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Turkish menemen, soft eggs with peppers and tomato
A Turkish breakfast favourite: green peppers and onion softened in olive oil, cooked down with ripe tomatoes, then eggs stirred through gently until just set and silky, finished with mild chilli flakes.
- 30 minutes
- Prep 10 minutes
- Cook 20 minutes
- Serves 4
Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 green peppers, seeds out, thinly sliced
- 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
- Half a teaspoon salt
- Half a teaspoon pul biber (Turkish chilli flakes, also sold as Aleppo pepper), plus extra to serve
- 6 eggs
- Black pepper
- 10g fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Let's cook
- Warm the olive oil in a large frying pan on a medium heat. Add the onion and green peppers and cook for 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft.
- Add the tomatoes, salt and pul biber. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring, until the tomatoes have broken down into a thick sauce and most of the juice has cooked away.
- Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly with a fork, with a little black pepper.
- Turn the heat down low. Pour the eggs into the pan and leave them for 30 seconds, then stir slowly with a wooden spoon, folding the egg through the sauce.
- Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring gently, until the eggs are softly set: creamy, not runny, and no longer clear. Take the pan off the heat as soon as they look done, because they keep cooking.
- Scatter with parsley and a little more pul biber and bring the pan to the table.
Tips
- Cooking the tomatoes down well first stops the menemen being watery.
- In Turkey it is eaten straight from the pan, scooped up with crusty bread.
- Pul biber is fruity and mild; if you use ordinary chilli flakes, use half as much.
Swaps
- No fresh tomatoes: use a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes and cook it down a little longer.
- Add crumbled feta at the end for a richer version (adds milk).
- Serve with crusty bread if you like, but note that it contains gluten.
Tags
Contains: Eggs .
Of the 14 allergens, only eggs are in this recipe. The vegetables, oil and spices contain none of the 14.
Check every packet for allergens.