The ‘Tortilla Española’, referred to in the English language as ‘Tortilla’ or ‘Spanish Omelette’, is a typical Spanish dish consisting of an egg omelette made with added potatoes and fried in vegetable oil. –CUT– <But eggs belong to hens, so we shan’t be using those. Instead, we shall use chickpea flour.
Tortilla in origin meant just “small torte/cake”. These dishes are unrelated to the maize or wheat tortilla of Mexico and neighbouring countries, a thin flatbread.
I’ve also found a way to make this using no oil and I found it just as delicious if not more.
Once you get used to cooking oil free, it’s hard to go back to that oily greasy feeling left on your lips after each bite.
It’s practically impossible eating a greasy dish without a napkin at hand to wipe after each bite… gross! I’ve made my own variation of this dish–to also make its preparation time faster and to reduce the stages of cooking as much as I could. Here goes…
Yields: 2 servings
Ingredients
1 potato (any kind will do, we’re not strict on this website).
1/2 medium onion
2 small tomatoes
1/2 red bell pepper
10 champignon mushrooms
3/4 cup of chickpea flour
3/4 cup of water
2-3 Tbs coconut cream (the kind that comes canned, 26% fat)
1 handful of chopped chives
3 pinches of turmeric powder
salt & pepper
a pinch of kala namak (Indian black salt)- optional
Instructions
1. Chop up the onion and tomatoes into fine cubes and slice the mushrooms and bell-pepper into thin slices. Then slice the potatoes into broad slices; as thin as possible. A good knife will probably make the difference here.
2. I used a T-Fal non-stick pan for this: Place the onions, bell-pepper, tomatoes and mushrooms in the pan first. Spread them out evenly, pour coconut cream over them (it won’t cover it all but will blend in later in the cooking, don’t worry.) and sprinkle a pinch of turmeric powder, a pinch of pepper and salt to your liking. Some people like saltier dishes than others. Use your intuitions here.
3. Above those spread the thin potato slices in a circular fan-like placement (leave a bit of an opening in the middle so that later on we can pour some of the chickpea batter on it) and sprinkle a pinch of turmeric, a pinch of pepper and salt as you did for the layer underneath. Cover with a lid and heat on medium-low intensity for the duration of 25-30 minutes. The onions will start to caramelise and the liquids oozing out of the tomatoes and the mushrooms will steam the potatoes.
4. In the meantime, prepare the chickpea flour mixture: Mix 3/4 cup of chickpea flour with 3/4 cup of water, 1/2 tsp salt and a pinch of turmeric. (Note: flour which is made from darker chickpeas and is brownish, might need more water. The consistency should be runny).
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5. After those 25-30 minutes are up and you’ve made sure the potatoes are soft by poking them with a fork, pour the chickpea batter over everything, sprinkle the chopped chives over it, cover it with a lid and let it cook for another 5-10 minutes–depending on how much liquid you want left in the dish and making sure that the chickpea batter is steamed and solid kind of like what a pancake would be. I preferred it to have less liquids so I gave it those full 10 minutes. Once it’s done, you can sprinkle a pinch of kala namak on top of it, which gives it a bit of an eggy flavour. Totally not a must though.
The result was so delicious! I shared it with Jon and we both devoured it.
