Put fall produce to work in an easy harvest omelet

It’s the time of year when all the produce is ready. Tomatoes, corn, squash, beans and other typical harvest crops are piling up in the fields and on farmers market tables, and even plants that petered out during the heat of summer, like spinach, lettuce and radishes, are back. All in all, it’s a great time to be hungry.

Amid this kaleidoscope of earthy glory, we need recipes that incorporate many types of fresh ingredients. I’ve written about using stir fry and ramen to handle a bunch of random vegetables. Today, we’ll explore my new favorite vehicle: the harvest omelet.

To make it, I cook some bacon and potatoes as a base, sauté a bunch of seasonal veggies to go on top of the potatoes, and then pour beaten eggs over everything. I sprinkle some cheese on top and cover the pan to trap the steam, which will cook the top of the omelet and melt the cheese. I serve it open-faced, almost like a breakfast pizza.

Today’s omelet contained sautéed tomatoes, green beans, red pepper, garlic and hakurei salad turnip. Each bite was an assortment of textures and flavors that beamed me straight down to the earth beating under my feet.

In order to follow this recipe properly, you’ll need an eggbeater. A whisk might work, depending on how much fast-twitch muscle you have in your wrist, but forget about using a fork. I can’t overstate how violently we want to beat those eggs. Beat them like they mugged your mom.

Harvest omelet

My goal with this recipe is to teach you the basic gist so you can improvise with what’s available on any given day. You don’t have to use bacon, but it’s better when you do.

• One normal-sized potato, sliced into fries (a mandolin helps but isn’t necessary like that eggbeater)
• Three slices of bacon, sliced crosswise into lardons
• One large clove of garlic or several small cloves, sliced thinly

Fresh vegetables. My latest batch included:

• Four cherry tomatoes, each sliced in half
• One hakurei turnip and its greens, diced
• Part of a red bell pepper, sliced into gum-stick-sized pieces
• 10 green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• Three eggs
• Salt, pepper, garnish, condiments

In a heavy-bottomed pan, fry the bacon bits and french fries on medium heat. Gently stir the fries by lifting them from below with a spatula and flipping them onto their non-browned sides.

Heat an omelet pan on medium. Add the olive oil and veggies, stirring once in a while.

Toss the bacon fries with the veggies and add the foamed eggs. Sprinkle on some cheese, turn off the heat and put a lid on the pan. Let the steam build up and cook the top of the omelet, then let it cool down for about five minutes. If necessary, bang the pan sideways against something heavy to loosen the egg off the bottom, then slide it onto a plate. Serve with hot sauce and mayo.