Loaded Spinach, Broccoli & Piquillo Frittata

Loaded Spinach, Broccoli & Piquillo Frittata

12" cast iron · serves 8 · 20 min prep · 40 min cook · 1 hr total · make-ahead

Makes 8 servings

A loaded, Spanish-leaning frittata—sweet Vidalia, broccoli, smoky Piquillo peppers, and spinach over a high-protein cottage-cheese custard, finished with sharp cheddar. Built in a 12-inch cast iron, it makes a week of hot breakfasts and freezes in wedges. The cottage cheese is the trick: whisked into the eggs it disappears into the custard, holds the moisture so it doesn't go rubbery on reheat, and pushes the protein up without changing the flavor. Use the −/+ serving control to scale the whole recipe up or down—every amount rescales with it. The cook times don't change with servings: they follow the pan and the depth of the eggs, not the count, so a smaller batch in a smaller pan bakes in about the same time.

Ingredients

• 12 eggs (large)
• ⅔ cup 2% cottage cheese
• 3 tbsp hemp hearts — optional; whisked into the custard for omega-3s, magnesium, and a little nutty body
• 1 tsp salt
• ⅓ tsp black pepper
• ⅓ tsp smoked paprika — optional, but it's what makes the Piquillos taste like more than sweet peppers
• 1 ½ tbsp olive oil
• 1 large Vidalia onion, diced
• 2 cups broccoli, cut into small (½-inch) florets
• 1 ½ sweet bell peppers, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 ½ cups yellow squash or zucchini, diced — optional; Bev's add-in, sautéed first so it doesn't weep
• 1 cup cooked ham, cubed — optional; Bev's add-in, warmed through with the vegetables
• 6 cups fresh spinach
• 6 Piquillo peppers, torn into strips
• ⅔ cup shredded cheddar
• 3 oz goat cheese (chèvre), crumbled — optional, for creamy pockets

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C), with a rack in the center.
2. Whisk the eggs with the cottage cheese, salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, and hemp hearts (if using) until well blended. For a fully smooth custard, blitz the cottage cheese into the eggs with an immersion blender; whisking by hand leaves a little curd texture, which is also good. Set aside.
3. Heat the olive oil in the 12-inch cast iron over medium. Add the Vidalia and cook until soft and just starting to color—Vidalias are sweet and worth coaxing a little caramelization out of, so give them a head start.
4. Add the broccoli with a splash of water and cover. Steam until bright green and just tender, then uncover.
5. Stir in the bell pepper and cook until it softens, then add the garlic for the last 30–60 seconds so it doesn't scorch.
6. (Optional)For Bev's version, add the diced squash with the bell pepper and cook until its moisture cooks off and the edges color—squash weeps, so get the pan dry before the eggs go in. Stir the cubed ham in with the vegetables just to warm it through.
7. Add the spinach by the handful, tossing until just wilted. Spread everything evenly and tuck the Piquillo strips in among the vegetables. Let any standing liquid cook off so the pan looks dry—broccoli, spinach, and Vidalia all throw moisture, and a wet pan weeps under the eggs.
8. Pour the custard over the vegetables and give it one gentle stir with a spatula so the vegetables are surrounded by egg rather than sitting on top. Let it cook undisturbed until the edges just begin to set—as the bottom sets it grips the vegetables and holds them suspended, so they don't all sink to the floor of the pan.
9. Scatter the cheddar over the top. For creamy pockets, dollop the chèvre on as well—don't stir it in.
10. Transfer the skillet to the oven and bake until the center is just set and barely golden. A knife near the middle should come out clean; a faint jiggle is fine—it finishes as it rests.
11. (Optional)For a browned, blistered top, slide the skillet under the broiler for the last minute or two—cast iron only, and stay at the oven door, it goes from golden to burnt in under a minute.
12. Let it rest in the pan, then slide onto a board and cut into wedges.

Cal / wedge	Protein	Carbs	Fat
~200	14g	6g	14g

per wedge, batch of 8, cheddar only · Sat fat 5g · Sodium 360mg · Fiber 1.5g—a slice with a bowl of yogurt or kefir is the everyday portion; cut into 6 for a heartier wedge (~19g protein), or into 4 for ~28g. A side of cottage cheese or kefir clears 30g on a training morning. With 3 tbsp hemp hearts: add ~21 cal and ~1.5g protein per wedge. With Bev's ham and squash: add ~40 cal and ~4g protein per wedge, plus about 225mg sodium—the squash brings a little fiber, the ham drives the sodium, so reach for a lower-sodium ham if that matters. All in (hemp + ham + squash): ~260 cal, ~20g protein, ~7g carbs, ~18g fat, ~585mg sodium per wedge.

Storage & freezing

For the fridge, let the wedges cool completely—sealing in warm food traps steam and sogs the bottoms—then lay them in a single layer in an airtight glass container. Keeps about 4 days and reheats in a minute; the cottage-cheese custard is what keeps it from going rubbery. To freeze, wrap each cooled wedge snugly in cling film (the layer pressed against the food is what blocks freezer burn), then press them flat into a freezer bag with the air squeezed out. Foil works as the outer layer in place of the bag; parchment doesn't—it breathes, so use it only to separate wedges, not to seal them. Freeze whatever you won't eat within a day or two—freeze it fresh, not on day four after it's already spent its fridge life. Keeps 2–3 months; date the bag. Reheat from frozen in a 325°F oven about 15 minutes, or thaw overnight in the fridge and warm gently; blot any surface moisture before serving.

Why this works

One pan covers most of a breakfast's job. The eggs and cottage cheese are complete protein, and the cottage cheese is doing quiet work: whisked into the eggs it disappears into the custard, pushes the protein up, and holds moisture so the eggs don't turn rubbery on reheat. It's the one cheese that belongs in the base—the cheddar goes on top to melt and brown, and the chèvre, if you use it, gets dolloped for creamy pockets (drain any soft cheese if it's wet, and never whisk it into the eggs). The vegetables carry the fiber and most of the micronutrients—spinach for folate and iron, broccoli for vitamin C and sulforaphane, Piquillos and bell pepper for more vitamin C and carotenoids. The fat is mostly from the eggs and cheese; the optional hemp hearts add what those don't—ALA and GLA from the plant side, plus magnesium. Nothing here spikes blood sugar: the carbs are low and come with fiber, so it holds you for hours rather than an hour. Loaded with the ham and squash, a slice clears about twenty grams of protein—closer to thirty with a bowl of yogurt alongside—and the ham is the one thing to watch: it carries the sodium, so a lower-sodium ham keeps the balance.