Use Up Your Leftover Greens With a Green Frittata
Summer is peak time for all manner of leafy greens and herbs. So much so that you can go a little hog wild at the market and end up with a lot of partially-used or unused bunches of kale, spinach, cilantro, and parsley wilting away in your refrigerator. When greens are creeping close to the date where they're going to turn to compost, you have a couple options for using them up. One is by throwing them into a green frittata, a version of the egg dish that's more greens than eggs, giving it a vibrant green color and a complex, herbacious taste.
The principle of the green frittata, which Chef Shimon Maman serves at his Nolita restaurant Shoo Shoo, is simple. "We use all the green herbs we have in the house, so it's easy to mix and match," Maman said. "For leafy greens, any green works, like kale or spinach. Just make it with whatever you love as long as the ratio is about 70 percent herbs and greens to about 30 percent eggs."
Maman serves his frittata on a smear of labne that he mixes with juice from the herbs he puts into the frittata and red chile flakes. The result is a delicious, light dish that can easily serve a crown of people for brunch or breakfast. You can buy labneh or make your own—it's just Greek yogurt with more of the liquid strained out to make it thicker. Here's a simple recipe for homemade labneh if you care to give it a try.
At Shoo Shoo, Maman also adds a side of good bread and spiced butter, which you can replicate by mashing together softened butter with fennel seeds, coriander, chile, and black pepper. But to be fair, the green frittata doesn't need anything to be the star of the meal and a vehicle for all your neglected farmers' market greens.
