Spanish tortilla on a serving board

Spanish tortilla

By Miriam Nice
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(5 ratings)
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Prep: 30 mins Cook: 50 mins

More effort

Serves 4

Make a classic Spanish omelette filled with pan-fried potatoes and onion. It makes a delicious light vegetarian meal or an easy tapas dish

Nutrition and extra info

  • Gluten-free
  • Vegetarian

Nutrition: per serving

  • kcal404
  • fat27g
  • saturates8g
  • carbs22g
  • sugars4g
  • fibre3g
  • protein16g
  • salt0.5g
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Ingredients

  • 1 large white onion, sliced
    Onion

    Onion

    un-yun

    Onions are endlessly versatile and an essential ingredient in countless recipes. Native to Asia…

  • 4 tbsp olive oil
    olive oil

    Olive oil

    ol-iv oyl

    Probably the most widely-used oil in cooking, olive oil is pressed from fresh olives. It's…

  • 25g butter
    Butter

    Butter

    butt-err

    Butter is made when lactic-acid producing bacteria are added to cream and churned to make an…

  • 400g waxy potatoes, peeled, quartered and finely sliced
    Potato

    Potato

    po-tate-oh

    The world's favourite root vegetable, the potato comes in innumerable varieties. A member of…

  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 8 eggs, beaten
    Eggs

    Egg

    egg

    The ultimate convenience food, eggs are powerhouses of nutrition, packed with protein and a…

  • handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped, plus extra to serve

To serve (optional)

  • 1 baguette, sliced
  • 4 vine tomatoes, peeled and coarsely grated
  • drizzle of olive oil
    olive oil

    Olive oil

    ol-iv oyl

    Probably the most widely-used oil in cooking, olive oil is pressed from fresh olives. It's…

Method

  1. Put a large non-stick frying pan on a low heat. Cook the onion slowly in the oil and butter until soft but not brown – this should take about 15 mins. Meanwhile, peel the tomatoes (if using) by scoring the skins with a cross, putting them in a bowl and pouring over just-boiled water. Drain the water after 2-3 mins and the skins will peel away easily. You can then coarsely grate them.

  2. Add the potatoes to the pan, then cover and cook for a further 15-20 mins, stirring occasionally to make sure they fry evenly. When the potatoes are soft and the onion is shiny, crush 2 garlic cloves and stir in, followed by the beaten eggs.

  3. Put the lid back on the pan and leave the tortilla to cook gently. After 20 mins, the edges and base should be golden, the top set but the middle still a little wobbly. To turn it over, slide it onto a plate and put another plate on top, turn the whole thing over and slide it back into the pan to finish cooking.

  4. Once cooked, transfer to a plate and serve the tortilla warm or cold, scattered with the chopped parsley. To accompany the tortilla, take slices of warmed baguette, stab all over with a fork and rub with the remaining garlic, pile on the grated tomatoes and season with sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil.

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Comments, questions and tips

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Heather Julie
18th Feb, 2018
3.05
This was just ok - fine, nothing to write home about. It took ages to get the potato to be soft in the pan. If I ever did this again, and I don't think I would, I would boil or microwave the potato. It took too long for what was basically an onion and potato omelette. Fine, but you know, I've got better things to do than wait that long for potatoes to soften in a frying pan....for an omelette, anyway.
katystack
14th May, 2017
I liked this recipe! Quick and easy and my husband and 2 year old enjoyed it. Great for picnic's too!
daacosta
9th Aug, 2015
I know it is not authentic but it turned out very good
Angel Doval
7th Apr, 2015
The actual spanish tortilla ingredients are potatoes, eggs, onions (optional) and good olive oil, and nothing else, don't use butter, garlic or parsley. When the potatoes are soft and the onion is shiny Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon or spatula and allow oil to drain and mix whith the the beaten eggs on a large mixing bowl, add salt. Pour 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil into a non-stick frying pan and heat on medium-high heat. Poor the egg, potato and onion on the pan and cook it just 3-4 minutes minutes each side.
MFSousChef
17th Nov, 2016
I don't understand why so much value has been put on 'authenticity'. Any dish has variations within it own country of origin, because food is made by people and tastes vary. I see food names as more of a category than an absolute, there are lots of recipes that could be classed as a tortilla. Surely the most important thing is that they are enjoyable, more than whether they fit some text book description. Food is art not science.
CaribeTraveller
7th May, 2017
I was looking for an "authentic" recipe to celebrate a gathering of fellow travelers who had explored Spain together. The Spanish tortilla we experienced was eggs, potatoes, a bit of onion, and olive oil. For this instance, I wanted to recreate an experience. On the other hand, a Caesar salad for me always requires anchovy with no chicken, seafood, or other accoutrements, otherwise it is a romaine salad with Caesar dressing and animal flesh. Your take is the reason I cannot take food names as an indication of the dish. I must have a detailed conversation with my server, hoping he/she knows what is going on in the kitchen today, to ascertain if the dish is "art" or "science," depending on whether MFSousChef decided to be "artistic" today. Certainly many like to enhance or alter recipes; I do. Still, names are supposed to serve the purpose of identification.
katystack
14th May, 2017
Grow up Caribe Traveller! Let's just all enjoy the dish shall we, that is what this website is for after all!
auroraustral
30th Jan, 2019
What's the problem with naming this recipe "garlic tortilla"? In Spain we put all kinds of things in tortilla, but then we call that "tortilla with x". There is a basic recipe called tortilla and that's it, why the need to change it, keep the name unchanged and act like nothing happened? British chefs do this all.the.time.
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Leuka
6th Jul, 2018
Add another onion to make it really sweet.
pamelabeaupre
9th May, 2016
Three things: Could the ingredients be changed so that there are 2 cloves of garlic in the main recipe and 4 cloves of garlic in the to serve optional part of the recipe to avoid confusion. The size of egg would be good, I used smallish eggs but still had far too much to fit in the pan. At the request of my husband I did not put any onions in, nor did I add parsley or the butter and it still turned out tasting really good.
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