Hey dear friends! Today, I am delighted to be sharing one of personal favourite recipes with you – Spanish Omelette (Tortilla de Patatas). This is no ordinary omelette, however, as it’s 100% plant-based!! Yep, not a single egg in sight. In my pre-vegan days, Spanish Tortilla was a favourite comfort food of mine, but I love this vegan version even more. Not only is it delicious, it’s cruelty-free (no hens or chicks are harmed in the making of this omelette) AND healthier than the traditional version. It’s lower in fat, contains zero cholesterol, and is a rich source of plant proteins, B vitamins, vitamin C, and an array of minerals including potassium, magnesium, zinc and iron.
Healthy, tasty AND cruelty-free. A winner all round!
Over the years, I’ve made a few vegan potato omelettes, but I’ve never been 100% satisfied with the result. I found they tasted okay, but the texture wasn’t quite right. The Vegan Tapas pages in this month’s Vegan Life magazine inspired me to have another shot at mastering the Spanish omelette. This time I was determined to keep experimenting until I had a winning recipe.
This week, I’ve been busy experimenting with different recipes and cooking methods, and my family were very willing taste testers. When it came to recipes, there was a clear winner and, of course, that’s the one I’m sharing today. It’s an adaptation of my Frittata recipe (p72 of the Bit of the Good Stuff cookbook) and uses a mix of silken tofu and chickpea flour. It’s this combination that gives the Tortilla a lovely, soft ‘egg like’ texture. I’ve made Tortillas in the past using just chickpea flour… and I tried it again this week, but I find that the omelettes come out much denser and drier than when I combine the flour with tofu.
I also wanted to make this omelette as healthy as possible, without compromising on flavour. I do use extra virgin olive oil, as it lends the wonderful flavour we associate with the Spanish Tortilla; however where the potatoes are traditionally shallow fried in oil (and thus use a lot of oil), I first boil them until tender, then pan-fry them in the oil. This has enabled me to massively cut down on the amount of oil used, plus it saves time as the potatoes cook a lot faster.
One mistake I made early on when attempting Spanish omelettes was to use the wrong type of potato. I used floury potatoes (like Maris Piper) and they not only have the wrong texture for an omelette but the slices also fall apart. For Spanish omelettes, you want to use waxy potatoes, like Charlotte or Maris Peer. This week, I used salad potatoes which hold their shape well (as you can see in the picture below).
I experimented with three different cooking methods for this vegan omelette, and two out of three worked great. The first method is to cook the omelette in an oven-proof frying pan on the stove top then finish it off under the grill. The second method is to bake the omelette in the oven (in a flan tin or similar). I personally don’t have a preference as the omelettes taste the same whichever cooking method is used. The only difference is that the oven-baked omelettes look a little neater in appearance, as you can see in the picture below.
Vegan Spanish Potato Omelette – Tortilla de Patatas
Ingredients
- 600 g / 21 oz waxy potatoes e.g. charlotte, maris peer or salad potatoes
- 1½ TBSP extra virgin olive oil divided
- 1 large onion diced
- 2 tsp garlic minced
- ½ tsp salt
- 60 ml / ¼ cup soya milk
- 300 g / 10½ oz silken tofu* drained
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 45 g / ⅓ cup gram flour (aka chickpea flour, besan flour)
- 2 TBSP nutritional yeast flakes
- 2 TBSP cornflour (cornstarch)
- ¼ tsp ground turmeric
- ¼ tsp black salt (kala namak) optional – adds an ‘eggy’ flavour
- vegetable oil for greasing the pan
Instructions
- Prepare a large pan of boiling water.
- If you wish, you can peel the potatoes (I prefer to leave the skin on). Cut the potatoes into halves or quarters, then into 0.5cm / ⅕ inch slices. Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes or until tender, then drain using a colander.
- Meanwhile, heat ½ TBSP extra virgin olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan (skillet) on medium-low heat and cook the onions, stirring now and then.
- Prepare the batter: place the milk, silken tofu, mustard, gram flour, nutritional yeast, cornflour, turmeric and black salt (if using) in a large mixing bowl and blend smooth using a hand blender (alternatively use a jug blender).
- When the potatoes are tender, tip them into the frying pan with the onion. Add 1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil, 2 tsp garlic and ½ tsp salt. Continue cooking for a couple of minutes on medium heat, stirring regularly until the potatoes are fully coated in the oil and salt. (They should start to turn a light yellow colour). Taste test and add a touch more salt or oil, if needed.
- Add the contents of the frying pan to the batter in the mixing bowl and stir through.
7a. To Pan-Fry the Omelette:
- Coat the bottom of a clean, non-stick oven-safe frying pan (skillet) with oil and heat on medium heat. (I use a rapeseed/canola oil spray as I find it less sticky than olive oil). Tip the omelette mixture into the pan and use a silicone spatula to distribute it evenly; smooth the top and neaten the edges. Cook for 15 minutes on medium-low heat, or until the edges start to firm up.
- Towards the end of the cooking time, preheat the grill (broiler). Place the frying pan under the grill (with the handle sticking out) until the omelette is lightly browned (about 3 minutes). Keep a watch on it as it can burn quickly. Using an oven glove, remove the pan from the grill. Leave to rest for at least 10 minutes (it will firm up as it cools), then loosen with a slotted turner and transfer to a chopping board.
7b. To Oven-Bake the Omelette:
- Pre-heat the oven to 200C (180C fan). Grease the sides of a 22cm / 9” loose-bottom flan tin and line the bottom with non-stick baking paper. Add the omelette mixture and press it down using a silicone spatula. Cook for 30 minutes, or until the tortilla is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted through the middle comes out clean. Leave to rest for at least ten minutes (it will firm up as it cools), then gently run a knife round the outer edge and transfer the omelette to a chopping board.
Notes
Products I used in this recipe…
– Clearspring Organic Silken Tofu
– KTC Gram Flour
– Engevita Nutritional Yeast Flakes with B12
– Top-Op Kala Namak (Black Salt)
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If you make this Spanish Omelette (or any other recipes on my blog), I’d love to hear your feedback and any suggestions for adaptations! Tag your photos with #bitofthegoodstuff on social media and they’ll find their way to me. You can also connect with me on my social media channels here: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest.
With love,
I just made this. Thank you so much for the recipe. For those who don’t have much kitchen equipment, I mixed the tofu/soy milk mixture together with a hand whisk and it was easy to achieve a smooth texture.
The ingredients are good and I do like the texture the silken provides, but you will need more gram flour to avoid the build up on moisture and allow a quicker cooking time. I usually wouldn’t use silken tofu as its very moist and to cook this recipe I had to cook my tortilla for a long time to remove the moisture. Maybe 150g of tofu would be adequate.
Hey John. I’m wondering whether different silken tofu brands contain different liquid levels and this is causing the issue? I mostly use Clearspring; sometimes Yutaka. I’ve made the omelette numerous times and it always works out using 300g of these two brands of silken tofu. The omelette is very soft when it first comes out the oven, but I leave it for 10 minutes or so and it firms up as it cools. I’m really sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you though. I hope it was still tasty, despite having to adjust the quantities and cooking time. Best wishes, Sharon
I made this yesterday and it is AMAZING! I made it exactly as posted and it came out delicious! BTW I found your page because of a video by Maya @fitgreenmind on Instagram which makes almost exactly this recipe. As I would like to continue to make this recipe, but I will no longer have access to silken tofu (nor to soy yogurts) I would like to ask if you can suggest a combination of regular tofu plus soy milk as a replacement for silken tofu? I see another user has also made this replacement but she did not leave the proportions. Thanks so much for posting this recipe!
YAY, I’m so pleased you enjoyed the Spanish Omelette Lorenza! I’m sorry to hear that you’re not going to have access to silken tofu in the future. Unfortunately I haven’t tried substituting regular tofu in this recipe. I can message Laura who mentioned that she made this substitute and see if she can remember the quantities! If I hear back, I’ll be sure to let you know xx
Wow I can’t wait to try. I’m in India and can’t currently get the mustard, is there something I can substitute it with?
Hey Kirti! Since there is only a small amount of mustard in this recipe, you should be able to simply omit it. I hope you enjoy the omelette! Best wishes, Sharon xx
I’m going to try this next week when I get groceries. I’ve made the just chick pea flour version many, many times. One of my favorite comfort food dishes, too! But the addition of tofu is intriguing to me! Sounds like a brilliant addition for the moisture. Yum! Can’t wait.
Hey Kathy! Yes, the addition of silken tofu to the traditional chickpea flour tortilla was a game changer for me. I hope you enjoy the recipe! Best wishes, Sharon xx
This was really nice! I had no silken tofu so used regular firm tofu and added a little extra milk. I was worried it wouldn’t work due to the change of tofu, but I mixed the batter up in my blender and it was great. I also added diced vegan ham.
Hey Laura! I’m so pleased to hear that you enjoyed the Spanish Omelette! Brilliant to hear that you got the recipe to work with regular tofu and milk as a replacement for the silken tofu. Can you remember the quantities that you used? A lovely reader is unable to access silken tofu anymore and was wondering how you did it. Thank you so much for your help! Best wishes, Sharon xx
It was so long ago that I can’t remember, I’m so sorry! I think I used a whole pack of firm tofu (the 396g) packs, and I probably will have just poured in milk til it looked right. I’m not very precise with cooking so I’m really sorry I can’t help more!
Hey Laura! Thank you so much for your speedy reply. No worries at all about not precisely remembering how you did it. Your feedback is still super helpful! Blending firm tofu with a bit of milk sounds like a great way to sub for silken tofu :O) Thanks again for getting back to me. Really appreciate it. Sharon xx
Well I made this…
Sharon this was absolutely wonderful…
I had to stop myself from eating the whole dang thing!!
I have to say I’ve seen this recipe many times, but I just couldn’t get myself to make it until I saw your recipe, and the way it was illustrated gave me the inspiration to make this quiche/omelette; and it was so easy. I used Almond milk instead, and added garlic powder; and it was perfect.
This recipe has endless ways of opportunity in so far as adding extra optionals to give it a bigger boost, not that it needs it, but, spinach etc, could be classy way to serve this to friends…
Thanks for a wonderful recipe…
Nuffy…
YAY!! I’m so pleased it worked out for Nuffy! ❤️ I saw your pic on Instagram and it looks absolutely delicious 😋 (Great use of leftovers the next day too!!)
And thank you so much for letting me know that the recipe works with almond milk. I tend to use soya for baking, so it’s great to know that other plant milks work too.
With love,
Sharon xx
This is a very good dish. The addition of silken tofu and soy milk adds a lot of moisture and fluffy egg-like consistency. I’ve had other vegan tortillas, but this one takes the cake! I made 4 batches at a time in order to have leftovers and to use the whole 5# bag of potatoes. (For Americans, regular sized red potatoes are considered waxy)
I also baked them in spring-form pans which worked out well.
I also added a little bit of garlic powder because garlic powder always seems to work magic in vegan savory dishes.
Easy, tasty, and much healthier than the traditional one.
I might add more onion next time because I really do like the taste combination of potatoe and onion.
Lastly, I mixed the tofu, soy milk, etc. in the food processor.
Great job!
Hey Sarah,
It’s been an absolute joy reading your comment. And thank you so much for your detailed feedback. I’ve found it extremely useful and I’m sure others will too!
Wow four batches in one go?! That’s amazing!!! I’ve never tried batch cooking the tortillas before but I’m excited to give it a try as, in my house, one tortilla never lasts very long!
Making this tonight! I have the ingredients ready, and I’ll report back tomorrow. I can agree with Sarah on the moist as I’ve made Tortillas the old way, and they are rather dry in consistency. However this recipe looks wonderful, so I’m looking forward to trying this…
Will serve this with a tossed salad…
A wonderful, and inspiring page with wonderful illustrations, and a big thanks for the recipes you share Sharon…
Bye for now, and this is my new favourite page….
Nuffy…
Very good recipe. I put more black salt and some sweet potato but will be my go to recipe now, thank you.
YAY! So pleased you enjoyed the Spanish Tortilla Lindy! Thanks for letting me know xx
This looks really good! I can’t wait to try it. I do have a question about the potatoes though. I’m not familiar with any of these types. Would you say a basic white potato would work? Thanks in advance for your help.
Hi Cindy! For Spanish potato omelette, it is best to use waxy potatoes rather as the slices will hold their shape rather than disintegrating. Waxy potatoes are often labelled as ‘salad’ ‘new’ or ‘baby’ potatoes. I hope this helps!
This looks really tasty and much healthier than the traditional tortilla de patatas. Love the tofu addition, looks like you’ve been able to reduce the chickpea flour and fat a lot when compared to other vegan tortillas, definitely a good thing! I’d imagine the tofu and kala namak really give it an eggy texture, great idea!