Gluten-Free, Vegetarian Recipe: Spinach Pan Frittata

Earlier this year I finally invested the princely sum of about $30 in one of those little bullet blenders, and it's been totally worth it. I thought I'd be using it to juice, but honestly, it's not powerful enough to actually liquefy things, and I can't be asked to go to the trouble of straining them. But I'll make another post about these concoctions; maybe it'll give other people like me who realise they don't know what to throw into their new appliance some ideas.

I own a single large pan with sloped sides that's sort of like a cross between a skillet and a wok. You could also do this using something smaller or with vertical sides, but it will be much harder to flip and you'll want to be careful not to make it any thicker than I do, as it may not cook through.

So, to imitate my concoction, you'll need 5 eggs and one plastic salad bag of spinach leaves. If you're making this in the U.S., etc., your frittata might be a bit more spinachy than mine, because in Korea, the leaves only come still attached to the stalks and roots and unwashed, so they're a total pain in the ass. But that's fine, because this thing actually has a very subtle, gentle, mostly-eggy flavour. Feed it to people who otherwise don't like veggies, people who do, short people, skinny people, people who climb on rocks, and so forth.

All you have to do is puree the leaves and beat them into the egg with spices of your choice. That's basically it. Right now you're probably like, "Wtf? That's not a recipe", but cool your jets. It's actually great. The thick puree combined with the eggs makes this come out light and fluffy, almost like cake. Aww yiss.

As for spices, I add a generous but not heavy amount of cumin, powdered black pepper, paprika, and a bit of Korean red spice powder. Whatever you've got or prefer, I would strongly recommend the cumin, as it pairs wonderfully with spinach (Case in point: palak paneer).

(This is what happens if you try to flip the
whole thing at once)

If you're not a vegetarian, or your husband isn't or whatever and you were just looking for something healthy, I imagine grilled chicken breast pieces would go nicely in this. My personal favourite way to serve this up is by sauteeing minced garlic, diced onions and chopped mushrooms first, and then plopping those into the egg-spinach puree-spice mixture before cooking the whole thing together. Then I put it on a bed of lettuce, slice up a tomato and top it with either slices of colby jack (I don't have a lot of cheese choices here) or ranch dressing. The ranch in the picture is pinkish because it's half salsa arrabiata, or sundried tomato-oil-sauce-stuff. Got condiments like that that have been lurking in your fridge since the Bush Administration? Now's the time to mix them together and drizzle them over this thing. If you do top this with something creamy - which you absolutely should - chances are, you also won't need any salt. Ranch and cheese are both pretty salty, and this is otherwise well-seasoned.

This one's got shredded carrots inside.

Cooking this in a large pan like mine over medium-lowish heat, you'll want to add a little oil first, and after a few minutes, start swirling the egg mixture around, pushing the sides in with your spatula, and shaking it so as to jiggle the frittata loose once the first side is cooked. Peek underneath to see that it's getting a little golden brown in the middle. You can try flipping the whole thing if you want, but the best method I've found is to slice it into four pizza-like pieces with the spatula and flip those one at a time. 

There you have it. A super healthy, low-calorie (depending on how much cheese and/or ranch you use *cough*) dinner for four.