Turkish Eggs (Cilbir)
Start your day the Mediterranean way with these Turkish Eggs (Cilbir). A pairing of yogurt and poached eggs with spicy butter and olive oil.
Turkish eggs, also known as Cilbir (pronounced chl-br) is a simple savoury breakfast consisting of poached eggs on a bed of garlicy, oily, buttery yogurt.
At first glance, it’s a bit of a head turner at how stunning the dish looks with all those pops of colour, coupled of course by the hesitation of poached eggs and yogurt together.
Usually, we are much more familiar with yogurt paired with fruits and granola. A sweet breakfast essential. But eggs and yogurt?..
That’s sounds less then appealing.
In fact I myself only tried them recently and I must say, when it works it works. Savoury egg yogurt? Absolutely a tick from me.
Even though I’ve only recently tried Turkish eggs for the first time, I’ve actually known about them for awhile, but like most, eggs and yogurt never sounded appealing to me.
If it wasn’t for the fact I had yogurt and eggs in, wanted a simple breakfast, and didn’t want anything sweet. I would never of given these a try.
For a little back story - contrary to what you may believe this food blog does not pay my bills. I know, shocking. So I do actually work a full time real life job, of course, that job is in a restaurant and bar.
Turkish eggs is something we have on the breakfast and brunch menu and every time I see them coming out the kitchen, sitting on the pass, or being made, I always think “gosh, they do look absolutely amazing. If anything, I’d buy those just to take a picture”
Yet still, yogurt and eggs? not for me.
Then we get to what I hear, echo’s of compliments through the restaurant floor every Sunday morning “those eggs were delicious” “I’ll be getting those again” and of course “I was sceptical about eggs and yogurt, but damn does it work”
Which brings me to where we are now. I put my hesitations to one side, I tried it, and I do concur if I say so myself, Eggs and yogurt, that’s a win win in my books.
Turkish eggs FAQ
Are Turkish eggs healthy?
Extremely, Turkish eggs are made up of Greek yogurt and eggs, both very high protein and healthy foods. Not that as well as being high protein and healthy, it’s also low calorie depending on how you serve it. But even with bread they are still pretty low calorie.
How do you eat Turkish eggs?
I’d recommend a folk and spoon.
How do you pronounce Cilbir?
chl-br
Are Turkish eggs hard to make?
No, they are actually really simple
How difficult are Turkish eggs to make
Not very. The recipe for Turkish eggs is relatively basic. For these Turkish eggs, we’ll be making a chilli butter but even that isn’t necessary.
The only actual cooking involved is the poaching of eggs, other than that all you need to do is mix some yogurt, sprinkle some seasonings, and drizzle some oil.
Even with the chilli butter it’s still a simple recipe.
Not to mention is takes less than 10 minutes. Whilst your pot of water is coming to a boil for the eggs, you’re mixing your yogurt, butter, and starting the plating up. Then the eggs themselves will only take 2 minutes.
So it’s a great recipe when you just don’t know what to have or don’t have the time. Most of what we will be using you could consider as kitchen cupboard essential and so you may already have them in.
The only part that may be considered difficult is the poaching of the eggs. That really depends on how good you are at poaching eggs.
How to perfectly poach an egg
I’m going to be honest with you.. I’m terrible at poaching eggs.
I just can’t ever seem to get them right. They always look slightly snotty and the yolk is always separate from the white.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re always edible and always delicious. But they just don’t look great.
I can never seem to get that egg white knot you see on poached eggs you get from a good restaurant or brunch spot.
But don’t worry, if you’re anything like me I do have some tips to hopefully improve your egg poaching.
My first tip is something I recently learnt that massively helps and it’s straining your eggs.
Bare with me because I know it may seem odd. Eggs have watery bits that get in the way when you’re going for the perfect poach. Straining them through a fine mesh strainer like you see in the above photo, you strain away the thin watery bits and are left with the thicker parts.
So tip 1, strain your eggs.
After you’ve strained them, transfer to a small glass or pot so you can easily drop into the boiling water.
As for that water, make sure it’s boiling, but not rolling. You know when you boil water and you get those big bubbles? Yeah, we don’t want that…
Get to that point then turn the heat right down. You want small tight bubbles.
Larger bubble will smash around your egg making it lose it’s nice shape. Smaller bubble will not disturb your egg too much.
My final tip is to create a whirlwind in your water. Take a wooden spoon and push it around your water to get that water moving in a circle. In the middle of the water should be a little hole spinning around in a circle, that’s your little water tornado.
Drop your egg right in the centre of that tornado. Do this quick and confidently. That’s how you get that white knot on your poached eggs. The water spins the white around itself. If the water is still, the egg will sink and that’s how you get those flat poached eggs.
Should I add vinegar when poaching an egg?
Adding vinegar to the water helps the egg whites congeal. The acidity in vinegar will cook the egg quicker.
Quicker is good. Quicker means your egg is more likely to keep its shape instead of disappearing throughout the water into an eggy mess. So adding a teaspoon or two of vinegar to your boiling water can help not just speed up your cooking time, but keep the shape of a nicely poached egg.
However, I’ve tried this plenty and for me personally, I don’t see a big enough difference to bother. But things may be different with you, so try it out and see what you think.
High protein breakfast
One thing I’ve not touched on enough is the health benefits of Turkish eggs.
Eggs are naturally high in protein, Greek yogurt is high in protein, and other than that, they are really healthy foods. So putting them together creates a protein heavy breakfast which is very low in carbohydrates and relatively low in calories.
The problem with a lot of low calorie brunch or breakfast dishes that I find is that they don’t fill you up. Low calories normally mean less food, so I just find myself snacking more.
But these Turkish eggs really do fill you up despite being low in calories.
So it’s the perfect choice for anyone on a weight loss journey, trying to eat more healthy nutrient packed foods, or is on a high protein diet.
It’s a bikini models dream breakfast, move aside oats and peanut butter.
By my independent calculations, and I’m by no means a nutritionist, I put the macros for this at around 420 calories for a 2 eggs dish, and that includes the generous topping of butter, with about 22g of protein and 6g of carbs. That’s very good.
Without the butter there is even less calories and less carbs but still 22g of protein. But do your own calculations to be exact, that’s just an estimate.
Garlic yogurt
We haven’t mentioned the garlic yogurt mush so let’s change that.
All you’re doing is mincing some garlic, chopping some herbs, I use parsley but you can use whatever your favourite is, then mixing that with Greek yogurt. Couldn’t be more simple.
Savoury yogurt complete. Garlic yogurt may not sound tasty but do trust me on this one…
Mediterranean Brunch
Just when you thought this couldn’t get any better, there’s the remaining fact that it just looks delicious.
I mean, look how tasty those eggs look and I’m not even a food stylist. Most the food on the blog goes by the template of ‘looks like a mess, taste delicious’. I’m throwing cation to the wind with this one as it looks delicious and tastes delicious.
Just the taste of it almost makes you believe you’re on a Mediterranean all inclusive holiday somewhere. I damn near got caught up and opened a beer at 10am.
Brunch is becoming more and more popular and a lot of those dishes are coming from the middle east and Mediterranean. They look great, taste great, and make you feel like you’re on Holiday. They all seem to be quite healthy as well.
This is no exception. And if you’re looking for more brunch dishes to take a crack at, another really healthy dish that’s easy to make and looks amazing is my green shakshuka. It’s fun to say and fun to eat, also it’s a one-pot wonder which I just love.
So after you’ve mastered your Turkish eggs keep the momentum going and try out that green shakshuka recipe.
Turkish eggs tips and recommendations
So before we get onto that all important recipe, let’s cover some helpful tools and gadgets.
Egg Poaching Saucepan
So I’ve already gave you a bunch of tips on perfecting your poached eggs. If you’re still not getting it and still finding it frustrating, then this gadget could really help you out.
It’s a saucepan designed specifically for perfectly cooking poached eggs.
100% not necessary to buy and may even be a waste of money, but my gosh is it still temptingly cool.
Where to buy
Poached egg bags
Another helpful gadget when it comes to poaching eggs are these egg poaching bags.
The way they work is that you crack your egg in the bag, then drop the bag in your water. The bag keeps the shape of your egg so no loose eggy bits.
It’s actually a really helpful gadget and sure does cost a lot less then the above egg poaching saucepan. However it does mean you need to buy more bags when you run out. But how many poached eggs are you really going through that that would be a problem?
Where to buy
The last thing you will absolutely need which I’m not going to bother with a picture of because let’s face it, it’s not that cool. Is a garlic press.
Sure, you can finely chop your garlic, but mincing it through a garlic press will really help not to mention that it saves time and effort.
No need for an expensive press, the below recommendations would work perfectly.
Garlic press UK £10 amazon.co.uk
Garlic press USA £14.99 amazon.com
Turkish Eggs Recipe
Turkish Eggs (Cilbir)
Ingredients
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water up to a boil then simmer. You want small tight bubbles to not push the eggs around too much. Once you're at the right stage of boiling, drop in your eggs and poach for 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to pick your eggs out the water then place them on kitchen roll to absorb the water whilst you prepare the rest of your elements.
- For the yogurt, combine the greek yogurt, parsley, and minced garlic in a bowl. Stir to combine then dollop onto a plate. Using the back of a spoon, spread the yogurt into a circle with a slight ditch in the middle. Then use your spoon to create ridges around the side (this will give the oil and butter something to sit in) Then add your poached eggs to the middle.
- For the butter, add the large knob of butter to a saucepan on a low heat along with the chilli flakes, add more or less chilli flakes depending on your taste. Once the butter has fully melted take it off the heat. Drizzle the butter over the top of your eggs and yogurt, then drizzle the tablespoon of olive oil. Finish of with a pinch of salt and pepper. Add more chilli flakes if you like a kick, and more parsley if you like herby eggs.
Notes
To serve
Serve this with some toasted flatbread, sourdough, or pitta. Bread works great for soaking up all that buttery, oily, yogurt mix and egg yolk.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
422.88Fat
34.57Sat. Fat
12.14Carbs
6.32Fiber
0.79Net carbs
5.54Sugar
3.79Protein
22Sodium
325.18Cholesterol
362.89The nutritional information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
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Hi, I’m Cameron, guv’nor of Smartblend. If you liked this then you’re in luck, I have a bunch more recipes like it. I share only vegetarian and pescatarian food recipes, cocktails, and drink guides with a sprinkling of wellness and mindful drinking. If that sounds like you, then stick around!
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