Mish-Mash Recipe: Bulgarian Scrambled Eggs with Peppers

Mish-mash Bulgarian Scrambled Eggs

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In Bulgaria, a very interesting dish is made for breakfast: mish-mash, which is traditionally a mix of vegetables and eggs. The name itself says it all – it means a jumble. Of course, bell peppers go into it, both sweet and hot varieties. Then come tomatoes, herbs and, what makes the dish special, crumbled brined feta-style cheese (sirene). As a rule, though, there are far more vegetables in it than anything else.

Besides the classic summer vegetables, other optional add-ins are often used too. In winter, when fresh vegetables are harder to come by, frozen peppers come into play, along with onion and various roots – parsley root, celery root, parsnip. This hearty scramble is served with fresh or toasted bread, which often takes the place of cutlery.

Ingredients

2 servings

  • Eggs 4
  • Red bell pepper 5-6
  • Tomato 3-4 (out of season – canned tomato pulp)
  • Yellow bell pepper (optional) 1
  • Hot green pepper (optional) 1
  • Onion (optional) 1
  • Brined feta-style cheese (sirene) 100 g
  • Butter 1 tbsp
  • Parsley 0.5 bunch
  • Dried savory (chubritsa) 0.5 tsp
  • Salt to taste
  • Bread for serving

Step-by-step recipe

Peppers and vegetables

Bulgarian mish-mash differs from similar dishes – Turkish Menemen, Greek Strapatsada, Middle Eastern Shakshuka – first of all in the large amount of sweet pepper compared to the other ingredients. What’s more, in most cases the peppers are roasted beforehand and peeled. And, as in most Bulgarian dishes, dried savory (chubritsa) is added.

  1. Roast the red bell peppers over an open flame or in the oven until the skin turns black.

    There should be plenty of peppers in the dish.

    Put the hot peppers into a container or a plastic bag so they steam. Peel off the charred skin – after steaming it comes off easily.

  1. Blanch the tomatoes and peel them; it’s best to remove the seeds as well. Chop all the vegetables fairly finely and put them in separate bowls.

    Roasted and peeled red peppers, all ingredients chopped.

Sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan. If you’re using onion, fry it first over medium heat until soft. You can fry the hot pepper and the yellow bell pepper along with the onion – yellow pepper doesn’t roast well, so it’s better fried. These are secondary components of the dish; cook them in the butter until soft.

    The onion and all the peppers that weren't roasted are fried in butter.

  2. Add the peeled roasted red peppers to the fried vegetables and cook for 5-6 mins over medium heat. Add the tomatoes, season with a little salt and add 0.5 tsp of dried savory – it gives mish-mash its subtle, recognizable flavor.

    Adding the chopped roasted red peppers, then the tomatoes.

  1. Simmer the sauce for about 10 mins over medium heat with the lid on. Meanwhile, prepare the cheese and herbs: pick the leaves off the parsley sprigs and chop them with a knife. You can grate the cheese or, as they do in the Balkans, crumble it by hand.

  2. Add the herbs and cheese to the sauce and stir.

    Crumbled cheese and chopped parsley added.

    Cook uncovered until the liquid evaporates – the sauce should be thick.

Eggs

  1. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add a pinch of salt and mix thoroughly or even beat lightly. Pour the egg mixture into the sauce. Stirring constantly, wait until the eggs set – it’s this very process that gave the dish its name. Cooking the eggs takes 5-6 mins in total. Don’t overcook them.

    Lightly beaten eggs poured in and stirred until set.

Serving

  1. Transfer the eggs and vegetables to a plate. Usually this dish doesn’t hold together as one piece; it’s more of a soft, slightly crumbly mix. Serve it warm, not hot, with fresh or toasted bread. If you like, add slices of sirene, herbs and sliced fresh vegetables.

    Mish-mash

    If you decide not to use an ingredient, feel free to skip it or replace it with something else you like. What matters is that the dish has peppers and tomatoes. Fry any extra ingredients until very soft so they don’t stand out too much in the sauce. And one last tip – be sure to roast the peppers: the flavor and aroma of the dish will reward you.

Calories and macros

500 kcal

Serving ≈ 730 g

  • Protein27 g23% of kcal
  • Fat28 g52% of kcal
  • Carbs30 g25% of kcal

100 g68 kcalProtein 3.7 gFat 3.8 gCarbs 4.1 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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