This cozy leek and gruyere frittata is ready in 30 minutes with just a few ingredients! Mix it up for an easy weekend brunch or make it ahead of time for quick breakfasts throughout the week.
One thing every home cook should have in their back pocket: A great, simple frittata recipe. This easy egg dish is perfect for a simple breakfast, but also reheats incredibly well - making it perfect for meal prep!
We're pairing rich, buttery leeks with some shredded gruyere cheese here for a rich, custard-y egg dish. Serve it on its own or pair it with a quick lemon arugula salad and some toasted crusty bread!
Ingredients You'll Need
This leek and cheese frittata is ultra-simple, and it's easy to customize! A few quick notes before you get started:
- How to cut and clean leeks: Trim off the darkest green pieces at the top of the leek, as well as the lower root ends. Cut the remaining white and pale green parts of the leek into slices, then submerge them in a bowl of cold water and swirl them around to release any grit. Lift them out of the water, leaving any sand at the bottom of the bowl. Learn more: How to meal prep leeks.
- We're using just the white and lightest green leek pieces here: They cook quickly and have a tender, buttery texture that melts so beautifully into this frittata. The darker green leek pieces can be tough and chewy, so they don't work as well in this recipe (save them for chicken stock, parmesan broth, or leek and potato soup!)
- Heavy cream gives our frittata a creamy, almost custard-y texture. You can swap the cream for half and half or whole milk if you like! Lower-fat milks (like 1%, 2%, or skim) don't have quite as rich of a texture here, but they'll work in a pinch!
Pro Tip: Preheat the oven while you prep your ingredients!
Riffs and Substitutions
This simple leek frittata is a wonderful blank canvas for whatever you have on hand! Some of our favorite swaps and adjustments:
- Add extra veggies. Sauté sliced onion, shallot, garlic, zucchini, asparagus, or mushrooms along with the leeks, or add some fresh leafy greens (spinach, kale, arugula) when you whisk the egg mixture together. This frittata is also excellent with almost any leftover roasted vegetable (like butternut squash, cauliflower, bacon blue cheese asparagus, potatoes, or parmesan roasted broccoli). For extra brightness, top the cooked frittata with some fresh cherry tomatoes from the garden.
- Stir in some fresh herbs along with the egg mixture (parsley, chives, tarragon, thyme, and basil are all good here).
- Switch up the cheese. We love the nutty, earthy flavor of gruyere in this recipe, but this frittata is also good with shredded sharp cheddar, parmesan cheese, or a few dollops of goat cheese (similar to our leftover turkey frittata) or cream cheese (like we do in our smoked salmon scrambled eggs!)
- Add protein. Cooked and crumbled breakfast sausage, smoked salmon, crispy bacon (or prosciutto!), leftover chicken or herb roasted turkey breast, or leftover ham are all great in this dish.
How to Make This Frittata
Whisk the egg mixture together
First, whisk a few large eggs together in a medium bowl with some heavy cream, shredded gruyere cheese, salt, and pepper. Set this mixture aside while you cook the leeks.
Sauté the Leeks
Melt a bit of butter in a cast iron skillet over medium heat (Image 1, below) then add your sliced leeks (Image 2).
Sauté the leeks, stirring only occasionally, until they've softened and begun to brown (Image 3, below).
Turn off the heat, then pour your egg mixture over the leeks in the skillet (Image 4).
Bake
Use an oven mitt to carefully slide the frittata (Image 5, below) into a 400° Fahrenheit oven.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the eggs have puffed up, the center has hardly any jiggle left, and the edges are lightly browned (Image 6).
Pro Tip: The exact cooking time will depend on your oven and the pan you use (we used a 10-inch cast iron skillet in these photos). A smaller pan may need an extra few minutes to ensure the eggs are cooked through; if you use a larger pan, the frittata will cook more quickly!
A Few FAQs
Yes! Cook the leeks and add the egg mixture to the skillet as directed, then cover the pan and cook over very low heat until the eggs have set. This can take a bit longer than baking in the oven, and it won't cook quite as evenly, but it will still taste good!
Let leftover frittata slices cool completely, then store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat on a baking sheet in a 350° F oven until warmed through.
While you can freeze baked frittata, we don’t recommend it. When you thaw and reheat the dish the eggs can become rubbery and kind of tough. We much prefer eating this simple dish when it's fresh out of the oven or storing it for a few days in the refrigerator before reheating!
Typically, no: We don't recommend stirring the frittata once you add the egg mixture. Once the eggs hit the hot pan, they start to form a crust (this crust packs some added flavor, but it's also important to help the frittata release cleanly from the skillet after it's baked). If you stir the eggs after they hit the hot pan, the crust won't form as well and the frittata can stick to the pan.
More Cozy Breakfast Recipes
Did you make this recipe? Leave a comment and star rating below to let us know how it turned out!
Print📖 Recipe
Gruyere Leek Frittata
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This quick and easy leek frittata has a mellow, earthy flavor and a creamy texture. Whip it up in 30 minutes for an easy brunch, or bake it in advance and reheat a slice at a time for easy meal prepped breakfasts throughout the week!
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup shredded gruyere cheese (about 6 ounces)
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
- Kosher salt and pepper to taste
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 2 heaping cups sliced leeks, cleaned well (about 2 medium sized leeks)
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400° Fahrenheit.
- Add eggs, shredded gruyere, and cream to a medium mixing bowl with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Whisk to combine, then set aside.
- Heat a 10” cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add butter to skillet and let it melt, then add sliced leeks. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until leeks are softened and lightly browned, about 6 minutes.
- Spread leeks out over the bottom of the skillet in an even layer, then turn off the heat.
- Gently pour the egg mixture into the skillet on top of the leeks. No need to stir - just let the eggs settle around the leeks!
- Use an oven mitt to carefully transfer the skillet to the 400° F oven. Bake 12-15 minutes, until eggs have puffed up and begun to lightly brown around the edges. The eggs should still be a tiny bit jiggly in the very center.
- Remove frittata from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes, then slice and serve.
Notes
Equipment notes. We like to use a 10” cast iron skillet for this recipe. If you don’t have cast iron, use another oven-safe skillet (an oven-safe nonstick/ceramic skillet works well here; stainless steel also works pretty well as long as the skillet is QUITE hot when you add the eggs - otherwise it can stick!) If you don’t have an oven-safe skillet, sauté the leeks as directed, then transfer them to a greased oven-safe baking dish, add the eggs, and bake from there. You may need to adjust the bake time for other skillet sizes (an 8” skillet may need a little extra time; a 12” skillet will cook the eggs a little bit more quickly).
Substitutions and Additions. Use olive oil instead of butter. Add extra veggies (onions, mushrooms, garlic, bell peppers) when you sauté the leeks, or stir some fresh greens (spinach or kale are great) into the egg mixture before baking the frittata. Swap some or all of the gruyere here for white cheddar cheese, goat cheese, feta, havarti, or mozzarella. Use half and half or whole milk instead of the cream if you prefer.
Storing and Reheating Leftovers. Store cooled, leftover frittata slices in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. When you’re ready to serve, reheat slices on a sheet pan in a 350° F oven for 5-10 minutes, until warmed through. We don’t recommend freezing leftover frittata as it can make the eggs rubbery and tough.
Wash leeks thoroughly! Leeks grow in sandy soil, so it’s important to clean them well to remove any grit. Trim the dark green tops and the root ends off each leek (compost these or save them for stock), then slice the white and lightest green pieces into slices. Submerge the leek slices in a bowl of cold water, stir them to release any grit, then lift them out of the bowl and place them on a clean tea towel to dry before using. You can cut and clean leeks several days in advance - let them dry, then store them in an airtight container in the fridge until you’re ready to use them.
Strict vegetarians should look for gruyere cheese made without rennet.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 305
- Sugar: 2.4 g
- Sodium: 901.3 mg
- Fat: 22.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 7.2 g
- Protein: 18.5 g
- Cholesterol: 327.6 mg
Keywords: breakfast, brunch, eggs, entertaining
Rhonda
Just made this for company - huge hit! Made one small one with just egg whites for someone who couldn't eat the yolks - they loved it!
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
YIPPEE! We love that adjustment to make a smaller egg white frittata as well!
Rhonda
This frittata is absolutely amazing! So easy and so delicious. Leftovers reheated perfectly the next day! The leeks added so much flavor to the dish.
★★★★★
Rhonda @ Life As A Strawberry
So glad you loved it!