When I first started paleo I found breakfast to be the most difficult meal to plan as it seemed that bacon and eggs was the main option and that was it. It seems that all the traditional breakfasts are centred around carbohydrates and sugars with the exception of the good old full English breakfast. Yet in countries like Spain they often have savoury options, including a tortilla; this is a dish that tastes great and sets you up for the day. From this I sought to produce a paleo breakfast tortilla, and hey presto here’s my first adapted recipe.

This recipe was adapted from a fantastic cookbook called Mediterranean Cooking by Claudia Roden; this recipe is wonderfully simple and tastes great. What you will need is a non-stick deep frying pan; you should adapt the quantities in the recipe based on the diameter of your frying pan.

This recipe makes enough for 4 good sized breakfast portions but could feed 6-8 people if served as part of an afternoon or evening meal.

Paleo Spanish Breakfast Tortilla

Preparation to Plate: 45 minutes

Consume within 3-4 days of making

Keep refrigerated

Ingredients:

2 Medium Sized Sweet Potatoes (Approximately 500g), Sliced Thinly into Discs

8 Medium Eggs, Scrambled

2 Small White Onions, Diced

Olive Oil

White Pepper (Optional)

Recipe:

Gently cook the onions on the lowest flame with the olive oil, don’t allow the onions to cook fully, this is just to soften them. Add some white pepper to the onions while they cook; this is optional however.

Boil some water in a pot. While the onions gently soften in the pan and the water boils, wash and slice the sweet potatoes into thin discs. If you want to you can peel the sweet potato but I personally didn’t for this recipe. It certainly didn’t impede the flavour in my view. Once sliced, add to the boiling water and cook for about 3-5 minutes until they’re just soft; this will reduce the amount of frying your have to do before adding the eggs.

Add the softened sweet potato discs to the softened onions in the frying pan, add a bit more olive oil and fry for another couple of minutes. The sweet potato shouldn’t become mushy in the pan, if it does it’s been cooked too much.

Pour over the eight scrambled eggs ensuring that the top later of potato lies as flat as possible and cook on a low heat with the lid on. Keep checking on the tortilla as it can burn or overcook if left for too long. Once the egg starts to cook, go around the tortilla with a spatula and shake the pan, if the tortilla slides as one then you can flip it. Best way to flip it is by using a large plate or a large flat lid; this will be messy first time around so I did it over the sink and had minimal mess. Once flipped add a touch more oil to the pan, slide the tortilla back into the oil and cook for another couple of minutes. Ensure the centre is cooked through and hot before serving.

Once cooked either flip it out as you did before or use a spatula or pie server to lift it out onto a plate, I prefer the former method.

Serving Suggestions:

Slice and pour over more olive oil and chilli flakes to add some heat to the tortilla. Basil infused olive oil or chilli oil are also good accompaniments.

Enjoy on it’s own or add to a main meal or left overs from the night before.

Additional Tips:

The beauty about this recipe is that you can adapt it and add what you want, similar to a spanish omelette but a but more substantial. You could add sliced mushrooms to it, or peppers, for example. If you are going to add peppers however my advice would be to add pre-roasted peppers (hot or cold) to the mixture before frying with the egg.

Additionally you can fry the onions with garlic or chilli, however garlic breath for a paramedic isn’t the best thing to have when talking to patients, no matter how much gum you chew, hence why I avoided it in this recipe. Just a reminder that you must keep it refrigerated and consume within 3-4 days of making because of the eggs.