It's a breakfast casserole that's the perfect brunch for your family or for a group. This Bacon Spinach and Feta Breakfast Strata recipe is so easy to make and can be prepared in advance for an easy but delicious breakfast, brunch, or even dinner!
It's a breakfast dream or a breakfast for dinner win! Our Bacon Spinach and Feta Breakfast Strata is a new favorite in our house! Not only is it fully balanced with bacon, bread, cheese, eggs, and spinach, but it's also, well, just so stinkin' delicious!
What is a Breakfast Strata
A strata is a breakfast casserole that is layered (strata=layers) made with bread, eggs, and cheese plus whatever else you'd like to add. It's like an egg custard but with bread, or like a savory bread pudding, but we, of course, like to add some bacon and of course our favorite, spinach! I mean can you ever go wrong with a breakfast casserole packed full of bread, eggs, and spinach? For our Bacon Spinach and Feta Breakfast Strata, we go to a classic combo, spinach, and feta to round out the bacon, but the possibilities are truly endless with this! You can add your favorite proteins, cheeses, or veggies for a breakfast strata recipe that can fit any preferences or diet.
Ingredients Needed
- Bread - We love our Easy White Sandwich Bread for this, but use your favorite white bread or Italian or French loaf.
- Eggs - Key to any strata or hearty breakfast casserole.
- Bacon - Because everything is better with bacon, right? Especially peppered bacon which is our favorite for this recipe.
- Spinach - For most of our beloved spinach recipes we prefer to use fresh, but of course, you can also use frozen.
- Feta and Parmesan Cheese - Is there anything better than spinach and feta together? Parmesan cheese adds a delightful nutty flavor as well, but you can also use another hard cheese like Romano or Asiago.
- Spices - Mustard, salt, and pepper.
- Milk and Half and Half - We prefer 2% for the milk and the half and half adds just the right amount of added richness.
- Butter - To saute the garlic, onion, and spinach together.
Easy to Make
Saute Onion, Garlic, and Spinach
The butter adds maximum flavor with some of our staples in cooking, alliums, and spinach!
Cube the Bread
We love our Easy White Sandwich Bread for this recipe, but also your favorite Italian or French bread would be delicious too! We also love Dan's Como Bread and our Homemade Hawaiian Sandwich Bread for this easy breakfast casserole recipe.
Prepare the Eggs and Cook the Bacon
Mix the eggs with the cream, milk, and spices until it's all well combined while your bacon cooks up nice and crispy!
Assemble!
Now you're ready to add the layers to the strata!
First the bread and the spinach and onion...
...then the crumbled bacon, cheese, and egg mixture. Now it's time to let it rest. At least 1 hour, but also up to 24 hours. Which makes this breakfast strata recipe absolutely perfect to prepare in advance! The longer it sits, the most the egg mixture is soaked up into all of that delicious bread.
Bake!
Bacon Spinach and Feta Breakfast Strata baked to perfection for the win! Layers of bread, spinach, bacon, and cheese all soaked in a milky creamy egg mixture!
Cooking Tips
For this recipe, you can use anything that's nice and soft and without added nuts or seeds. To make this super easy, use your favorite French bread or boule from your favorite bakery.
You do not want to bake this right after it's assembled. If you do, then you're cheating out all of those bread cubes from soaking up all of the egg and milk mixture. Let it rest for at least an hour, but we find that anything longer is better, up to 24 hours. This will allow the egg mixture to really soak up into the bread creating the right texture for this easy breakfast casserole recipe.
You want to make sure that you use a shallow pan so that you can spread the bread cubes for this breakfast strata recipe out into an even layer. If you use a deeper pan where the bread cannot be in a single layer, it will create some soggy strata.
Of course! Just thaw and squeeze out the excess liquid before giving it a quick saute with the onions and butter, just to soak up some of that butter. Or you could just layer it on after it's thawed and drained.
Now this, this is a breakfast strata! So soooo much flavor thanks to the bacon - which you really don't want to skip, it adds exactly what this breakfast casserole needs. You can make this recipe without the bacon and it is still delicious, but trust me, if you are a meat-eater, do NOT skip the bacon!
My 6-year-old will happily eat this for breakfast, lunch, or dinner! And this Bacon Spinach and Feta Breakfast Strata recipe is one that definitely works for any meal! Plus, how can you ever go wrong when your kiddo's eating spinach with their breakfast?
Enjoy! As always, if you make this recipe or any of my others, I love to hear what you think! Leave a comment below, email me, or you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Bacon Spinach and Feta Breakfast Strata
Equipment
- 9 X 13 baking dish
Ingredients
- 8 cups white sandwich bread cubed
- 8 cups fresh spinach packed, or approximately 10 oz fresh or frozen.
- 1 large onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 8 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 6 oz feta cheese
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- 1/2 cup half and half
- 1 cup 2% milk
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large skillet. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft and translucent for approximately 5 minutes. Add spinach and stir until cooked and wilted, approximately 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Meanwhile, cook the bacon in another saute pan until browned and fat rendered.
- In a large bowl, add all of the eggs, milk, cream, salt, pepper, and ground mustard. Whisk until well combined.
- Grease your baking tray with butter and add cubed bread in a single layer. Add spinach and onions, spreading evenly as possible over the bread. Crumble bacon and sprinkle over the top of the spinach and onion mixture. Sprinkle feta and Parmesan cheese in an even layer over the top. Then gently pour in the egg and milk mixture.
- Cover with plastic wrap and store in fridge for at least an hour and up to 24 hours.
- Pre-heat oven to 375° F. Remove baking dish from the fridge and let come up to room temp for 15-20 minutes.
- Baked covered lightly with aluminon foil for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 25 minutes uncovered.
- Enjoy!
I plan on making this tomorrow morning for breakfast! Sounds delicious! Excited to give it a try!
Enjoy!!
Fulfilling and delicious breakfast option. It has everything that i need for an amazing meal.