Menemen – Turkish scrambled eggs

This is a very simple dish with, it seems, a great deal of flexibility around how it can be made. It seems to be rather disparagingly referred to as “Turkish scrambled eggs” and while it is a simple dish a comparison to scrambled eggs doesn’t do it justice at all.

This blog has a great recipe for Menemen, showing its versatility.

Menemen can be defined in a couple of different ways such as Turkish breakfast specialty or lazy dinner option or great summer dish. However you define it, it’s delicious. Best part of all is whether you are a great cook or a poor one, you cannot go wrong with menemen; the ingredients secure the taste. Must-have traditional ingredients for menemen are eggs, tomato, onion, peppers (preferably banana peppers), and parsley. I modify the traditional recipe by replacing onions with green onions and adding feta cheese.

Ingredients

1. 6 eggs, well-beaten
2. 4 juicy tomatoes, diced (you can also use canned diced tomatoes; prefer petite diced ones or put regular one in blender for a couple of seconds)
3. 3 green onions with tops, finely chopped
4. 4 fresh peppers, finely chopped (I used red and orange Italian sweet peppers and 2 green chilies)
5. 1/2 cup crumbled feta
6. 1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
7. 2 tsp spicy pepper flakes
8. 1 tsp black pepper
9. salt
10. 1-2 tbsp oil or butter

Nothing is written in stone, so you can use more or less of anything above. You can use finely chopped onion instead of green onions, and you can also add pitted and chopped black olives.

1. -In a frying pan heat oil and add onion. Cook on medium until they’re soft and then add fresh peppers.
2. -Once they’re cooked, pour in tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Wait until tomatoes cook down a little. -Stir in beaten eggs and feta. Stir constantly.
3. -Right before eggs are cooked, add chopped parsley.
4. -Serve with bread.

Tips

1. First time trying this I wonder if the pan was little hot. It seems worth while turning the heat off and just seeing if the egg will cook with the heat of the rest of the ingredients.
2. The feta cheese probably adds quite a lot. I wonder if a little boring without it.
3. The BBC website includes a recipe which is not scrambled eggs but where the egg cooks in a pocket of the menemen stew. Maybe worth a try.