Gill Meller's recipe for a seasonal new potato omelette, with smoked garlic, onions and Cheddar cheese

There are a couple of stages that help this omelette stand out. The first is the cooking of the potatoes. Give them enough time in the pan to collapse in the hot olive oil before you spoon them into the eggs, which is the second stage. Stir in the soft potatoes and let them rest there, to soak up the eggs. You shouldn’t be able to tell where the egg begins and the potato ends. The two should — almost — become one. If you can’t find smoked garlic, use normal garlic cloves instead.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 300ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 500g new potatoes, cut into 2-3cm slices
• 4 smoked garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp thyme leaves
• 1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 75g Cheddar cheese, grated
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl, but don’t whisk them up. Set aside.

Place a large frying pan over a low–medium heat and add the olive oil. When it’s warm, add the onion and cook, stirring regularly, for 6–8 minutes, until softened but not browned. Stir in the potato slices and cook, turning occasionally, for 15–20 minutes, or until the potatoes are just beginning to break up. Add the smoked garlic, thyme and parsley and cook for a further 1 minute or so, then use a slotted spoon to lift the potato and onion mixture out of the pan into the bowl with the eggs. Remove the pan from the heat, but reserve the cooking oil.

Add the cheese and plenty of salt and pepper and stir well to break up the eggs. Leave the mixture to sit for 15–20 minutes.

To cook, heat a medium-sized non-stick pan over a medium heat. Add
a dash of the reserved cooking oil and wipe it around the pan with some kitchen paper to coat (you can jar any remaining cooking oil for another time). Spoon in the potato and egg mixture and give the pan a little shake to even everything out. Cook for 3 minutes, then turn up the heat and cook for a further 1 minute or so, until the omelette is beginning to firm up on the underside.

Place a flat plate over the top of the pan and carefully flip the pan, inverting the omelette onto the plate. Return the pan to the heat and gently slide the omelette back into the pan and cook for a further 3 minutes on a medium heat and 1 minute or so on a high heat, until cooked through and golden.

Slide the omelette onto a plate and allow it to rest for at least 5 minutes before serving with a dressed green salad.

This recipe originally appeared in 'Root, Stem, Leaf, Flower — how to cook with vegetables and other plants'. You can follow Gill Meller on Instagram, here.