Menemen or Turkish scrambled eggs

For 2 € 1.8 /pers. 245 kcal/100g

If you have been to Turkey, it is likely that menemen is familiar to you. This dish is a fairly typical breakfast in the country, and a recipe worth bringing to our borders because it is delicious. The best of all? It is a very simple preparation: it is just a scrambled egg , tomato , onion, peppers and some spices.

It is true that Turks have a different menemen recipe for each house, since this traditional recipe allows for experimentation and addition to taste. We bring you something that conforms to the traditional, a kind of mix between ratatouille and tumbet , but the beauty of menemen is that you discover the perfect recipe with your personal additions.

Anyway, menemen is an overflowing breakfast (and the word menemen comes from the ancient Greek “ μενεμένος ”, which means overflow) and if you want to start a morning on the right foot, you definitely have to try this recipe. We tell you how to carry it out.

How to prepare menemen

As we have been telling you, the preparation of menemen is quite simple, and it cannot be less for a good breakfast. To improve this recipe even more, it is always good to accompany it with a little pita bread , we assure you that it wins a lot. The steps to prepare the menemen are as follows:

1. We remove the seeds from the pepper and cut it into very fine pieces. We do the same with the onion: peel and cut. Additionally, we cut the tomatoes into quite small pieces.
2. Heat a large frying pan with two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, sauté the pepper and onion for 5 minutes. If it is not soft enough, you can leave it a little longer.
3. Once the peppers have softened from the sautéing, we add the tomatoes and stir. The tomato will dissolve until it forms a fairly consistent sauce. After about 15 minutes, we will have the desired texture.
4. Once the cooking time has passed, season with salt and pepper to taste and make three holes in the sauce, where we will add the eggs. We let the eggs cook for three minutes (it is important that they do not overcook so that they remain juicy) and remove from the heat.
5. Chop a little parsley and add it on top for a great dressing. We also add a teaspoon of sweet pepper. Once done, we stir everything and it is ready to eat. It is important to enjoy this freshly made delicacy, keep that in mind.

Final preparation and presentation of menemen

As we have told you, menemen is a traditional recipe with a lot of different versions. Therefore, we bring you some suggestions that you can add to your menemen to give it an additional touch that will be great.

1. Adding a little spice is always fun, and many of the Turkish menmen recipes do it. We recommend two options: either season the final result with ground cayenne or hot paprika, or replace the traditional pepper with piparra chillies.
2. Instead of chopping the tomato, you can blanch it and add it whole. It will take longer to make, but the result will have a much more powerful flavor. In this case, it is good to add a little sugar to reduce acidity.
3. A touch of cheese can’t ruin anything. Adding a little bit of your favorite cheese when cooking will leave a spectacular flavor to the menemen. A little protein is always good, so you can add some sausages to the mix. This is done a lot in Türkiye.
4. Spices to taste. Each menmen recipe includes a different combination of spices. Some of the most popular are cumin, mint or thyme, but again we remind you that this is a matter of preference, so you can try whatever suits your palate the most.

Another similar and delicious breakfast recipe is Turkish eggs , whose ingredients are herb sauce, poached eggs, paprika butter and yogurt sauce. The truth is that experimenting with cuisines from outside our borders is an invention that we exploit too little (and perhaps especially at breakfast time).

If you have been wanting to try more exotic dishes to start the day, do not hesitate to try Israeli shashuka , a recipe that does not disappoint.