Easy Pea Mint Frittata Recipe for Breakfast or Brunch
Some recipes I save and never cook. This pea and mint frittata is the opposite. I make it when the fridge looks hopeless: a bag of frozen peas, a few eggs, some mint hanging on for dear life. It takes maybe 20 minutes and I’ve never once regretted making it.
Four people eat well from one pan. I put it in the middle of the table with bread and call it dinner. No one has ever complained. What surprised me the first time I made pea mint frittata was how good it tastes cold the next day. Now I make it on Sunday evenings specifically so I can eat it for lunch on Monday without doing anything except slicing it.
No complicated steps, no special equipment. If you’ve scrambled eggs before, you’re most of the way there.
How to Make It
Pan temperature is the one thing that actually matters. Too high and the base burns before the top sets. Too low and you get something pale and rubbery that nobody wants. Medium heat, and patience.
Serves 4. Takes around 20 minutes.
Turn the oven grill (broiler) on to medium-high first and let it get fully hot. It needs to be ready before the pan goes near it.
Crack 6 eggs into a bowl, add a good pinch of salt, some pepper, and 2 tablespoons of milk or cream. Beat them until there are no streaks. Stir in 150 g of defrosted frozen peas, 2 tablespoons of roughly chopped fresh mint, and 40 g of crumbled feta if you want it.
Put an ovenproof pan (about 24 cm) on medium heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil or butter and wait until it’s genuinely hot before you pour anything in. Then the egg mixture goes in, and you leave it. No stirring, no shaking. After 3 to 4 minutes the edges will be set and only the very center will wobble when you nudge the pan.
Slide it under the grill for 3 to 5 minutes. The top should look just set with a little color. Not glossy, not brown.
Out of the oven, spatula around the edge, tip onto a board, and wait 2 minutes before cutting. The center finishes setting on its own while it rests.
Before the grill goes in: If the whole pan moves like liquid when you nudge it, give it another minute on the stovetop. You want only the center to wobble. Putting pea and mint frittata under the grill too early means a rubbery top and an undercooked middle.
Five Things Worth Knowing
Drain your defrosted peas properly before they go anywhere near the eggs. Run warm water over them in a sieve and let them sit for a few minutes. Peas hold more water than you’d think and it goes straight into the egg mixture. I skipped this step once and the frittata was weeping on the plate. Annoying to deal with once it is on the plate.
Use a pan that’s actually big enough. Six eggs in a 20 cm pan piles up too thick and the middle takes forever while the edges go tough. A 22 to 24 cm pan is what you want for this pea mint frittata. The depth is right and everything sets at a similar pace.
Season the eggs before they go in, not after. Salt mixed into the eggs distributes through the whole thing as it cooks. Salt added at the table sits on the surface. These taste different and it matters more than it sounds like it should.
Take it off before it looks done. I learned this the hard way. If pea and mint frittata looks fully set under the grill, it’s already overcooked. There should still be a slight give in the center when you pull it out. Residual heat and resting time do the rest.
Please just use fresh mint. Dried mint in a frittata smells like tea and adds nothing useful. Fresh mint is cheap and keeps well in the fridge for a week wrapped in damp paper. Buy it fresh or don’t bother.
“My husband said ‘it’s just eggs’ the first time. Then he ate three pieces. I’m calling that a win.” — someone in a cooking group, not a sponsored comment
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
- 150 g frozen peas, defrosted and drained
- 2 tablespoons fresh mint, roughly chopped
- 40 g feta, crumbled (optional but good)
- 2 tablespoons whole milk or single cream
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
- Salt and black pepper
Eggs make a bigger difference here than in most recipes. Crack one open before you start. The yolk should sit up high, deep yellow or orange. A flat yolk that spreads across the bowl is an old egg. The color and flavor of good fresh eggs shows in a pea and mint frittata in a way that plain scrambled eggs might hide. Free-range or pasture-raised eggs are worth the extra cost here.
If you can’t find fresh mint, flat-leaf parsley does the job differently but still well. Dried mint won’t.
Skip fresh peas from the supermarket unless they’re actually fresh and in season. The loose ones that have been sitting in a fridge chiller for days are dry, wrinkled, and taste bland. Frozen peas get picked and frozen within hours of harvest. For pea mint frittata they’re the better choice the majority of the year.
Variations
Swap feta for ricotta. Drop 80 g of full-fat ricotta in by small spoonfuls instead of crumbling feta through. It melts into the egg as it cooks and the texture ends up noticeably creamier. I made this version for a friend’s birthday lunch with a tomato salad and it went fast.
Add smoked salmon. Tear 60 g of smoked salmon into rough pieces and mix it through the eggs with the peas. The salmon is salty enough that you barely need to season anything else. Works well for brunch with sourdough on the side.
Cumin and chili. Half a teaspoon of ground cumin and a pinch of dried chili in the egg mixture. A squeeze of lemon when it comes out of the oven. Serve it with flatbread and yogurt. The cumin works with the peas rather than over them.
Leek and goat’s cheese. Soften half a sliced leek in the pan before the eggs go in. Use soft goat’s cheese where you’d use feta. More filling than the standard version and better suited to a proper dinner rather than a quick lunch.
Parmesan only, no mint. Leave out the mint and feta entirely. Stir 30 g of finely grated Parmesan into the beaten eggs. Sharp, savory, and honestly excellent cold the next day in a lunchbox.
Every version in this list slices neatly and keeps without falling apart. Any version of this pea mint frittata works as a packed lunch without reheating.
Storing and Reheating
Cool it down before wrapping. Putting warm frittata in a container traps steam and the surface goes limp.
In the fridge: 3 days, wrapped or in a lidded container.
Freezing: the texture changes after freezing. Eggs firm up, peas soften. Still edible but not as good. If you do freeze it, wrap wedges individually in cling film and use within 2 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge.
To reheat in the oven: wedges on a baking tray, covered with foil, 170C for 8 to 10 minutes. The foil keeps the top from drying out. This is worth doing when you have the time.
Microwave if you’re in a rush: plate, damp kitchen paper over the top, 60 to 90 seconds on medium power. Medium, not high. High power makes the eggs tight and rubbery at the edges.
Cold is genuinely good though. Tuck slices into a toasted baguette with mayo and watercress. Crumble leftover pea and mint frittata into warm farro or pearl barley with olive oil and lemon. Or cut it into cubes and drop them into a thin green soup in the last couple of minutes. They hold their shape and make the soup more substantial.
Questions
Can I make this the day before? Yes. Keeps 3 days in the fridge. It’s good at room temperature too, so make it the morning of a dinner and leave it on the counter until you’re ready.
Fresh peas or frozen? Frozen for most of the year. Blanch genuinely fresh in-season peas for 2 minutes first if you have them. Otherwise frozen.
Mine always sticks. Why? The fat wasn’t hot enough before the eggs went in. Wait until the oil shimmers. A nonstick ovenproof pan removes most of the guesswork.
What do most people get wrong with pea and mint frittata? Overcooking. Waiting until it looks completely done means it’s already overdone. A slight wobble in the center when it comes off the grill is correct. Resting finishes the job.
No ovenproof pan, no grill. Can I still make it? Yes. Lid on, low heat, 5 to 7 minutes. No color on top but it sets properly.
Before You Go
Pea and mint frittata isn’t the recipe you show off. It’s the one you make on a weeknight when you’re tired and the alternative is cereal. Once it’s in your regular rotation you’ll wonder what you were doing on all those nights before it
