Half a kilo of spinach wilted with garlic and folded into four beaten eggs with mozzarella, then set in the pan like a tortilla and flipped. Fifteen minutes, four servings.
The flip, which the recipe never finished explaining
The fourth step used to end mid-sentence: turn the skillet using. Using what, it never said, and that is the only genuinely difficult moment in the recipe.
Here is the manoeuvre. Slide the tortilla out of the pan onto a flat plate, cooked side down. Put the empty pan upside down over the plate. Holding the plate against the pan with one hand and the handle with the other, turn the whole assembly over. The tortilla drops back into the pan with the raw side now against the heat.
It is quicker to do than to read and it works every time once you have done it once. Do it over the sink the first time in case of accidents.
Knowing when to turn it
Not by the clock. Shake the pan gently and watch: if the tortilla moves as a single piece, the base has set and it will survive the flip. If one part of it stays anchored while the rest slides, it is not ready and turning it will tear it.
A nonstick pan makes this much easier to judge and much more forgiving.
Half a kilo of spinach
It fills the pan to the brim raw and it disappears. Spinach is mostly water and five minutes over low heat collapses it to a small fraction of what went in, which is why the eggs only meet it after that.
The garlic goes in first, in a teaspoon of oil for two minutes, so it flavours the oil before the spinach arrives and covers everything.
Soft or firm, your choice
The fifth step is the recipe handing you a decision. Raise the heat and the outside browns while the inside stays slightly loose. Keep it low the whole way and the tortilla cooks through into something firmer and more sliceable.
Neither is wrong. The first is closer to a French omelette in texture, the second closer to a Spanish tortilla.
More egg dishes
- Egg tortilla soup — the tortilla in a broth.
- Chicken and cheese omelette — folded rather than flipped.
- Huevos pericos — the Colombian breakfast scramble.
- Boiled eggs — timings for every stage of yolk.
Spinach Tortilla FAQ
Slide it onto a flat plate, put the empty pan upside down over the plate, and turn the two over together while holding them tight. The tortilla drops back into the pan raw side down. Do it over the sink the first time.
Shake the pan gently. If the whole tortilla slides as one piece, the base has set and it will hold together. If part of it stays stuck, it needs longer.
No, although it looks it. Spinach is almost entirely water and collapses to a small fraction of its raw volume, which is why it gets five minutes in the pan on its own before the eggs arrive.
Your choice, and the recipe says how. Higher heat gives a tortilla that is golden outside and still a little soft in the middle. Lower heat all the way through gives a firmer, more compact one.
No, it is marked optional. A hundred grams of mozzarella goes into the beaten eggs rather than on top, so it melts through the tortilla rather than sitting on it.
No potato, so no. It is the same idea, a flat egg cake set in a pan and flipped, but with spinach in place of the potato and onion, and it takes fifteen minutes rather than forty.
Bread and something hot to drink, which is what the last step says. It is a breakfast dish in Colombia, cut into wedges.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 500 gr fresh spinach (washed and chopped)
- 1 clove garlic (crushed)
- 1 teaspoon oil or margarine
- 100 gr mozzarella cheese (grated, optional)
- Salt and black pepper (to taste)
Notas
Instructions
- Wash the spinach leaves well to get rid of any grit. Chop them as large or as small as you like and set them aside.
- Beat the eggs hard and add a pinch of salt, a pinch of black pepper and the mozzarella.
- Heat a teaspoon of oil in a nonstick skillet with the garlic and let it cook over medium-high heat for two minutes. Add the chopped spinach and sauté for 5 minutes over low heat.
- Pour in the beaten eggs, mix them through the spinach and let it start to set. When the base has firmed up, which you can check by shaking the pan gently and seeing the whole thing move as one piece, turn it: slide it onto a plate, put the pan upside down over the plate, and flip the two together so the tortilla drops back in raw side down.
- For a tortilla that is still a little soft inside and golden outside, raise the heat. For a firmer one all the way through, keep it low.
- Serve it hot, with a hot drink and bread.
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