After a night of decking the halls, this is comfort food at its best: Warm, cozy, versatile! Use our base recipe — and secret ingredient — and add in meat or vegetables to your liking. Try it for pot lucks or lunch, too!
By Kara Heald
Preparation Time: 15
Cooking Time: 55
Yield: 6 servings
Description:
Strata is a layered baked dish of eggs, bread and cheese, and often includes meat (bacon, ham, etc.), vegetables,and spices. I love serving it at the holidays and for guests as it makes such a lovely breakfast or lunch dish. It is especially versatile and easy to transport for pot lucks and family gatherings. This recipe provides you the "base" to build your strata and then you can swap in ingredients.
Now, my secret ingredient that makes my strata especially awesome is baguette. Trust me, plain old white bread just doesn't cut it. Once you use baguette, you won't go back to anything else!
My recipe is for an 8 x 8 baking dish and will serve 4-6 as a main with sides. It can be doubled for a 9 x 13 baking dish, which will serve a large crowd of 8 to 12, making it perfect for a large pot luck or family gathering.
Use this base recipe to get the right amounts of bread, eggs, cheese and milk. Everything else can be customized to suit your taste. Swap ham for bacon, or if you prefer to go meatless, use mushrooms. Want to add veggies: How about grilled peppers? You can also keep it simple and just to bacon and cheese. Have fun and make it your new family favourite!
It's lovely paired with hash browns, fruit salad and other breakfast goodies, but is also awesome as lunch or dinner with a green salad. So many options for this amazing dish
*Note that the strata needs to be prepped ahead, and to sit in the fridge for 6-8 hours or overnight so the bread can soak up all the goodness. It is then super easy to just pop in the oven in the morning and bake.
Ingredients:
4 cups of baguette cut into 1″ chunks (about 1/2 a large baguette)
6 slices of uncooked bacon, diced into small pieces
1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
1/4 cup finely sliced green onion
1-1/2 cups of grated cheese (grate your own or buy a yummy cheese blend for convenience. I used a light Tex Mex grated 3-cheese blend and it turned our great and added super flavour)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper
pinch of Kosher (coarse) salt
a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper
6 slices of uncooked bacon, diced into small pieces
1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
1/4 cup finely sliced green onion
1-1/2 cups of grated cheese (grate your own or buy a yummy cheese blend for convenience. I used a light Tex Mex grated 3-cheese blend and it turned our great and added super flavour)
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper
pinch of Kosher (coarse) salt
a few grinds of freshly ground black pepper
- Butter an 8 x 8 baking dish.
- Heat a 12" skillet on medium-high heat and cook bacon. Once fully cooked, use a slotted spoon to move bacon to paper-towel-lined plate. Drain most of the bacon fat, leaving just a thin coating in the skillet.
- Cook the onion in the skillet until translucent. Remove to a small bowl.
All photos by Kara Heald
- Add the cooked bacon and green onion to the cooked onion.
- Place 2 cups of the baguette on the bottom of the baking dish. Top with half of the bacon-onion mixture, and 3/4 cup of the grated cheese.
- Top with the remaining 2 cups of baguette, then the remaining bacon-onion mixture, and another 3/4 cup of cheese.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, mustard, cayenne, salt and pepper and then pour evenly over the bread mixture.
- Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place into the fridge for 6-8 hours, or overnight.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F, and bake strata for 50-60 minutes, removing once top is golden.
- Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
