Healthy Tortilla de Patata

You're an Erasmus student, time to have fun and make the most of your time abroad. However, you can not let this get in the way of what's important, you still need to try and lead a healthy lifestyle.

Of course there are going to be many new temptations, especially given that it could well be your first time living away from home. You'll find new things, and new food, all of which is perfectly fine if you know what you're eating and how much. But, on the other hand, this new lifestyle can lead to a reliance on pre-cooked food and carbs, which if you don't burn off, quickly turn into fat; excessive consumption of sweets and snacks, they're easy to get hold of and the temptation to buy them is even easier to give in to. Excessive alcohol consumption is also possible, especially given that with an Erasmus exchange comes a party lifestyle like no other, you will drink much more regularly than in 'normal life. '

For these reasons I'm going to give you some recipes, which in any other situation would be perfectly healthy, but given the lifestyle you are likely to lead, need to be refined if you want to eat them often and at the same time stay within the daily limits.

It would be wrong to start with anything other than one of the most famous Spanish dishes, of which there are hundreds, but for me, I stick with the classics. The perfect, exquisite and delicious "Tortilla de Patata".

Many people trying to stay healthy usually avoid food like this as they consider it to be very high in calories.

Of course the everyday tortilla has a high calorie content, around 350g per serving, and you always have to keep an eye out for its levels of fat, which can rise to about 23g. Therefore, it's not something you should have everyday, even though you could quite easily do so.

If you are the sort of person who wants to stay healthy but at the same time loves a good tortilla, I'm going to give you some secret tips to help make your tortilla healthier but at the same time just as tasty as ever.

A Healthier Tortilla

We are going to look at what makes traditional tortillas have such high levels of fat. The main reason is the way the potatoes are cooked, fried in a pan with lots of oil, and although it is usually olive oil, it's way above the recommended levels.

The Potatoes

Here we'll be answering the question, what can I do instead? A question to which I will be giving you a few of the many solutions out there.

1. You can prepare your potatoes as if you were going to fry them, then add a little bit of water, a splash of oil and pop them in the microwave until they are done.
2. You can also follow this method, but backwards. Basically, put the whole potatoes in a casserole dish, add water and salt, then bring them to the boil and simmer until they are cooked.
3. If you don't fancy the above methods, thinking the potatoes might end up slightly bland, you can use this third method. It consists of preparing the potatoes, drizzling them in some oil and popping them in the oven until they're done.

Once you've got rid of all the fat frying the potatoes usually makes, here's some more ways you can make your tortilla even more healthy.

The Eggs

As you'll already know, eggs are one of the healthiest things you can eat, especially in terms of protein. However, there is also a big difference in what an egg with or without its yolk will offer you.

A yolkless egg, or, just the egg whites, does not contain any type of fat, but at the same time, although you lose the fat from the yolk, you also lose the protein. Here lies the problem: leave the egg yolks knowing how fatty they are but doing so based on the protein they offer, or throw away the yolks and therefore the fat, and protein with it. Which is the best option?

The answer is neither. As Aristotle said, "Virtue is a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices. "

So, when making your tortilla, making one for 6 people usually requires around 8 eggs. Knowing full well you aren't going to eat it all yourself in one sitting, a normal tortilla of this size would have 62g of fat, given that each egg (yolk intact) has about 7/8g of fat.

At the other end of the spectrum, if we were to use just the egg whites, we would have a tortilla that contains next to no fat whatsoever, but also miss out on getting any protein.

So, using Aristotle and these two examples, we have a solution. What should we do? It's simple. Don't use all the yolks. For example, if you're making a tortilla using 8 eggs, only use 3 or 4 yolks. By doing so, you are reducing the levels of fat in the dish but also benefiting from the protein and other nutrients the egg yolk offers.

So now that we've managed to find a way to decrease the caloric value of two of the main ingredients when making a tortilla, let's see what the next step is in terms of making it the healthiest it can be.

Additional Ingredients

If you are trying to build up muscle at the gym, you could for example increase the amount of protein in the tortilla by adding chicken or using even more egg whites.

If you'd like to add to the taste of the dish or you want to make it even more delicious; you can always add green pepper, very common in tortillas; mushrooms; spices; or any other different kinds of vegetables that will give the dish more flavour.

In my opinion however, the key ingredient when making the perfect tortilla is onion. It's strange that even those who don't actually like onion itself admit that a tortilla without onion is a shadow of its onion of equivalent. But, as always, each to their own.

As you can see, there are loads of options when it comes to making your own tortilla, you can follow a general recipe or make it however you want and with whatever you like. Whatever you choose to do, it doesn't stop this recipe from being simple, quick and economical.

The Recipe

Now I am going to give you a detailed description of how I make my healthy tortilla, just to give you an idea about how to go about doing so yourself.

I just want to repeat that I'm quite the expert when it comes to tortilla, and it's one of my favourite things to eat. I think the perfect tortilla has to be moist, avoid having the eggs making it stodgy; and is also cooked in the traditional way, frying the potatoes in the pan with the eggs. But, you can't always have everything and so I'm going to give you a step by step guide on how to make a tortilla that may be slightly less tasty but all the more healthy.

Ingredients and Method

The quantities and cooking times I'm going to give you are all to make a medium sized tortilla.

• 3 medium sized potatoes
• 4 eggs
• Half an onion
• Salt
• Extra virgin olive oil

Step 1

Peel the potatoes and chop them up however you'd like. Some people like to make their tortillas with cubed potatoes so you can see and taste them more prominently. Others prefer finely chopped potato but I personally think the best way is to cut them in normal sized pieces that you can mash up later on.

If you have chosen to cook the potatoes before chopping them, I'll give you some advice on how to peel them, for which you'll need two things. The first being very hot water used to cook the potatoes and the other some ice water for after.

Move the potatoes from the hot water to the cold, take them back out and wring them dry as if they were a wet towel. You'll notice that the skin falls off automatically in almost one go.

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Step 2

Get your onions and peel them. Chopping onions irritates most people in some way or another due to the fumes released and the way they effect the nerve endings of the cornea. Your eyes then produce tears to try and fight the irritation, but whether you cry, a lot or not at all, varies for each individual.

In my case, my eyes sting a little but I don't usually cry. However, I have a friend who cries just as much as she does when watching The Notebook.

A trick I saw on the internet, and that I recommended her, is to peel and chop the onion under water, as (well as far as I can imagine) the water reduces the amount of fumes that enter the eyes. You can also always go for the more ridiculous option and put on a pair of goggles (yes, I have indeed tried it).

The way you cut the onion is similar to the potatoes. You can chose larger pieces or to finely dice them, but as always it depends entirely on the person cooking it. I usually chop the onion into fairly small pieces, as like the potatoes, I mash them up a bit later on.

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Step 3

I usually cook the potatoes using the microwave method I mentioned earlier. The only thing you have to do is put them in a bowl, add some water, roughly one or two cups; salt and a little bit of oil. It takes about 12 minutes, but it's worth checking now and then by probing them to see if they're done.

Step 4

While the potatoes are cooking, put the pan on the hob as you will use it for the remaining steps for which you'll need to add some oil and then brown the onions.

Step 5

When the potatoes are ready, take them out of the bowl and then add the onions from the frying pan. As you'll see, certain steps dictate how your tortilla will look and taste, in this case it will be the taste the fried onions give the dish, which for me is the most important step. If you don't like, or aren't using onion, simply skip this step.

Step 6

Grab a fork and lightly mash together the potato and onion. This step again can be omitted should you prefer your ingredients prepared in a different way. If you prefer larger pieces of potato, cut them accordingly and don't mash them at this point. I personally like them smaller, as if you were going to use them in a pasta dish, but at the some time juicy and moist.

Step 7

Now for the eggs. Crack open two eggs and separate them until you have just the yolk. To do so use the tried and tested method of cracking them open lightly and passing the contents between one half of the shell and the other until you have a clear separation. However, if you need to separate loads, for example if you want to make a larger tortilla or some sort of dessert, I'm going to give you another little trick to make it easier and much faster task. This method consists of cracking open the eggs in to something slightly deep, a pasta bowl for example. Afterwards, place an empty plate next to it and then take a small water bottle and squeeze it and then release so it sucks up the egg yolk, then drop it on to the other plate and repeat as many times as necessary.

It may sounds complicated or even more time consuming, but I can assure you it's really easy, practical and very fast.

Trick

Step 8

Beat the eggs until the yolks are well mixed with the whites.

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Step 9

Add the mashed potato and onion prepared previously to the eggs and stir well.

Step 10

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Lastly, add a splash of oil to the pan and place on a medium-high heat, followed by the mix. With a wooded spatula tighten up the edges and flatten the tortilla itself a tiny bit. When you see it's ready; again if you prefer it stodgy, leave it a bit longer; but if you like it moist and juicy, take it out a but before; look for a plate larger than the pan (something that seems obvious but it wouldn't be the first time a tortilla is ruined because it is dropped or the smaller plate gets stuck in the pan) and then confidently and fearlessly flip it on to the plate. If the pan looks really dry, add some oil, but due to the quality of pans these days and their anti-stick qualities, there shouldn't be a problem.

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To finish, put the tortilla back in the pan (the other way) so that the other side can be cooked, then take it out the same way as before, using the plate and the pan combination, and it's done. A tortilla that is delicious as much as it is healthy.

Finally

If you are one of those who likes trying different things, you can experiment with different ingredients, but make sure you don't ruin the whole point of this guide by adding things like mayonnaise. However, tomatoes, ham or cheese are tasty and healthy options to try.

Remember that you don't need to cut back everything that you like for it to be healthy. The trick is to know how to balance the amount of food we eat, and how often we eat it. By doing so, it's even easier to stay in shape whilst at the same time enjoying amazing food.

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