If you give me tomatoes, peppers and eggs, I'll make you menemen!
If you give me tomatoes, peppers and eggs, I'll make you menemen!
Menemen is a Turkish dish made with eggs, peppers, tomatoes and optionally onions. It was first made by Cretan Turks who came to Menemen district of Izmir with the exchange and takes its name from the district. source
Menemen is one of the most practical and oldest Turkish dishes. It was one of the most cost-effective dishes before the inflation monster came to life, is it still so? I don't know!
It can be made only with tomatoes, peppers, eggs and optionally onions can be added. I'm not going to get into the debate about whether menemen is better with or without onions, we already have enough debates! 😆
...but the onion-onionless debate is still going on here. I like it both ways, I add onion when I have time, when I don't, I prefer it without onion.
If it is to be made with onion, first add finely chopped onions to the hot oil and fry until they turn pink. If it is to be made without onion, add diced tomatoes and chillies directly. I prefer hot chillies!
After a short while, break the eggs on it, optionally stir it when the eggs are added, I do not stir it because I like the eggs whole on top.
The preparation and cooking phase is completed in a short time like 15 minutes on average. I told you it was practical!
Let's come to the cost calculation;
I used about half a kilo of tomatoes, 3 Turkish Lira
I used 5-6 long hot peppers, 2.5 Turkish Lira
I used 8 eggs (small ones), 12 Turkish Lira
The estimated cost of the ingredients I put in the menemeal is 17.5 Turkish Liras. The price converted into dollars is 0,95 USD. So it is still one of the cheapest meals!
If you try the recipe, do not use fork, knife or spoon! Eat it by hand by dipping the bread in the food! Enjoy your meal!
The food looks very tasty and tempting. Let the time of tomato come in our country, I will cook this recipe and see how it tastes.