How to Make Tortilla Espanola

Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

This is a recipe from Team NF Rebel Chef Noel.

Hard-working Rebels have struggled for years to figure out how to make a portable breakfast to take to work. In fact, for those who aren’t intermittent fasting, you may have a goal of eating a healthy breakfast to start your day off right.

The closest many of us have come to solving this riddle is by making a favorite of The Rebellion: Prosciutto Wrapped Egg Muffins. However, I rarely make them because I’m a hot mess in the kitchen and I get egg EVERYWHERE. Plus, I find prosciutto prohibitively expensive and I have ruined many muffin tins and lost much of my breakfast to…well…them sticking to the pan. Solve this problem for me Jedis of the egg muffin order; you’re my only hope.

I may have discovered a solution for us muffin dunces. Recently I went on an Epic Quest of my own and discovered something called Tortilla Espanola.

This Spanish dish just might be something foreign we can add to our healthy breakfast arsenal. It’s healthy, tasty, and traditionally, there are only 4 ingredients. That means it’s super easy to make!

Tortilla Espanola is a Spanish dish that is essentially an egg cake with potato and onion. It’s cut into triangles or squares and served at room temperature as tapas. You might think: cold egg? Gross! But there’s no reason you can’t warm it up in the microwave before you head out. (But, before you do, give it a try traditionally and keep it chilled or at room temperature.)

Tortilla Espanola:

Serves: 2-3
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1/3 cup (78.86ml) diced sweet potato – I used sweets to keep it Paleo; if you eat regular potatoes, feel free to go traditional and sub those!
• 1/3 cup (78.86ml) diced yellow onion
• 3 Tbsp (45ml) olive oil

Optional ingredients to spice it up:

(these are what I used in mine)

• 1/3 cup (78.86ml) red bell pepper
• 1/2 sausage link – I used Applegate Farms chicken apple sausages. Look for something with minimal processing, chemicals, and no added sugar or wheat. These sausages are also pre-cooked and ready to eat. If your sausages are raw, please COOK THEM FIRST before adding them to your eggs.
• 4 cherry tomatoes – cut into quarters

I didn’t use these, but they are also good choices. Choose your favorites!

• Mushrooms
• Bacon – cook it first then chop it after removing it from the pan. As a bonus, you can use the bacon grease to saute the rest of your veggies!
• Spinach

 Equipment:

• Cast iron or other oven-safe saute pan
• Spatula
• Bowl
• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Potato Peeler

Instructions:

Check out the video version of this recipe here (or below)!

The next 16 steps are really just three: we’ll be cutting and cooking our veggies, mixing them in with our eggs, and cooking the whole thing.

Let’s go!

1. Wash all your veggies.

2. Chop all your veggies. If you need a reminder about how to do this, check out these links:

• For the onion
• For the bell pepper, mushrooms, etc.

Cut the little tomatoes into quarters and the sausage into medallions and then chop those in half or into quarters.

A quick note – We’ll want to dice these things pretty small so they incorporate well into the egg mixture. The bell pepper and mushroom instructions above are for larger chunks. 

When you’re done, everything should look like this:

3. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in your pan. This will take a minute or so. Once it is hot, it will slide easily around the pan.

4. Toss in your diced sweet potato. Stir to coat with oil and let them cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want them to cook through, but you don’t want them to burn, so stay attentive! A fork should be able to easily pop in to the chunk when finished.

5. When they’re done, remove them from your pan. Scoop them into a bowl and let them cool while you cook the onion and other veggies.

6. Place another 1 tbsp of olive oil in your pan and let it heat up. It should heat up more quickly this time since your pan is already hot.

7. Toss in your onion, bell peppers, and other veggies like mushrooms or spinach if using. Stir these to coat with oil and let them cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. When they are finished cooking, the onions should become translucent.

When they are done, remove them from the heat. Place them in a bowl and set aside to cool. Be sure to remove your pan from the heat so it doesn’t get too hot.

8. Now break your eggs into a mixing bowl and scramble them. Mix in all your sautéed ingredients plus the ingredients that didn’t need to be cooked (tomatoes and sausage). If you’re using bacon, now’s the time to add it. Stir to incorporate them really well.

9. Put your pan back on the heat and add another 2 tbsp oil. Let it heat up for a minute or so. Heat and oil are super important at this point. If you don’t let the pan get hot enough or add enough oil to coat the pan before adding the eggs, your egg will stick. Major bummer.

10. Once your pan and the oil are hot, tilt the pan to coat the bottom and sides. Then grab your bowl full of egg and dump it into the hot pan. Now leave it alone!

11. While the egg is cooking in the pan, turn on your broiler. If your broiler has the option of “HI” or “LO,” go ahead and set it to low. Make sure everything is out of the oven before turning it on – we don’t want any melting disasters.

12. Once the egg has cooked for about 1-2 minutes on your stove top (or until the egg solidifies), turn off the heat. Take your spatula and run it around the sides of the pan, gently unsticking the egg from the sides. You’ll thank me later.

13. Now place the pan in the oven under the broiler. We do this so that the top of the egg cooks — you’ll notice at this point, it’s still a little raw and runny. Let it cook for another 5-10 minutes (depending on your broiler). Check it frequently to make sure it’s not burning.

14. Once the egg on the top is cooked, pull it out of the oven. Remember to use an oven mitt! (I burn myself way too often grabbing hot pan handles).

15. Take a rubber spatula and run it around the sides and the bottom of the pan gently. We’re un-sticking any stuck egg from the pan.

Take a plate and place it on top of the pan.

Flip the pan over to flip the egg onto the plate. (This step is clearer in the video.) You can see in the picture that it stuck a little bit to the pan.

That’s not a huge deal. Life goes on…

16. Let the egg sit on the plate to cool before you cut into it. Move the egg to a cutting board by simply sliding it from one surface to the next and cut it into triangles or squares. For bonus points, if you have dinosaur shaped cookie cutters, use those to cut your egg. Because that sounds awesome.

Ole!

If you want, you can serve these on a plate with guacamole or salsa. Personally, I just put it in a paper towel and eat it on the go. It’s a pretty easy quick snack or breakfast for the busy Rebel!

Trying and discovering new foods is one of the best parts of travel, in my opinion. Trying recipes or spice combinations from other lands is just one of the ways we can bring the magic of a trip back home.

Let’s hope this solves the breakfast problem for some of us who are egg-muffin challenged.

Have you tried foods while traveling that you’d like to try to cook at home?

What is your favorite on-the-go breakfast?

Did you find the video helpful?

Let us know in the comments!

-Noel

PS: Have you joined our free 5-Day Flexibility Challenge yet? We’re opening the doors for Nerd Fitness Yoga next Tuesday for 4 days, but you can start testing your flexibility today!

Filed under: Fitness