Whole-Food Plant-Based Omelettes -- Oil-Free Too!

On Mother's Day, my daughter came over and made us lunch.  She watches a lot of Instagram and Tictok recipe videos and was really excited to show us something new she had just learned -- it was how to make a vegan omelet using soaked peas or mung beans and a rice paper wrapper.  The basic approach was simple -- you just soak red lentils, pigeon peas, or split mung beans at least 3-4 hours and then blend them with black salt, nutritional yeast, turmeric and other spices --

some hemp hearts or cashews are optional (but not at all necessary) to make it a bit richer, and then pour this mixture onto a rice paper wrapper placed onto a hot skillet.  Then you top it with veggies and optionally even a bit of vegan cheese, fold it over, let it cook a bit more -- and you have a very delicious omelette.  Sans the fat, cholesterol and animal protein that are typically present when using the products of a hen's menstruation.  Super simple, no recipe needed.  I was excited by this too.  So the  next day I in fact did this all on my own and was again very pleased with the result.  But when I told my chat-friend group about this, they wanted a recipe -- with measurements. 

And so friends -- I  made it a third time, and a fourth time, measuring, adjusting and writing things down -- while snapping a few pictures.  This blog post is the result.  But let me first just make it really clear, this IS so simple that you really don't need to follow a recipe, nor even measure...but if that's what you are most comfortable with -- then here goes.  One of the times I made this with Mexican flavors (and added black beans into the veggies and then served it with salsa) another time, I used Italian flavors and added some dried tomatoes soaked in balsamic vinegar to the veggies  -- but what I share here is neither of these LOL. This recipe makes two large omelettes -- which could feed four people if you have some side dishes too:

Ingredients for shell:

• 1 cup pigeon peas, rinsed and soaked for at least 3 hours.
• 3/4 cups water
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 TBS hemp hearts or cashew pieces
• large clove of garlic
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 tsp black salt
• 1/4 tsp regular salt
• A sprinkle of kashmir or cayenne pepper
• 2 rice paper wrappers (I prefer the look of the round ones -- but square works just as well.)

 
Ingredients for filling:

• 1 onion diced
• 1/2 red pepper diced
• 8 oz of mushrooms diced
• 1 medium potato, pealed, sliced thin, then diced.
• 2 cups of finely chopped kale, spinach or chard
• handful of fresh basil chopped
• tsp dried parsley
  

Directions:

1. Put a large stainless steel pan on high for a couple of minutes and then place the diced onion into the hot pan and stir frequently with a metal spatula, scraping the bottom as needed to keep it from sticking. 
2. When the onion begins to brown, add the pepper, mushrooms and potatoes, keep stirring and the juice from these vegetables will keep everything from sticking -- but when that liquid is gone, add a tablespoon of water as needed -- while scraping the bottom to keep it all from sticking.  Cover and let cook a few minutes, but keep opening the lid and stirring it all around to keep it from sticking.
3. When the potatoes are soft, add the kale, basil and parsley, stir well for two more minutes, then turn off heat and cover and let it set while you make the batter.
4. Drain the pigeon peas and put them into a blender.  Add all the remaining ingredients except the rice paper wrappers, and blend on high until smooth.
   
5. Place a large cast iron skillet on high, place a dry rice paper wrapper onto the skillet and immediately pour half of the batter onto the rice paper and using a spatula carefully spread it just to the edges of the wrapper.  Top with as much of the vegetable mixture as you like, and sprinkle with vegan cheese if you are using this.  After about 2 - 3 minutes, you will find that you can slide a metal spatula under the omelette and it will cleanly lift up -- and so flip half of the omelette over onto the other half.  Turn heat down and place a metal lid over the omelette to keep the heat in and let it cook a few more minutes until the batter is completely firm and the bottom is as brown as you want it, then flip the omelette over to cook the other side for a few minutes too.
   

The Filling -- made and ready to use

The batter spread onto the rice paper

The filling added on top of the batter

Checking to see if it can be folded over

Covering the omelet until batter has firmed up

Ready to serve