Food for Thought - Vegetarian Fritata

Are you always buying your lunch out? Not getting enough vegetables in your diet? Trying to watch what you eat but also trying to keep the costs down?

Well look no further, because I have a dish here that you can cook in less than 20 minutes, which will also make you a whopping 3 meals in 1! That’s right, 3 meals in 20 minutes (or less!)

This is one of my most favorite dishes to make at home and it's easy to see why! It’s quick, tasty and really versatile. It’s packed full of vegetable goodness, high in protein and honestly, it’s so cheap to make! The entire batch costs around £3.90, meaning each meal costs around £1.30! Not only is this a bargain but you know where all the ingredients were sourced from and they’re good for you!

(If you’re interested, the cost break down is at the bottom of the page) 

So for this vegetarian frittata, you will need:

6 medium eggs
3 medium sized tomatoes
1 pepper
200g of frozen peas
½ a floret of fresh broccoli
6-7 medium sized mushrooms
60g of cheese (of your choice – I personally went for mature cheddar)
1 clove of garlic

Feel free to add any herbs you have as well. I used Rosemary with this dish as it adds a real depth and a lot of flavor.

Firstly, I chop up all my ingredients so they’re all ready to go



Put boiling water into a saucepan and place a sieve on top so you can steam your peas and broccoli together
Add the peas and broccoli to the sieve, cover with a saucepan lid and leave for 3-5 minutes
Take a large nonstick frying pan, place on a medium heat and use a small amount of sunflower oil to coat your pan
Cut the garlic up into small, thin slices and add to the pan
I like to sweat my garlic rather than brown it, so once you start to smell a faint smell of garlic, add the mushrooms to the pan
Keep the mushrooms and garlic moving so they don’t burn
Once the mushrooms are soft, add the pepper to the pan (I like to have a bit of crunch and different textures to my dish, but you can steam the pepper with the broccoli and peas if you prefer)
Leave the pepper to cook for around 2-3 minutes
After 2 – 3 minutes, drain your peas and broccoli and add to the pan with the peppers, mushrooms and garlic
Add the tomatoes to the mix as well
Mix together well and leave for a further 2 minutes so all ingredients are cooked and hot


Whilst you’re waiting, crack 6 eggs into a bowl and mix together (you can add a splash of milk to this mix if you like)
Season with salt and pepper
You’re going to have a lot of veg in the pan and it’s going to be very hot, so the eggs will start to cook straight away. Instead of moving the veg around to mix with the eggs like you would with an omelet, just pour the egg mixture all over the vegetables as evenly as possible
Leave in the pan for around 4-5 minutes or until you can carefully lift up the frittata and see that the underside is cooked
Once the underside is cook, place the entire pan under a grill to cook the top side and leave until golden brown



Add cheese and melt under the grill for a few more seconds

And you’re done - cut into thirds and there you have three meals in one!

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but chopping the vegetables in probably the longest thing to do and it is really worth a go, it tastes wonderful (or maybe I'm just biased?)
I'm aware it's a really simple recipe but it's great for meal prepping and if you're watching your weight, it's always good to plan and think ahead. It's also great to keep in the fridge for when you're feeling hungry but don't watch to snack, you can cut a slice off and BAM! Healthy and nutritious snack/meal in a jiffy (Did I just say jiffy?!?)

Anyway, I hope this was helpful to at least one person and if you do try it out, please let me know how it goes!

<3 

Break down of costs:

£1 for 6 eggs – All six eggs were used for this dish
£1 for 6 tomatoes – 3 tomatoes cost around = 51p
£1 for 3 peppers – I used 1 pepper for this dish which costs = 33p
£1 for a bag of frozen peas – I used a ¼ of the bag of peas which costs = 25p
60p for a floret of broccoli – I used ½ of the broccoli floret which costs = 30p
90p for a palette of mushrooms – I used ½ a palette of mushroom which costs = 45p
£2.50 for 250g of cheese – I used around ¼ of the block which costs around = 63p
£1 for 3 garlic blubs – Each clove costs around = 4p