Skip to main content
Main

Menemen

A Turkish dish of sautéed onions, green peppers, tomatoes, and eggs seasoned with oregano, paprika, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Menemen

Serves 2
Time5 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare a concasse of tomatoes by blanching, peeling, seeding, and dicing them, or alternatively grind the tomatoes in a food processor or grate them with a box grater.

  2. Dice the onions and green peppers into medium dice and sauté them in olive oil until tender.

Cook

  1. Add oregano and paprika, if using.

  2. Add the tomatoes to the peppers and onions and cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Add parsley and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

  4. Beat the eggs and pour over the mixture in the pan. Stir until cooked.

Serve

  1. Serve with Turkish bread.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

281Calories
9 gProtein
19 gFat
20 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Tomato + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,767 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Olive + oreganotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,443 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into soft curds that bind the tomato and pepper mixture together.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that form the sauce base of the dish.
Onions
Soften and add sweetness that balances the tomatoes.
Green peppers
Add tender body and a fresh, slightly bitter vegetable flavour.
Olive oil
Carries flavour and helps soften the onions and peppers in the pan.

The step that matters

Stir the eggs until just cooked. Egg proteins set as they heat, so removing the pan at the right moment keeps the eggs soft and creamy rather than dry and rubbery.

Swap the oregano

The recipe marks oregano as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, onion, pepper, tomato, parsley, olive):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Basilfits about as well
  4. Oreganothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, onion, pepper, tomato, parsley, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes