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I don't know exactly what I'm doing wrong but my omlettes don't have the rigidity as seen in restaurant omelettes and ultimately I get this mixture consisting of chunks of tomato's , egg and onions.

So, I think this has to do with the ratio of vegetable to egg I use which is 1:1:1. What should be the correct ratio of vegetables when cooking omelettes?

Joe
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  • What style of omelette? In many, vegetables are optional, and if any are added, it's in fairly small quantities for flavour and/or texture. Tomatoes are problematic as they're so wet (assuming you're cutting up fresh), but even so I've never seen an omelette with more veg than egg, expect for Spanish tortilla, but the potato in that adds strength, and it's cooked slowly without turning – Chris H Apr 09 '21 at 20:04
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    Do you have sufficient skill to make pure omelette (without vegetables at all) instead of ending up with scrambled eggs? If not, I would start with that before optimizing for the different case with vegetables added. – rumtscho Apr 09 '21 at 20:15
  • There's a restaurant trick to add flour to omelettes. Many diners will add a little bit of pancake batter to the whipped eggs to give a little bit of structural insurance. – Joe Apr 09 '21 at 20:18
  • Oh good point, I began with vegetables because I wanted it to be 'healthy' –  Apr 09 '21 at 20:48
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    @rumtscho's point is good; an intermediate step (my dinner tonight in fact) is a filled, folded omelette - fry veg, drain, cook egg (nothing but seasoning/herbs added), return veg to one half (also cheese/ham/whatever), fold egg over and serve – Chris H Apr 09 '21 at 20:48
  • If you could expand that comment into an answer I'd gladly accept it @ChrisH –  Apr 09 '21 at 20:48
  • @Buraian I'll try to combine my two. – Chris H Apr 09 '21 at 20:51
  • 1:1:1 is a _lot_ of onion. I would reduce down to 4:2:1 (egg, tomato, onion) to get enough egg to get a good structure – njzk2 Apr 22 '21 at 16:55

1 Answers1

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In most styles of omelette vegetables are optional. The obvious exception is the Spanish tortilla, where sliced or grated potato (and possibly onion) adds strength, but that's cooked more slowly and not turned.

Tomatoes in particular are tricky, as they're so wet. The same would apply to courgette, for example. Large quantities of veg also make it harder, as the egg will be too deep to cook through, so you end up breaking it up. You can try finishing it off with top heat (grill/broiler) but I've never bothered as it means heating up another appliance.

Cooking small quantities of veg in with the egg is possible for some things (onion, mushroom, pepper, for example, probably started before adding the egg) but it's not easy to get it cooked just the right amount, and too much will lead to collapse.

Instead, what I do for larger quantities or wetter veg is pre-cook the veg by frying in the same pan, then drain and reserve. After that I cook the seasoned egg into a nice flat omelette, return the veg and any other fillings such as cheese to one half, and fold, for a filled omelette. This way you can put as much or as little veg as you like. You can also microwave the veg.

Chris H
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