Skinny Omelette
Eggs cooked crepe-thin and stuffed. A delicious and lighter alternative to heavy, cheese-stuffed omelette recipes - great for lunch and brunch.
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.
More Egg Recipes
- Egg Salad Sandwich
- Pickled Turmeric Eggs
- Skinny Omelette
- Deep Dish Quiche
- Shredded Egg Salad
- A Tasty Frittata
- Frittata Sandwich
- Sheet Pan Frittata
- Scrambled Eggs with Cream Cheese
- all egg recipes
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Skinny Omelette
I didn't mention it up above, but ricotta spiked with lemon zest and some herbs would be a perfect, easily spreadable slather for this recipe as well.
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- a tiny pinch of fine grain sea salt
- a few tablespoons of chopped chives or herbs
- a dollop of pesto
- a bit of goat cheese or feta
- a small handful of mixed salad greens
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In your largest non-stick skillet over medium heat (this is one of the few occasions I actually use non-stick) pour the egg mixture and give it a good swirl so that they spread out thinly across the entire pan. Alternately, you can use a crepe pan or crepe maker - this works beautifully as well. Sprinkle the eggs with some salt and some of the chives and let them set, this happens quickly depending on the heat of your pan - 15 seconds to one minute. Run a spatula underneath the omelette and slide it out of the pan (flat) onto a clean countertop, large cutting board or Silpat-lined cookie sheet. Do this with confidence (or practice).
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Spread the pesto across the surface of the omelette (if you have a thick pesto, thin it a bit with water to make it easily spreadable), and then sprinkle with the cheese and salad greens.
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Starting with one end, roll the omelette away from you. Cut in half on a deep diagonal. Season with a bit more salt if needed and serve garnished with a few chopped chives and/or other herbs. Serve immediately.
Serves 1.
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Comments
Am on again/off again about having eggs in my diet (most recently on again and in a serious way, perhaps like a mad craving) and was recently inspired by your post regarding baked eggs in the little pita cups. A very pretty and delicious approach to a healthy egg breakfast. I have always loved a good omelet; however, as you say most are oozingly gooey, greasy versions which I find rather inedible and disappointing. My own vision, which seems to agree with yours, is that a great omelet is a beautiful thin ‘pancake’ (crepe), rolled or folded... and is filled and/or surrounded by other complimentary veggie foods such as spinach and other wonderfully fresh greens, cilantro, scallions, avocadoes, tomatoes, red onions and so forth. Art in the morning. The filling can also contain lovely cheeses (feta is quite nice and we also enjoy a few crumbles of a good stilton in certain combinations) in a mix of fresh greens. So thank you for your ‘egg ideas’. While this latest craving lasts, I hope to make each serving as healthful and delicious as possible... and your suggestions certainly add to the creative efforts at breakfast time.
This looks lovely, a little like chakin-zushi (the thin egg omelet wrapped around rice in Japanese cuisine).
The thin omelettes looks gorgeous. Similar to the rice paper rolls. This is a perfect recipe to use up stuff from the small kitchen garden.
Heidi - Thank you for this gorgeous, delicious site! I just wanted to mention that rolling crepe-thin eggs has multiple applications in Japanese cuisine. Square pans are used most often for this. My mother is such an old hand at it that she uses chopsticks (doesn't bother with a spatula) to swiftly roll it right in the pan.
Heidi, what a great way of having omelets - thank you for sharing! I'm tagging this recipe right now - looks too good to be missed! :)
so yummy~ and so heathful food~
Wowsa, what a beautiful omelette! I love eggs, but don't do omelette's often for exactly the reasons you stated...too greasy. I think I'll have to run out and buy myself a non-stick frying pan!
Now this makes me want to make omelettes again! Thanks for the inspiration!
Wonderful idea. Thanks for the inspiration... When I'm feeling virtuous I like to do an omelette with Asian greens and ginger.
I am diabetic and sick to death of standard eggs, but these? Fabulous.
I can't wait to try this- normally, I can't stand omelettes, but this looks right up my alley. I wonder if you could mix the pesto in with egg at the beginning, though it might be a green skinny omelette?
Yes, absolutely!
Nice. Paper thin egg technology :) I love omelettes ...every Sunday my hubby makes me this version [earlier my dad's] wherein he chops an onion and some green chillies into itty bitty pieces, adds a healthy handful of freshly chopped coriander leaves, a dashy of ground black pepper and salt .. beats it together with 4-6 eggs and omlettizes it .. golden cooked egg with a burst of sweet onion flavour and the bite of green chillies!!
I love how thin the egg is. I like to use my crepe pan for eggs to get them extra thin!
These are beautiful and look like the perfect alternative to something like a frittata for a brunch gathering. Would these keep on display and be okay at room temp (like a frittata) or would this dish at a party have you manning the stove all morning (like a traditional omelette)? Thanks for any insight you can provide ...
Hi Allison - yeah - you'd be better off doing a frittata for a brunch. These are more like having a crepe station.
This brought back a flood of memories from Taipei and my favourite breakfast on the go... Scallion Pancakes with Egg... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scallion_pancakes I think I may go home and have it for supper...
Those look great. I'd dispute, though, the idea that the average omelet is unexciting. I think the best results I've had were 2-egg omelets made in an 8" crepe pan, filled with spinach sauteed in a bit of butter with shallot and garlic with a few dollops of fresh cowgirl chevre. I topped them with snipped-up smoked red onions from the chili lady and some of her delicious sweet rojo jam. I particularly like the fluffy, firm texture of a good omelet made with a splash of cream in the eggs and a continuous use of the spatula, pushing the cooking egg towards the center of the pan as you swirl the pan to fill the empty spots with uncooked egg. If the pan is just the right heat, it makes an omelet with nice volume, something more like a quiche than scrambled egg.
What a clever idea. Love it! And you're right, the possibilities are endless.
Feta is really, really excellent in omelets, especially with sweet or fresh vegetables to cut the saltiness. (Guess what I had for breakfast today?)
Heidi! Thanks for the mention. But thanks even more for the recipe. The Chef and I? We just love eating eggs. But we haven't made this. I'm pretty sure you just gave us breakfast for tomorrow!
Beautiful! My kind of omelette--I will try with the ricotta.