The Turkish scrambled egg dish cooked with tomatoes, peppers, and onions is Menemen. It is a popular Turkish breakfast in which eggs are gently cooked into a seasoned mixture of softened tomatoes and green peppers.
Menemen is named after the town of Menemen in İzmir Province. The vegetables are usually cooked in olive oil or butter before beaten eggs are added, and the finished dish is commonly served with fresh bread, often in the shallow pan in which it was prepared.
Onions are the dish’s most famous point of culinary debate. Some cooks consider them essential, while others omit them—especially for breakfast and add them more often when serving menemen as a main meal. A 2018 poll associated with food critic Vedat Milor attracted 437,657 votes but produced only a narrow 50.6 percent majority for the onion side.
Menemen is often confused with şakşuka or shakshuka. The dishes share tomatoes and peppers, but Turkish şakşuka is a vegetable dish without eggs, while shakshuka usually features whole eggs poached in sauce. Menemen’s defining feature is its scrambled or stirred eggs.