I am pretty sure I have mentioned before that I was never really a fan of eggs. Eggs always made me feel nauseous and heavy. The only way I used to enjoy eggs was an omelette. I used to love making my own veggie-packed omelettes for lunch. My favourite combination was always mushroom capsicum spinach and olives. I used to enjoy eating it but sure enough, it still made me nauseous no matter how much I enjoyed it. For me, eggs were very easy to give up when I went mostly plant-based but I did miss the convenience of a quick lunch like this that was full of vegetables and satiating. It’s taken me a little while to try a chickpea omelette version. Part of the reason is that I found it very hard to find chickpea flour for a little bit. Now I seem to see it everywhere even in mainstream supermarkets. But the other reason is that I’m still learning to love chickpeas. I am enjoying the much more than I used to but when I first started eating them I really did not enjoy their aftertaste and didn’t eat very much except for and hummus. I have tried a couple of chickpea omelettes at restaurants before and although they were quite nice I could definitely taste a bit of an aftertaste and I thought they resembled more of a pancake rather than an omelette. I’m so happy I finally decided to try my own version because it is the most legit version that I have tasted. It tastes so incredibly similar to the omelettes that I used to have. That’s quite a big thing for me to say because I am never one to try and claim that my recipes resemble the real thing. I always tell people that they need to get used to vegan food and the fact that it tastes different and to stop trying to make it taste like the original. Doing that only leads to unhealthy fake meat substitutes that aren’t very good for our health. Plant-based food is delicious as is as long as we adapt our taste buds to it. For me, plant-based food is my safe foods. Having said that, this chickpea omelette tastes legitimate. My husband still eats eggs quite regularly although he has cut down a fair bit and even he enjoys this recipe and can barely tell the difference between a real omelette and this one. The only difference I can taste is that it is much lower in fat but for me, that is a good thing because I believe the high-fat content and eggs was probably what made me feel nauseous. I think this recipe is perfect even if you’re not plant-based but have issues eating eggs or are allergic. I’m finding more and more people claiming that they struggle to eat eggs and are constantly looking for egg-free options.
Personally, I like to chop the veggies up and mix them through the mixture. But you could easily keep this recipe plain and fry up some different veggies and salad on the side. I was just aiming to create the omelette that I used to love I think I’ve done a pretty good job but you can always customise it and put in whatever vegetables you want or leave them out completely and have it plain. Making a plain omelette is much easier to flip. Sometimes the vegetable chunks within the batter can make the omelette break when you flip it. I have to remember to slice my mushrooms a lot thinner than what I do because my mushrooms always seem to stuff up the integrity of my chickpea omelette.
The recipe I have written down makes enough for one large omelette or two smaller omelettes. I generally double the recipe so I can make enough for both me and my husband as well as our toddler who really really love this meal. It’s important to mix the liquid in a separate bowl first I have tried to keep the recipe all in one bowl but I find that doing that leads to a very clumpy omelette. A clumpy mixture will still work. Once it is fried up you can’t really tell but best results definitely happen when it’s mixed through properly. Chickpea omelettes are a great vegetable-packed gluten-free protein-packed plant-based option that makes for a great breakfast or lunch. Personally, we prefer it for lunch. I will admit that it is not as quick as a regular omelette but the frying process is very similar and all in all, it’s still a fairly quick and easy meal.
| Vegan Chickpea Veggie Omlette | Print |
- ½ cup chickpea flour (besan flour)
- ½ cup water
- 1 TBSP nutritional yeast
- 1 tsp grapeseed oil
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp good quality tomato sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
- pinch turmeric powder
- 2 mushrooms sliced
- ¼ capsicum diced
- handfull chopped spinach
- ¼ cup sliced black olives
- In a bowl mix together the chickpea flour, nutritional yeast and baking powder
- In a seperate bowl mix together the water, oil and tomato sauce
- Pour the water mixture over the chickpea flour mixture and whisk well to combine. Try and get it as smooth as possible with no lumps (It will still work even if its a bit lumpy)
- Season with salt, pepper and a little turmeric
- Cut and dice your mushrooms, capsicum and spinach to desired size and mix through the chicpea mixture. Add olives and mix again. Add any other veggies you like at this point or use different vegetables than the ones I mentioned if you prefer.
- Heat a frying pan with a little oil over medium heat. Pour mixture on to frying pan and cook for a few minutes on one side until you see bubbles forming on the top and the edges have started to brown. Flip the omlette carefully and cook on the reamining side for another 1-2 minutes.
- The mixture makes one large omlette or two small omlettes. I often double the recipe and use a ladle.
- Serve with avocado and extra greens and toast (or whatever you like) and eat straight away.
