Whenever spinach meets eggs, tasty foods are born. Spinach in itself is not an extremely delicious meal, but since it’s so healthy, many people tried to mix it with various other foods in order to create more acceptable combinations, and this is how today we could write a think recipes book based on spinach, eggs and various ingredients. This recipe makes a healthy breakfast and it’s very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 eggs
• 1/2 sausage, smoked or not, depending on your taste
• 1 ounce frozen spinach, thawed (canned or fresh spinach is also good)
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil (actually any cooking oil will do, but extra virgin is healthier because it’s obtained by pressing the olives at cold)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation time: 3 minutes

Total omelet cooking time: 10 minutes

Preparation:

Cut the sausage in small pieces, trying to make them even, so they get all cooked in the same time. In a frying pan, heat the olive oil, then cook the sausage pieces for about 2-3 minutes, until they start to get a darker color. Beware not to overdo this, because if you burn the sausage it will get a horrible taste and it will borrow it to your whole omelet. After the sausage is cooked, take it out and let it drip the oil. Beat the eggs in a bowl, then prepare the omelet as usual, in the omelet pan, if you have one, or in a regular frying pan. When the omelet is almost done, carefully put the sausage pieces on half of its surface and fold the other half on top of it. Let it cook for one more minute, then put it on a plate and serve hot, with picked cucumbers. A nice variation of this spinach sausage omelet recipe: after the omelet is on the plate, top it with a teaspoon of sour cream and sprinkle some dill over it.

When you have children, playful nutrition is important. If they can play with their food, kids will basically eat everything you give them. This is an example of creative omelet recipe designed for children who hate spinach, carrots, bell peppers or tomatoes. It’s an omelet in four colors which takes a bit longer to cook than a common one, but it’s worth trying, for the sake of feeding your child balanced meals, healthy and full of essential nutrients.

Ingredients for 2 omelets:

• 4 eggs
• 2 ounces baby spinach, chopped, which will give us the green part of the omelet
• 2 ounces carrots, grated, for the orange part of the dish
• 1 yellow bell pepper, finely chopped, for the yellow part
• 1 small tomato, diced (this can be replaced with tomato sauce), for the red part of this playful meal
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt to taste

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Directions for cooking:

You are going to make four different one-egg omelets, in the four colors, then combine them on the two plates in such a way as to obtain the “four seasons” on each plate. If you want to obtain other colors, just think what foods you could use to help you color the omelet the way you want. Kids will love to guess the colors of the day! Break each egg in a separate bowl, then put one vegetable in each of the egg bowls, together with some salt. Cook one omelet at a time, fold them after cooking, then cut each of them in two, so you get a double-layered quarter of circle from each omelet. Combine them on the two plates, make two funny faces from chopped olives, tomatoes and parsley as food decor, then invite your kids to play and eat while the food is still hot.

While in the US omelets are usually served for breakfast, in France they are served as starters. The rest stays the same: fillings can be almost anything one can imagine, eggs are eggs, and French people do use omelet pans or electric omelet makers, just like Americans, in their attempt of creating the perfect omelet (as if anybody would actually notice an omelet’s perfection).

This is a recipe for the basic French omelette, which you can use as a starting point for your cooking fantasies.

Ingredients for one omelet:

• 2 eggs (take 3 if you’re really hungry)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter (the original French omelette recipe was with butter, but the taste difference is barely noticeable, so use whatever you want)
• Salt and pepper according to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon fine herbs mix

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Cooking Directions:

In a bowl, put the eggs, the herbs, the salt and the pepper and mix them well, without insisting too much on beating the eggs. Take a frying pan or an omelet pan and heat it, then put the butter or the oil in. If you use butter, beware that it will start bubbling and foaming. Covering the pan will only make things worse, so don’t. Just be careful not to get burned. As the bottom part of the omelette starts to harden and turn golden to brownish, gently lift it with a wooden spatula and allow the liquid above to leak towards the bottom until it reaches the pan and gets cooked at its turn. Soon you’ll see that the omelette will still preserve the nice, round shape, yet the uncooked layer on top will be significantly thinner and eventually will disappear. Use the spatula to fold half of the omelette over the other half, then slip it gently onto a plate. Serve hot, plain or with a topping you like such as sour cream, salsa or tomato sauce. It’s always nice to sprinkle a little freshly ground pepper over the food.

Variations of the French omelette include fillings such as grated cheese, minced bell peppers, ham or even chopped shrimps.

We call it Turkish omelet, but only try to say this to Turkish people, and they’d instantly reply that it’s not an omelet, it’s Menemen. Although made with the same basic ingredients as a common omelet, Menemen has a completely different, non-compact texture because of the way it is cooked and because of the bigger proportion of its main ingredients other than eggs. You can as well call this dish scrambled eggs with vegetables. Either way you may be calling it, it’s really delicious. Give it a try with our recipe here and come back to tell us how it was.

Ingredients for one omelet:

• 2 eggs
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped, seeded
• 1 big tomato, diced (if you want, you can peel it, but it’s fine even if you don’t)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil (or butter)
• Black pepper, ground
• Red pepper, ground
• Dried oregano
• Dried mint
• Salt to taste

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Cooking procedure:

Saute the chopped onions with olive oil or butter. When they soften and become slightly transparent, add the peppers, then the diced tomatoes. After these soften too and their color starts to change, add the eggs and the spices and mix everything while the food gets cooked at low to medium temperature. Stir from time to time. In about 10-15 minutes, the omelet should be done. If you want, you can add some finely chopped parsley just one minute before the cooking finishes. Depending on your personal preferences, you can add chopped black olives, feta cheese, or anything else you find suitable for an omelet. Serve it hot with toasted bread and garlic butter.

The Spanish omelet, or Spanish omelette, is also known as tortilla Espanola or tortilla de patatas and it is an omelet with potato filling. It rather looks like a cake than like a French omelette, because it is much taller and more compact than classic omelets. Unlike plain omelets, this one is also good when it’s cold. This dish has lots of variants, depending on the taste of the cook. It can be thicker or thinner, it can contain eggplants, courgettes, red peppers or mushrooms, or even peas sometimes. Chorizo, ham or bacon are other popular choices of ingredients for this omelet.

This is a basic recipe to which you can add those ingredients you like most. It’s suitable both for starter or for main dish.

Ingredients:

• 5-6 average size potatoes, peeled, cut in halves, then sliced evenly
• 4-5 eggs
• 1 onion, peeled, chopped
• Olive oil (as much as to cover the potato slices when you fry them)
• Salt according to taste

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Cooking procedure:

Pour the oil in a frying pan and bring it to medium temperature. You can try it with a piece of potato: if it sizzles, then the oil is ready for cooking and you can now fry the potatoes and the onions. Before putting them into the pan, mix them in a recipient and salt them. Then fry them until the potatoes turn yellow. Keep the temperature low, because otherwise the potatoes will remain raw inside and get burnt on the outside. The potatoes are done when they can be easily broken apart with a fork. Now it’s time to get them out of the frying pan and let them drain for a while. Beat the eggs and pour them on the potatoes - onions mix. Carefully mix everything, then pour it in the frying pan heated at medium temperature. In about 4-5 minutes, the omelet should become brown on the bottom side, but because of its thickness, the upper part will still be raw. Now you’ll have to flip the omelet, which is not an easy task. An easy method is to use a second frying pan, fit it over the omelet then turn it upside down and either continue cooking it in the second pan or let it slide inside the first pan. Now the cooking will take about 4-5 minutes until the omelet is done. Serve it sliced like a cake.

Eggs and spinach make a great combination of tastes. They seem to be the perfect fit, so this is how it comes that there are so many recipes based on spinach and eggs. Not only they taste very well together, but egg is a complete protein source and spinach is rich in vitamins and iron, all these being essential for a healthy nutrition. Eating healthy meals doesn’t necessarily involve elaborate cooking and lots of hours spent in the kitchen. This is an example of healthy breakfast recipe that’s ready in minutes.

Ingredients for one omelet:

• 2 eggs (if two eggs are not enough for one omelet, add as many as you need)
• 1 ounce frozen spinach, thawed and chopped
• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 garlic clove, very well minced
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Salt, pepper to taste

Preparation time: 2-3 minutes

Cooking time: 3 minutes

How to cook the spinach omelet:

Break the eggs in a separate recipient, so you make sure they are good, then mix them together with the chopped spinach, minced garlic, grated Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. If you want to eat less salty, you can leave out the salt, because Parmesan already has some and it might just be enough for you. Heat the olive oil in a pan and pour the omelet mix. Cook it for 2 minutes, then flip the omelet and let it cook for one minute more. Optionally, you can sprinkle some grated Parmesan cheese on the omelet and let it get warm for one minute or so. Serve it hot with cherry tomatoes and fresh parsley leaves.

Omelet is a meal that can help you reuse many food leftovers. Parties and holidays are usually followed by a kind of competition of trying all kind of leftover recipes. That’s common, as nobody wants to cook less for their dinner guests, so this is how they end up by cooking too much. Ham is one of these dishes people cook for Christmas or other holidays, then they put their creativity at work to incorporate the leftover ham into other tasty meals. Here’s an idea of what you can do with ham, cheese and some eggs:

Ingredients for a one-person omelet:

• 2-3 eggs
• 2 slices of ham, cut in small pieces
• 2 slices of cheese
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• Salt, pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Preparation time: 2 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Cooking the omelet:

Break the eggs and mix them with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the ham and cook it for one minute, stirring continuously. The smaller you cut it, the less it takes you to cook it. When ready, put it aside in a dish and pour the eggs mixture into the pan. With a wooden spatula, move the edges of the omelet in such a way as to allow the top layer which is not cooked yet to penetrate below and get in touch with the pan bottom. After two minutes, flip the omelet, so it gets cooked on the other side as well. Keep it like that for one minute, then put the ham and the cheese on half of the omelet surface, then fold the other half on top of it. Cook it for about one minute or until you start smelling the cheese melting. Serve it hot with dried oregano sprinkled on it and with salsa or with sour cream.