Turkish recipe
How to make Menemen
Menemen
Named after the town of Menemen near İzmir, now eaten all over Türkiye
Eggs scrambled into a soft mixture of tomatoes, green peppers and olive oil, cooked and served in a small two-handled pan with plenty of bread for dipping. It is a favourite breakfast, and some cooks add sucuk, a spicy sausage, or white cheese.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
- 2 long green peppers (or 1 green bell pepper), thinly sliced
- 1 small onion, chopped (optional)
- 3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 1 tin (400 g) chopped tomatoes
- 4 eggs
- Salt, black pepper and a pinch of chilli flakes
- Crusty bread to serve
Method
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the peppers, and the onion if you like it, for about 5 minutes until soft.
- Add the tomatoes with a little salt and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes, until most of the juice has cooked away.
- Crack in the eggs and stir gently so they mix into the tomatoes in soft streaks.
- Cook, stirring now and then, until the eggs are set to your liking. Turks often like them soft, but pregnant women, young children, older people and anyone with a weak immune system should cook them until firm, or use pasteurised eggs.
- Season with pepper and chilli flakes and bring the pan to the table with bread.
Made it at home? Tick it off and it goes into your kitchen passport.
Whether menemen should contain onions is a famous Turkish argument. In a 2018 online poll with more than 400,000 votes, the onion side won with just 50.6 percent.
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