Summer Omelette

This is a delicious omelette recipe I came up with in the middle of summer, on a lazy Saturday morning. I thought I didn’t have anything in the fridge to make a good breakfast with, but when I combined what I DID have with what was in the garden… I stumbled upon genius in the form of a surprising ingredient that perks any omelette right up!

(For an omelet I recommend about 2 eggs per person)

Serves 2

Butter

5 eggs

1 large kale leaf - stems removed and roughly chopped in small pieces

½ green or red tomato

¼ chopped onion (red, white, or green is fine!)

Splash of cream or milk

S+ P (I like coarse salt)

Lemon zest – just a few strokes on the grater.

Parmesan cheese

1. Combine eggs, salt and pepper, lemon zest, and cream. Whisk gently with a fork or whisk to break yokes + whites. No need to beat the living daylights out of it.

2. In a frying pan, melt a few tablespoons of butter, and add the onion and tomato. Cook until they are as firm or soft as you like them, then add the kale leaves. (Because of their moisture, they may pop and splatter a little when they come in contact with the butter – watch out!). Cook and stir until kale leaves start to wilt. They can be a little tough to chew otherwise.

3. From here, you have a few ways you can proceed.

For a traditional omelet:

Put the filling in a bowl, and pour the eggs into the pan (make sure heat is no higher than Medium!). Let sit for a few seconds, so the bottom cooks well. With a spatula gently lift one side up and tilt pan so the uncooked top runs underneath. Do this a couple of times until it is almost fully cooked. Pour the filling on one side, and add as much cheese as you want. Flip the omelet in half and let cook ½ a minute longer, until the middle is well set. Turn out onto a plate, and dot with a little more butter

The way I like:

I pour the eggs right on top of the filling and let it set for a few seconds, then I push it around just a few times with my spatula so that it still relatively holds an omelet style shape, but there is no fussy flipping involved. I divide and turn out onto plates, and garnish with the parm.

Messy Omelet:

Pour the eggs right over the filling and start stirring as you would scrambled eggs. My dad always called this a messy omelet, but my husband insists it’s just scrambled eggs with veggies added. Whatever you call it, it’s easy and still totally delicious.

I suppose you've already guessed that the secret ingredient is the lemon zest. Not a big surprise there, but it makes the eggs taste as bright and sunny as they look!
It’s recipes like this that make me long for summer again! Thankfully kale grows in the winter, and I have plenty of tomatoes stored in my pantry that refuse to ripen. 

But still… something feels out of place when the sun isn’t streaming in the kitchen window.