June Recipes: Tzatziki Turkish Eggs

Felicity Vincent
Jun 14, 2024
5 min read

Updated: Mar 25

My ultimate Turkish eggs: A high protein breakfast and easy Sunday brunch recipe.

Who else is bored of brunch menus? Avocado on toast, egg and bacon sandwich, I want more! This easy recipe is full of protein and nutrients but it's also full of flavour! Creamy tzatziki with a perfect poached egg, fresh lemon and dill, spicy brown butter, and crunchy sourdough bread. The ultimate breakfast or brunch recipe!

June marks the start of cucumber season, so let's give this humble vegetable the star treatment it deserves with this easy healthy recipe.

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Ingredients (serves 1):

Tzatziki:

250g yogurt
166g cucumber
5g dill
1/2 garlic clove
1/2 lemon, juiced
S&P

Chili Brown Butter:

40g salted butter
1tsp chili flakes

Turkish Eggs:

2 eggs
2 slices of toasted sourdough
1/4 red chili
Dill for garnish

Method:

How to make labneh:

Place a sieve over a bowl, and line the sieve with kitchen paper (or a muslin cloth if you own one).
Spoon the yogurt in, then place some kitchen paper on top and press down lightly.
Leave in the fridge overnight if possible or at least 30 minutes. The longer you leave it, the thicker the yogurt will be.
Peel off the kitchen paper and voilà: labneh!

How to make tzatziki:

Grate the cucumber over a dish and sprinkle salt all over.
Leave it to sit for 10 minutes to let the salt draw the water out of the cucumber.
Squeeze the cucumber between your hands then place on some kitchen paper.
Grate the garlic clove.
Finely slice the dill.
Spoon the labneh into a bowl, add the cucumber, lemon juice, garlic, dill and black pepper. Stir, then taste and season as required.

How to make chili brown butter:

Put the butter in a saucepan and place it on medium heat.
Let the butter melt and foam up. In the meantime, fill the sink with a bit of cold water.
Watch the butter, when the middle of the foam starts to turn from white to brown, remove the saucepan from the heat and place in the cold water to stop it from cooking further and burning.
Add the chilli flakes and stir.

How to make perfect poached eggs:

Place a sieve over a jug.
Crack an egg over the sieve.
In a deep frying pan or sauteuse, bring water to a simmer.
Place the cracked egg into the water and cook on a simmer for 4 minutes. The yolk should still be squidgy and soft but the whites hard.
Take the eggs out of the water and dry on some kitchen paper. Season with a bit of salt.

How to make tzatziki Turkish eggs:

Spoon some tzatziki onto a plate and smooth it out.
Place both eggs onto the tzatziki.
Drizzle chili butter on top.
Finish off with a few sprigs of dill and slices of red chili.
Serve with 2 slices of toast and dig in to your tzatziki Turkish eggs. Bon appétit!

More about this easy brunch recipe:

Recipe shortcuts:

Use thick greek-style yogurt if you don't have time to make labneh.

Keys to success:

To make the perfect restaurant quality poached eggs, forget the vinegar or the well in the middle! That won't guarantee you a nice shape and even cook. The foolproof, fail-safe method is two-fold:
1. The water must be at a simmer. Small bubbles rising up to the surface will fold the whites onto themself into a nice oval. A boil will damage the whites.
2. Use fresh eggs and sieve them. The egg albumen (egg whites) increase in viscosity with age, they become more liquid. This means the fresher the egg, the nicer the shape of your poached eggs will be. Sieving the egg allows you to remove any whites that have become too liquid to ensure they don't spread into your water and spoil the shape of your egg. This is predominantly aesthetic, but it does also mean the yolk stays in the middle and is fully covered in white, therefore the whites will cook before the yolk ensuring you get cooked whites and runny yolk.
A few extra tips:
Keep the sieved egg whites from the jug to make meringues, foamy cocktails or omelettes. You can even freeze them for later.
Use the cucumber water to make a fresh gin and tonic.
Keep any remaining tzatziki to use in sandwiches or as a dip with pitta breads.

Health benefits of cucumber:

One of the main boasting factors of cucumber is that it's high in water and very low in calories (low energy density). But there's more to the humble cucumber than meets the eye.

It's also a great source of:

biotin which enables us to release energy from food and support cell health;
vitamin K which contributes to blood clotting and therefore healing wounds, but also supports bone health.

In our friend's group, we swear by cucumbers for their water and electrolytes. You'll often hear me crunch on a cucumber after a night out to prevent a heavy head the next morning. As cucumbers contain 95% water and free water potassium, they can play a key part in reaching daily hydration needs which support body function including brain, digestive and bowel function. To put it plainly, a cucumber can help you stay regular.

They also help to reduce sodium-related water retention and therefore lower blood pressure.

Cucumber also contains cucurbits which is an antioxidant capable of scavenging free radicals and have anti-cancer properties. They are also full of Cucurbitacins, active compounds which have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor properties. Recent research show they interfere in cancer cell growth by causing apoptosis i.e. death of these cells.

They also contain fabulous polyphenols called lignans which are linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer.

Cucumber peel has its own special benefits. It contains chlorophyl, carotenoids and flavonoids which give it its green/yellow colour. Flavonoids are known for having many benefits, there are various types of them but cucumbers contain those known as flavanols and more specifically kaempferol, quercetin and fisetin. These have many beneficial properties including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-carcinogenic. They have been shown to reduce the risk of certain chronic diseases and cancers, but also to reduce subjective cognitive decline with age. Kaempferol (raw) in particular shows a positive association with reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases. And early studies have linked it to anti-diabetic properties. Some animal studies have even shown they block the build up of beta-amyloid plaque in the brain which leads to Alzheimer's disease.