One of the things we miss from Turkey is the breakfasts. Most especially the menemen, that eggs and tomatoes and peppers dish. (We love eggs, and the addition of vegetables makes us pat ourselves on the back for our healthy lifestyle!) So over the past few months, we’ve perfected our own version of this classic one-pot Turkish dish. It turns out the real secret is to use good ingredients: fresh vegetables and the best olive oil you can afford. But here is another secret: sometimes we eat menemen for lunch, or even dinner.
Ingredients
This recipe serves four. You will need no equipment beyond the kitchen essentials.
- 2T/30g olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 large pepper, chopped and seeded (we like to stick with red, orange, and yellow)
- 2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped, keeping as much of the juice as you can
- 2T/30g tomato paste (or more, depending on how juicy the tomatoes are)
- salt and pepper to taste
- herbs and spices to taste. The traditional ones would be oregano and perhaps some hot pepper flakes or Aleppo pepper, but we won’t tell; you can use any flavour combination you love. We’ve also thrown a pinch of cinnamon in, which is amazing.
- 4 eggs, beaten
- bread to serve. Pita is traditional, but a crusty loaf also works wonders.
Menemen Recipe
Heat up the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium flame and add onions, peppers, and salt. Cook until the onions become translucent, probably 4-5 minutes; you don’t want them brown. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, pepper, and other herbs and spices and cook another 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Push the cooked vegetables over to one side of the pan, lower the heat, and add the eggs. This is not something to stress about; they’re all going to mix together later, so it’s fine if your borders are not pristine! Cook the eggs until just set. Then fold the vegetables in.
If you are fancy, you can garnish with more herbs and a drizzle of olive oil. Otherwise, you’re done, except for putting it on plates. Which we usually, but not always, manage.
We hope you like this recipe even half as much as we do!
