Sweet Potato, Zucchini, and Bell Pepper Frittata

The picture from pinterest and paleo leap

 I have never made a frittata before, but I recently saw a yummy looking recipe on pinterest and decided to give it a whirl.  What, wait, go back for a second...did I say pinterest??? Yep, I'm on pinterest, at first it seemed like a super time suck and a very silly hobby, but with my ever growing bookmark menu with recipes and other interest links, I decided I would start a pinterest account to store my online recipes.  Well one thing lead to another and now I have several boards with crafts and style ideas.  At times pinterest makes me feel very materialistic, but overall it is a fun idea source--as long as you keep it in moderation.

Anyway back to the recipe.  Pinterest lead me to the site Paleo Leap, which I don't know anything about, other than it's dedicated to the paleo diet and lifestyle.

I was a bit nervous to make my first frittata since I've never made one before and it seems like it could be easy to mess up.  To me it sounded like a quiche which I've never made before either.  According to cookingclarified.com, "Quiche is made by adding ingredients to a custard base, a combination of eggs and heavy cream, which gives it a deliciously creamy consistency when baked. Replace the cream with half and half or milk to cut the fat. Quiche usually has a crust, but it doesn’t have to.  Eggs get top-billing in a frittata. Frittatas have no crust and little, if any, milk or cream. Frittatas are cooked first on the stove-top, then finished in the oven or under the broiler."

Zucchini and sweet potato recipe

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter or coconut oil;
• 8 eggs;
• 1 large sweet potato, cut in slices;
• 2 sliced zucchinis;
• 1 sliced red bell pepper;
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Technique

1. Heat a pan over a medium-low heat;
2. Add the oil and sweet potato slices and cook until soft, about 8 minutes;
3. Add the zucchini and red bell pepper slices and cook for another 4 minutes;
4. While it cooks, whisk the eggs in a bowl, making sure to incorporate a lot of air in the mixture;
5. Season the egg mixture with salt and pepper and add to the cooking veggies;
6. Cook on low heat until just set, about 10 minutes;
7. Finish the frittata until golden under a heated broiler.
8. Cut the finished frittata into wedges

What I Learned:

I had to cook the sweet potatoes longer than 8 minutes, in the future I'll try to cut the potatoes more evenly and into smaller slices.  I think I used a fairly large sweet potato too, which may have added to cooking time.  The bell peppers and zucchini took a bit longer than 4 minutes, but with everything I just cooked them until they were a texture that I liked.  I added the eggs and didn't know what to expect with step 6 "cook on low heat until just set" so I watched it until the sides started to firm up a bit, most of the top was very much raw.  At first I put it in the oven with the oven heated to the broiler setting, I had it for about 6 minutes and the top was nice and brown, but when I cut into the middle, it was still fairly raw.  I was afraid to keep it under the broiler setting for too long, so I turned the oven to 350 and put it in for about 4 more minutes, I pulled it out, checked the middle and it was perfect.

If it's your first time making a frittata, I would recommend keeping a close eye on it during all steps of the process, especially when it's  in the oven--with ovens being different and all.

My frittata--mostly eaten

What do you thing? I know it's kind of hard to tell since there's not much of it left, but it more or less looks like the pretty one above. And end result was great!  I thought it looked beautiful and it definitely tasted scrumptious!