Our CSA started out small, mostly with leeks, swiss chard and lettuce greens. The very first week I made this frittata with the leeks and chard. It’s so simple and makes a light but satisfying lunch or pairs perfectly with a little salad for dinner. This is such a lovely garden recipe, especially made with farm fresh eggs.What is a frittata you ask? A frittata is an egg based dish. It’s similar to a quiche or an omelet, but it doesn’t have a crust, and the ingredients are mixed in with the eggs. I really like them because the lack of a crust makes it healthier, and there’s no flipping required (which I’ve definitely messed up a few times with omelets!).
This frittata recipe is baked in a small casserole dish. But I’ve also made stove top frittatas in a skillet like this asparagus frittata. If you’re in a hurry, and have an oven proof skillet, you can even start your frittata on the stove and let the top half finish cooking under the broiler for a minute or so. Just make sure to watch it closely!
This is the first year our CSA farm has done leeks. They planted some last year but it took them a while to grow. The first week they were pretty good, but they’ve gotten pretty woody now that they’re over a year old. I was talking with my friends who own the farm about it last week and they think it’s because they’re older than 10 months, which the seed package says is their harvest time.
Not to worry, I’ve been using them in recipes that don’t depend on their texture. For instance, in this recipe I thinly slice them and precook them in a skillet before putting them in the egg mix. That way they get double cooked to help them blend in with the rest of the dish.
I’ve also finely chopped them in a food processor to put them in potstickers or spaghetti sauce.
So whether you have perfect seasonal leeks, or ones that are a little past their prime, you can definitely make this work.
As for chard, you can buy it in the grocery store, but I got 6 chard plants at a local nursery for less than one bunch of chard in the store! I’m so excited to grow it myself. It’s great in my goat cheese swiss chard soup, but sometimes I’ll just put a few leaves torn up in my salad for extra nutrition.
Did you know one cup of swiss chard gives you 700% your daily value of vitamin K, over 100% your daily value for Vitamin A and over 50% for Vitamin C? It’s also high in magnesium, potassium, iron and fiber. It’s a superfood!
Have you cooked with chard or leeks before? What do you like to do with them?
Yield: 4
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Total Time55 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 leeks
- 1 TBS bacon fat (or oil)
- 10 small to medium chard leaves
- 5 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 3 pieces bacon, cooked and chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While waiting for it to boil, chop the white and light green parts of the leeks, saving the dark green leaves for stock.
- Heat the bacon fat (or oil) in a pan on medium high and add the chopped leeks. Cook 5 minutes until softened.
- When your water is boiling, tear the chard leaves into small pieces and put into the water. Blanch (short cook time in boiling water) for 2 minutes and drain.
- In a large bowl, mix together eggs, milk salt and pepper. Stir in bacon, feta, leeks and chard.
- Spray a small square casserole dish or pan with cooking spray and pour your frittata batter in.
- Cook in the oven 40-50 minutes until golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Notes
Approximate cost/serving: This was extremely affordable if you grow the vegetables yourself. I alsomake my own bacon, and get eggs for $2.50/dozen at a farm. But even if you don’t, it’s still very affordable. Buying everything at the grocery store would make this cost around $5 for me. That’s just$1.25 a serving. We’ll have one serving for lunch on its own, or with a little salad for dinner.
Vegetarian/gluten free:You can definitely leave out the bacon to make this meatless, no adjustments needed for gluten free.
We'd love to keep in touch. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter and get your free download of our favorite healthy cute kid snacks.
Posts may contain affiliate links. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link, your costs will be the same but Eating Richly Even When You're Broke will receive a small commission.
This helps us to cover some of the costs for this site. Thank you so much for your support!
Nutritional and cost information is for estimating purposes only, and subject to variations due to region, seasonality, and product availability.
