Dear oh dear, I have been so guilty of neglect at Love the Kitchen… this must be the longest hiatus without having posted a single recipe. Lack of interest or dedication is far from the cause – it really comes down to lack of time (I have lost count how many days I have been away from home this last month with a fair chunk of time spent in France and London due to work commitments), poor natural light affecting photography, or having run out of ingredients at a critical moment to make this recipe exactly the way I wanted it to be depicted. Oh, of course there is my other pursuit which competes directly with time and good weather (as I am very much the fair weather variety) – cycling. My posterior managed to endure the best part of a 70 mile battering last weekend on predominantly off-road terrain and is yet to forgive me.
On Friday, Jon, my Belgian colleague pointed out that I had published jack diddly squat for a while and it certainly prompted me to redeem myself today. So – onto the recipe itself – finally!
Some time ago, I was thrown a slight challenge by having to whip up something…wait for it…. Vegetarian for my former colleague Rob at rather short notice based on the ingredients I had at hand. As we had not seen each other for a few months (for some reason I cannot understand, he chose to trade Hull in winter for a stint in Valencia and was back for just a few days), I exploited this ‘catch-up’ opportunity and invariably downed a few ales in my village local which is all of 300 metres away. Marginally inebriated, I proposed I would conjure up something suitable to eat (as we had neglected to notice that the pub had stopped serving food), and what followed was very freestyle in terms of approach. Knowing that Rob had been enjoying the culinary delights of Spain, I was sure he would have had plenty of opportunity to sample a Tortilla Española, typically and egg and potato omelette (many variations by regions) which is often cooked in a lot of oil (too much for my taste) so I thought I would adapt. I am a big fan of sweet potato – and will typically add to a mash, or more recently a core ingredient of my roasted root vegetable skewer recipe – but thought why not use it as the basis of a Tortilla?. As there were other ingredients crying out to be used, I decided to add red onion, red chilli, garlic, and spring onion – the result, I really think, worked really well. Of course Dijon mustard featured – I will use it at any possible opportunity- am quite the addict. I have made this a couple more times for friends and family, and find that its texture works really well both warm or chilled. I may get around one day to making a quiche version to compare with.
I really hope you enjoy my Sweet Potato, Spring Onion and Chilli Tortilla recipe – I really think it can be adapted further and would welcome any comments or suggestions to improve it. It is far from onerous to prepare, and makes an ideal brunch or midweek evening meal to add to the familiar recipe stock.
![](https://b3488940.smushcdn.com/3488940/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Sweet_Potato_Spring_Onion_Chilli_Tortilla_th-300x300-1.jpg?lossy=2&strip=1&webp=1)
Sweet Potato, Spring Onion and Chilli Tortilla
Ingredients
- 1 x large sweet potato finely diced
- 1 x medium red onion finely diced
- 1 x small red chilli deseeded and finely sliced
- 1 clove garlic thinly sliced
- 1 x tbsp olive oil
- small knob of unsalted butter
- 3 large spring onions thinly sliced
- 5 x medium sized free range eggs
- 1-2 x tsps Dijon mustard
- 2-3 springs fresh flat leaf parsley finely chopped
- 6-8 fine shavings of Parmesan cheese
- freshly milled sea salt and ground black pepper
Instructions
- Start by preparing the ingredients. In order to finely cube the sweet potato, I square off the sides, peel off any additional skin, then julienne, followed by slicing into small cubes (around 3mm squared or so).
- Dice the red onion, finely slice the red chilli, garlic, slice the spring onions, then set aside.
- Crack the eggs into a small mixing bowl, add the Dijon mustard, parsley, salt and black pepper, and beat gently with a whisk, then set aside.
- Bring a medium-sized non-stick frying pad to a medium high heat, add the olive oil then drop in the knob of butter. Once melted, add the cubes of sweet potato and soften for 3-4 mins. Turn over the cubes, then add the red onion, garlic, and red chilli and continue to sweat and stir gently for a further 3-4 minutes.
- Next, add the spring onion, mix thoroughly, and continue to to cook for another minute or two.
- Meanwhile, bring the grill to a medium heat.
- Pour the seasoned beaten egg / Dijon mustard mix into the pan, and gently swirl around to ensure that everything is evenly covered and as level as possible. Continue to cook until the bulk of the Tortilla starts to become firm. Give the pan a very gently shake from side to side, and the tortilla should start to loosen from the base of the pan (aided by being non-stick, naturally!).
- Using a vegetable peeler, shave off a few slices of Parmesan cheese and add evenly place on top of the Tortilla.
- Remove pan from heat and place under pre-heated grill for 3-4 minutes, or until brown.
Notes
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