And just when I thought I couldn't come up with another use for my extra onions, The New York Times came to the rescue with a recipe for an onion and thyme frittata. I'm honestly not sure why I didn't think to make a quiche or frittata before this recipe appeared in my Google Reader. As the recipe even says, frittatas are "terrific lunchbox fare." On top of currently looking for ways to use up my onions, I am always looking for creative lunch ideas, and it's been a long time since I made quiche for lunch and even longer since I made a frittata.
I got home from work last Monday and was excited to whip up this frittata to take for lunch the rest of the week, having just eaten a boring salad for lunch that day. This frittata is protein-rich and carb-lite, making it just the thing to fill me up but keep me going for the rest of the day. Those after-lunch hours can drag sometimes, and a carb coma doesn't help them go by any faster.
Onion And Thyme Frittata (adapted from Martha Rose Shulman/The New York Times)
Ingredients
1 large white onion, diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
6 eggs
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Kosher salt and pepper
Preparation
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in ovensafe 10-inch nonstick skillet. Add the onions, and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes.
Season with salt, and stir in garlic and thyme.
Cook about 5 more minutes, until onions color slightly but don't brown. Remove from heat, transfer onions to a plate, and let cool while you prepare the eggs. (Clean and dry the skillet to use again.)
Whisk together eggs, salt and pepper, and cream in a large bowl. Stir in the onions.
Over medium-high heat, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil in the skillet.
Pour in the egg mixture. Use a rubber spatula to lift the set egg away from the edges and let the uncooked egg run underneath.
Turn heat to low, cover, and cook 10 minutes. Uncover and loosen the frittata with the spatula occasionally so it doesn't stick. After 10 minutes, the bottom should be golden brown, and the egg should be mostly set. Cook for a few more minutes if this isn't the case.
Preheat the broiler. Uncover the pan, place it under the broiler (not too close), and cook for 1 to 3 minutes. (Mine needed 3 minutes.) The top will get just slightly golden.
Let the frittata cool for 5 to 10 minutes, and then loosen the edges, and slide or flip it onto a plate.
Cut it into wedges, and serve it immediately, or let it cool, and pack it up for lunch.
If I had more vegetables on hand, I definitely would have spruced this up a bit, but I really enjoyed eating it cold for lunch with some salad greens and leftover steak last week. It has just enough flavor from the onions and thyme, one of my favorite herbs.
The onions are all gone now. In addition to this frittata, you saw the onion strings and the onion gratin, which took one onion each. And then I sauteed one of the remaining two and served it with steak, and I used the other in some slow cooker chicken quesadillas. I know it's not terribly difficult to use up onions, but I was proud of myself for finding interesting ways to incorporate some of them and for not letting any of them go to waste.
What would you put in a frittata?