Turkish Egg Recipes • Turkey's For Life

We like to keep it real, here! We’re doing our best egg recipes!

As this weekend is Easter weekend and we have a distinct lack of any egg-shaped chocolate in the house, we’re going to concentrate not on the chocolate variety, but on those protein-packed staples that are produced by the chicken.

Two fried eggs in a pan. Both topped with red pepper flakes — We use village eggs in our recipes

Obviously, this is going to be a collection of egg recipes that feature in Turkish cuisine.

For some recipes, eggs will feature as the main ingredient. In others, they make a welcome guest appearance.

Our Egg Recipes Use Village Eggs

Eggs feature in many famous Turkish dishes, which isn’t surprising when you see the number of chickens popping up in random places.

We’ve got used to this now and don’t really give them a second glance.

It’s still quite common in Turkey for families to keep chickens, even in urban areas.

Where we live, it’s not uncommon to see a chicken or three wandering down the pathway at the side of the main road!

Real Free Range Eggs

These are the true free range chickens.

They don’t carry with them any special labels such as ‘corn-fed.’ They’re not given x amount of metres per space per chicken so they can be labelled as ‘free range.’

No, they wander. They peck at the ground and eat whatever they find. And they eat whatever their owners put out for them.

And they produce the most fantastic eggs!

A huge pile of garlic bulbs with a small bag of Turkish village eggs in the background. — You need to keep your eyes peeled for these Turkish eggs

These are the eggs that are sold as köy yumurtası (village eggs) at your local market. And you need to keep an eye out for them.

They’re likely to be in a large plastic bowl or bag. And they can appear on any stall – it just depends whose hens have laid.

Egg Price Fluctuation

Prices per egg can fluctuate massively.

But, whenever possible, these are the eggs we buy for our Turkish egg recipes.

They’re sometimes difficult to find. They’re certainly difficult to carry. But they’re definitely worth your extra lira.

So, what do we do after we’ve gone to all that effort to ferry home our village eggs without ending up with a sticky yolky mess?

Well, whether we’re making a delicious breakfast or easy weeknight dinners, these Turkish egg recipes never disappoint!

And, if we come across any other Turkish egg recipes in the future, we’ll add the new recipes to this list.

Turkish Egg Recipes – Celebrating Local Village Eggs

A copper pan with decorative handles on each side. Scrambled eggs with tomatoes is inside the pan and topped with town fresh basil. A copper lid is propped up behind the pan.

Menemen

Menemen is special.

Most people who come to Turkey for the first time ask what menemen is.

And, when they’re told, they look dubious about it.

Then they decide to order it. The menemen is placed before them.

It doesn’t look too appetising, that mixture of scrambled eggs and vegetables.

Tentatively, they take a forkful and place it in their mouth. And then BAM, another menemen convert.

This Turkish brunch dish is genius and shows off the village egg perfectly.

Top with chopped fresh herbs such as parsley.

Some people also like to add beyaz peynir (feta cheese) or kaşar (similar to Cheddar cheese) along with the eggs.

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A table with various small plates making up Turkish breakfast. Fried eggs, black olives and jams are in the frame.

Köy Kahvaltası

There aren’t many better ways of passing a few hours on a Sunday morning than by sitting with friends & sharing a Turkish village breakfast (köy kahvaltısı).

Morning eggs with village breakfast – perfect!

The village breakfast trend in Fethiye continues to gain momentum.

And, these days, when you order, it’s rare that you won’t be asked how you’d like your eggs; boiled or fried.

Or even an omelette.

Difficult to resist a little pan of fried village eggs topped with a sprinkling of red pepper chilli flakes!

If you're looking for a special breakfast experience, this is the one!

Sliced beef sausage cooked in fried eggs. A wedge of bread is on the side.

Sucuklu Yumurta

Hmm, didn’t we just say menemen was genius?

Didn’t we just say there was nothing better than sitting down to a Turkish village breakfast?

So where does sucuklu yumurta (fried eggs with sucuk) fit into this gushing equation?

Sucuklu yumurta with fresh, crusty bread is fabulous in its own right, especially with a runny yolk.

One of our favourite Turkish egg recipes.

But then you can also combine with it with a village breakfast.

A double whammy of two Turkish breakfasts in one!

You can get sucuklu yumurta as a standalone brunch at places like Baba Fırın in Çalış.

Or, of course, you could always use your own village eggs to make sucuklu yumurta at home.

It's not what you could describe as a healthy breakfast.

But it's a perfect weekend treat.

And a great way to fill up after a morning run.

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White bean salad with cherry tomato, sliced onion and sliced, har boiled eggs

Antalya Usulü Piyaz

Turkish egg recipes are not just breakfast dishes, of course.

Piyaz is a Turkish white bean salad and the Antalya version is special in that it also contains tahini as an extra to the olive oil and vinegar.

The Antalya-style piyaz is often topped with hard-boiled eggs.

For us, this is one of the best ways to celebrate the sunburst yellow yolk of the village egg.

Simply boil them, slice them into quarters and decorate your dish.

Added bonus if you get the double yolks!

Served with grilled köfte – its traditional partner – it’s truly a delight!

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Two fried eggs cooked with chopped spinach and slices of onion. The food is on top of toasted bread.

Ispanaklı Yumurta

Another of our favourite Turkish egg recipes.

If you thought you didn’t like spinach (we were certainly in that camp before we came out to Turkey), go all out for this spinach and egg dish.

And you might just have the same epiphany we did when we first tried ıspanaklı yumurta: that spinach is not only healthy and versatile but also damn good!

The eggs and spinach cook in the same pan, over a medium heat.

Combined with the other flavours, they make a tasty filling breakfast or lunch.

One of our favourite Turkish vegetarian recipes!

And well, a fried egg sat atop a piece of hot toast is always going to work, isn’t it?

Click the button below to try out our recipe for Ispanaklı Yumurta.

And, once you’ve made that, make the most of your leftovers with these spinach stem recipes.

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A poached egg on a bed of natural yoghurt. Topped with chilli flakes and red oil. A fork is piercing the egg yolk.

Çılbır

This is a perfect dairy brunch dish that really celebrates the village egg, strained yoghurt and local village butter.

This eggs recipe is poached egg served the Turkish way. And, served with warm crusty bread, it is so satisfying.

If you want to make this dish at home, here’s our recipe for çılbır.

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A close up of fried eggy bread topped with chilli.

Yumurtalı Ekmek (Eggy Bread)

Mmm, and we can’t celebrate Turkish egg recipes without the inclusion of the oh-so-delicious yumuratlı ekmek.

Eggy bread is a savoury version of French toast. And a great weekend treat in our house.

Aside from the tasty flavours, the best thing about this recipe is it's right up there when it comes to easy egg dishes.

A few chilli flakes and a big dollop of natural Turkish yoghurt on the side. Happy days!

Here’s how we make Turkish eggy bread at home.

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Two fried eggs topped with red chilli flakes. The eggs are on top of toasted bread.

Turkish Fried Eggs

Simply but oh so tasty – this is bol tereyağlı sahanda yumurta. Turkish fried eggs in lots of butter!

Choose the best free range eggs for this dish as they really are the star of the show.

Enjoy them as a standalone breakfast or brunch or serve them as part of a bigger Turkish breakfast.

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Turkish Potato Salad

How has potato salad made it into our list of favourite Turkish egg recipes?

Well, springtime is the time of the year when the baby new potatoes appear on the market, along with an abundance of village eggs.

The new potatoes make a great potato salad – as well as other meals, of course.

If you ever get invited to someone’s home in Turkey and potato salad is placed on the table, you will often see eggs as part of the dish.

And it works! They take the potato salad to the next level!

Give our (eggy) potato salad recipe a try.

View Recipe

These are just a few of our favourite ways that eggs are used in Turkish cuisine. But there are so many more Turkish egg recipes out there.

And, obviously, lots more Turkish recipes, too.

What’s your favourite meal that best celebrates the egg for you?

Sandra

Friday 15th of April 2022

Wishing you and Family a Happy Easter. Grew up in Izmir in the late 60’s and 70’s and I really enjoy your news letter and great food recipes soooo much. Keep them coming.

Turkey's For Life

Tuesday 24th of May 2022

Hi Sandra, thanks a lot for your comment! :) Glad you enjoy the recipes - and the egg recipes. Will definitely keep them coming. :)

Sunday 31st of March 2013

@ BacktoBodrum: Wow, congratulations to you in finding the mini eggs. To be honest, we've not really looked for any chocolate ones - we'll stick to the village eggs from the pazar this year. ;)

Backto Bodrum

Yes! I found a box of mini chocolate eggs in Gima - Result! I can go to the egg hunt how.

Saturday 30th of March 2013

@ Claudia Turgut: Happy Easter to you, too. Good to hear you're busy with your culinary walks. Well, we could have gone overboard with the eggs and started talking about cakes etc but thought we'd leave it to the visible Turkish recipes. :) Köy yumurta are definitely the best.

Claudia Turgut

Hi Julia! I have been so busy with the culinary walks that I have hardly had a moment for blogging! I liked your comment that eggs feature heavily in the Turkish cuisine: I had never truly taken that on board but I suppose your're right! And we LOVE those köy yumurta - the best! Happy Easter to you and Barry!