It has been four years since I started featuring recipes on this site. In all that time I’ve never featured an omelette recipe. Broadly speaking, I like the idea of omelettes, but they typically aren’t very exciting. Not that they couldn’t be! When I reflect on the past ten omelettes I’ve encountered, more times than not they have been bulging envelopes of egg oozing steady rivers of melted cheese. They are nearly always served with a side of greasy home-fries. All great for tempering a mild hangover, not so great for everyday eats. So instead of complaining, I offer you my omelette recipe makeover.
The Skinny Omelette
In my mind an omelette is a beaten egg (or eggs) gently cooked in a pan and sometimes stuffed with good stuff. As I started rethinking the way I wanted to approach my omelette-making, I opted to keep the beating, cooking, and stuffing intact. I played with a few other variables instead. Deciding to cook the eggs extra thin – almost crepe thin – was key. I also opted for rolling instead of folding. This ended up being a great call because the omelette then lends itself to a lovely (and functional) diagonal cut, you can see a cross-section of the ingredients. One more pro-tip – try to avoid over-stuffing them. You’re looking for a nice egg to filling ratio. Keeping it all relatively light.
So, what you see above is what I whipped up for breakfast this morning. I was in and out of the kitchen (with photo!) in less than twelve minutes, counters cleaned, dishes done. And for those of you who are gluten-intolerant or can’t have gluten, it just dawned on me that these could be considered gluten-free crepes.
Creative Omelette Variations
For this omelette I used my favorite pesto, a small handful of herbs and greens, and crumbled goat cheese in addition to the omelette-egg base. But don’t let that limit you. There are a million ways you can remix this omelette recipe. You can add spices, seasonings, tiny grains, herbs, curry pastes, and infusions to the eggs before cooking. You can play around with different spreads, cheeses, mashed beans, tangy yogurt, salsa and/or avocados as filling. If you like Thai flavors, use Thai ingredients. If you like Japanese flavors, integrate those ingredients. The potential combinations are fun, delicious, and endless.
There are some great egg and omelette suggestions in the comments. Check them out! Marichan says, “…my mother puts dashi, shoyu and a touch of sugar in her omelette. I think those three flavors and the texture of the eggs are what I love. Sometimes she rolls the omelette into a long rectangle using the square egg pan. That’s yummy but I really love the thin, crepe like omelette. Sometimes she will stuff them with chirashizushi (sushi rice with various vegetables mixed in) or put it over Japanese style fried rice.“
Carol also highlights this feisty combination: sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, little blocks of feta cheese and a dollop of homemade harissa.
If you’re on the lookout for other egg recipes my other favorites include: deviled eggs, egg salad sandwich, these special herby cream cheese scrambled eggs, this frittata, and pickled turmeric eggs.
