Menemen (Turkish Breakfast Scramble with Tomatoes and Sweet Peppers)

Menemen. What an absolute gem of a breakfast food! Deep, savory flavors created in a matter of minutes. Learn how to make this Menemen (Turkish Breakfast Scramble with Tomatoes and Sweet Peppers) for breakfast, dinner, or as an appetizer for a get-together. Best served with some soft, crusty bread to soak up all that flavor!

What is Menemen?

Menemen is a Turkish breakfast dish made of delicious tomatoey pepper sauce, silky scrambled eggs, and cheese. Traditionally it would be eaten and scooped with a bread of some sort, or pide. Alongside the bread, you would find s pate of fresh vegetables (usually tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion), pickles, jams, olives, and cheese. It’s a beautiful assortment of flavors, textures, nutrition, and color. What I wouldn’t give to try an authentic breakfast in Turkey!

Although this version may not be 100% authentic, I wanted to create something with the idea of cooking eggs in a rich tomato-pepper sauce. Since we’ve had so many peppers rolling in on the farm, I decided to use a variety of our mild and spicy roasted peppers as well as roasted tomatoes for additional umami.

Roasting Peppers & Tomatoes

The charred bits that form on the edges of roasted ingredients create new flavor molecules through the Maillard reaction. It results in richer, umami-packed flavors than if you were to flash fry, boil, or steam. Tomatoes are especially sweeter and richer due to the breakdown of their natural sugars.

Around this time of year (October), I like to roast the last of our tomatoes and peppers. This ensures we can continue making dishes like Menemen and roasted Anaheim enchiladas during the winter months. It may seem like extra effort to roast the vegetables before canning or freezing, but it’s well worth it It’s so satisfying grabbing a container of roasted veg and making a quick, but deeply flavored meal with little effort. Plus when you roast veggies, they take up less freezer space! That said if you don’t have time to roast them for this recipe, no worries–it will still blow your mind!

Turkish Breakfast

Turkish breakfasts are a delightful mix of cooked, picked, and fresh vegetables with refreshing sauces, cheeses, jams, nuts, cured meats, and bread. Always served with Turkish black tea. With such a variety of flavors and textures, you’ll see why so many swear by this incredible breakfast spread!

You can make it as simple or complex as you like. Sometimes we just have poached eggs, cheese, pickles or olives, and bread. When we have time on the weekends I like to make menemen, labneh (garlicky yogurt), olives, soft baked bread (normally pide as seen in the image above), roasted walnuts, fig jam, mixed veggie pickles, cheese, and fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions. Black tea is wonderful, but we often serve it with a refreshing mint tea.

Here’s a list of items you could use for Turkish Breakfast:

• Menemen
• Boiled, poached, or sunny-side-up eggs
• Seared or stewed meats
• Sujuk (Turkish sausage)
• Cheeses
• Jams
• Honey
• Fresh fruit
• Fresh vegetables (especially cucumber, tomato, and onion)
• Fresh herbs (mint, parsley, dill)
• Pickled vegetables (pickled green beans and asparagus are great!)
• Olives
• Labneh (yogurt sauce)
• Soft baked bread

Try with:

Print Recipe

Menemen (Turkish Breakfast Scramble with Tomatoes and Sweet Peppers)

Main Dish, Breakfast – Turkish

By Katelyn Bailey – Serves: 2

Prep Time: 10 minutes – Cooking Time: 20 minutes – Total Time: 30 minutes

A Turkish Breakfast staple, Menemen is one of those dishes you'll crave once you try it! Eggs mixed into an umami rich base of tomatoes, peppers, spices, and Turkish sausage. Serve with your favorite pickles, fresh veggies, cheese, jam, etc. So incredibly good!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of butter
• ½ medium-sized onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped sweet pepper (Bell, Anaheim, Hungarian Sweet, etc.), chopped
• 1 jalapeno, minced (optional)
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
• ⅛ teaspoon paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ½ cup shredded mozzarella, divided in halves
• 2 large eggs
• Parsley and mint for garnish
• Soft, crusty bread, or pide for serving

Instructions

1

If you don’t mind the tomato skins, feel free to skip this part! Place the tomatoes into a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds. Then, place into a bowl of ice water to cool down and prevent further cooking. The tomatoes should then be very easy to peel and chop. Set aside.

2

In a medium-size deep skillet, over medium heat, toss in the butter. Once melted, add in the red onion and pepper. Cook for 10 minutes, or until very soft.

3

Toss in the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.

4

Then, stir in the chopped tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5

Uncover, and mash the tomatoes with the back of the spoon. Season with smoked paprika, salt, and pepper before adding in ¼ cup of the mozzarella.

6

Stir the cheese a few times and add in the eggs.

7

Turn the heat down to medium-low and stir everything around just until combined. Cook for 3-5 more minutes or until the eggs are cooked to your preference.

8

Sprinkle on the remaining ¼ cup of cheese and let this melt before serving with a lovely loaf of soft, crusty bread. Enjoy!

Nutrition

• 259 Calories
• 15.1g Carbohydrates
• 220mg Cholesterol
• 18.4g Fat
• 3.9g Fiber
• 11.2g Protein
• 9.7g Saturated fat
• 206mg Sodium
• 8.3g Sugar

Notes

Double the ingredients for a larger portion. Refrigerate for 3-4 days.