Savory Summer Veggie Omelette Highlights All the Variety and Delicious Flavors from the Garden

Looking for a way to combine all those lovely fresh summer vegetables and herbs into one dish that can really show off the richness and diversity of your summer vegetable garden? Try this scrumptious summer omelet as a great brunch or evening meal that will delight your taste buds and give your body all the nutrition it needs to tackle those summer chores with energy and enthusiasm.

We start with chopped greens, for all their super rich vitamin and mineral content. Three or four large kale leaves and two or three plump juicy Swiss chard leaves. In our garden this is a lot of greens, but if your greens are not that large, just double the number of leaves. Don't be afraid of using these pungent and nutritious goodies in your omelet. Instead, just remove the tough portions of the stem (usually the bottom two thirds of the stem in the leaf), chop them up and sauté them with a few diced green onions as you start the vegetable mix for the omelet. They add a wonderful tang and juicy wetness that you just can't get any other way; and they are powerhouses when it comes to nutrition. Kale, in fact, is considered a superfood, even higher in vitamins and minerals than dandelion, which is saying something!

Summer squash works very well in the omelet, either zucchini or yellow is fine, we have a lot of both and yellow has always been my favorite, so that was our choice. One large squash (around 2 and a half to three inches in diameter) will be twice what you need. Cut it in half, peel it if the skin is tough, and dice it. The squash should be tossed in right after the greens and onions are simmering.

Nothing adds flavor and interest like fresh garden herbs and in this omelet we go all out. Three or four good sized leaves of sage, a healthy sprig of Italian parsley, three or four good sized basil leaves, a three to four inch sprig of rosemary and a nice sprig of summer savory all go into the mix.

Split the parsley in half and reserve half to go directly into the eggs. Likewise, set the summer savory aside to go into the eggs as well.

Use scissors to cut the sage and basil directly into the simmering pan of greens, onion and squash and stir it up to mix it all thoroughly.

These are the last two ingredients to go into the pan of vegetables that will make up the filling for your omelet. This ensures crisp crunchy celery and tomato that is not lost to overcooking. In our garden, the tomatoes for the job are the golden nugget cherry tomatoes, about six to eight of them, or more if you really love tomato. Chop two good sized stalks or four baby stalks of celery and quarter the tomatoes and put them all in at the same time. Now stir it all so it is well mixed, turn the heat down as low as it goes and cover the pan while you whip up your fresh eggs.

Don't forget to add the parsley and summer savory, minced fine, to the eggs before pouring them in to the pan.

You can also reserve a bit of the parsley to garnish the omelet when it is served.

I like to make up the mix and then make individual omelets with three of our still rather small fresh chicken eggs from the new layers. A small pinch of salt, a turn of the peppermill and a pinch each of the parsley and summer savory go into the eggs once they are whipped and then straight into the hot pan. Let the bottom surface cook, then drag the egg across the pan and tip to let the liquid egg cover the bare surface you created, fill the newly created and now starting to cook and firm up egg on that side of the pan with the veggies, then gently fold the egg you pulled aside over the top of the veggies and let stand for about one to two minutes depending on the heat of your pan (it should be really hot). Each omelet takes two to three minutes to cook when done this way, because the vegetables are already hot so do not slow down the cooking time.

You can add a cheese to your omelet when you put the veggies in to the pan of egg or shred some nice cheese on top when you take it out of the pan if you like cheese in your omelets. A nice super sharp cheddar is an excellent complement to this garden extravaganza. In any event, it should be a cheese with some flavor of its own to be a match for all the flavors in the omelet.

Delicious!