Menemen, a vegetarian recipe from Turkey

Name: Menemen
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Turkey
Ingredients: 6 eggs; 4 very ripe tomatoes; 3 sweet green peppers, such as Turkish sivri; 1 small onion; 4 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp Turkish chilli flakes (pul biber); Salt and black pepper; Chopped flat-leaf parsley; Bread, to serve

Method

Blanch the tomatoes for 30 seconds, slip off the skins and chop the flesh into small dice.
Slice the onion thinly and cut the peppers into fine strips, discarding the seeds and white ribs.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and soften the onion and peppers over medium heat for 8 minutes, until completely tender.
Add the tomatoes and chilli flakes, season with salt, and let it reduce uncovered for 7 minutes to a thick, jammy base.
Beat the eggs loosely with a fork, pour them in and stir slowly over low heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
Pull the pan off the heat while the eggs still look creamy, grind over pepper, scatter with parsley and serve straight from the pan with bread.

Menemen goes wrong in one way only: overcooked eggs. Take the pan off the heat while they still look slightly loose, and the residual warmth will finish them.

The techniques this recipe uses

Sweat the aromatics
Medium heat, no browning: the onion should turn translucent and sweet, not toasted.
Reduce
Uncovered, water leaves and flavour concentrates. It is done when the sauce coats the back of a spoon.

Frequently asked questions

Why did my eggs come out dry and grainy?

That is the one real trap of menemen: overcooking. Stir slowly over low heat for two to three minutes and pull the pan off while they still look a little loose; the heat of the pan and the tomato finishes them on the plate.

Do I really need to peel the tomatoes?

Yes. In something that reduces uncovered and is eaten with a spoon, the skins detach and form unpleasant strands. Thirty seconds in boiling water is enough to slip them off. Out of season, tinned chopped tomatoes beat bland fresh ones.

Which peppers should I use if I cannot find the long Turkish kind?

Choose a long, thin-fleshed sweet green pepper, which turns tender in eight minutes. A thick-walled green bell pepper is still firm and bitter at that point: if that is all you have, slice it very finely and cook it longer before the tomatoes go in.

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Menemen

Method

The techniques this recipe uses

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Nutrition per serving

Frequently asked questions

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