You could also toss in leftover vegetables from previous meal, just cook it enough to warm through.
Storage
If you have leftover vegetable frittata, it should last about 3 days in the fridge. To reheat, just cover it with plastic and warm it in the microwave.
Serve this frittata with
- Almond Pancakes
- Honey Buttermilk Biscuits
- Orange Scones
- Banana Bread French Toast
- Coconut French Toast Bake
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📖 Recipe card
Vegetables Frittata
Equipment
- 8" cast iron skillet
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ large onion (chopped)
- 1 clove of garlic (minced)
- 1 large Roma tomato (chopped)
- A handful of spinach
- 2 tablespoon cilantro (chopped)
- 4 extra-large eggs (or large is fine)
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 oz cheese (shredded Mexican blend, mozzarella or feta)
- ¼ teaspoon salt (to taste, can use garlic salt)
- ¼ teaspoon pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Wash, dry and chop your vegetables.
- Beat the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and about a tablespoon of cilantro in a large measuring cup and set aside.
- Heat an 8” cast iron skillet (or another oven proof skillet) over high heat, add olive oil to coat the pan, about ½ to 1 tablespoon (add more if your skillet is not non-stick).
- When the oil is hot enough, lower the heat to medium low, add onion and garlic, cook until onion is translucent. Add the chopped tomato and spinach, cook just until the spinach is wilted.
- Spread the vegetables evenly, and pour the egg mixture over the vegetable , sprinkle with cheese.
- Cook for a minute for the bottom and side of the egg to set. Then transfer the skillet to the oven and bake for 15 minutes until the egg just sets.
- Check doneness by shaking the skillet, the middle should jiggle just very slightly. Remove from the oven, garnish with the remaining cilantro and let cool slightly before serving.
Notes
- Don’t over bake the frittata. Remove it from the oven as soon as the egg is set. Over baked egg will be dry and tough.
- Season to taste: typically you want to season your vegetables as you cook them as well as season the egg mixture. But in this case, I didn’t season the vegetables because I didn’t want them to release too much water since the tomatoes are pretty watery already.
- Use what you have: this dish is not meant to be complicated, just use whatever you have in your fridge to make it. Change up the ingredients depending on what you have or what you like.
- Cook the vegetables in stages: start with the vegetables that need the most time to cook first like onion and garlic, then heartier vegetables like bell pepper, zucchini and asparagus, finish with tender greens like spinach. You could also toss in leftover vegetables from previous meal, just cook it enough to warm through.
Nutrition
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Manali @ CookWithManali
haha isn’t deciding on the weekend breakfast the most difficult thing! My husband will never ever give his opinion, he’ll always say make whatever you like! Urghh thank you , like that helped a LOT [not]!!
this frittata looks great, perfect for a weekend brunch! lovely pictures too!
Trang
Thanks Manali! Aren’t all men the same??? So helpful… ugh