Kafteji (Tunisian Fried Vegetable Plate)

Kafteji is the great equalizer of Tunisian street food — everything fried, everything chopped together, everything good. Potatoes, zucchini, eggplant, and peppers hit the oil in turn, then get chopped into a shared bowl with a fried egg and a shower of cumin. The name literally means chopped, and that is the whole philosophy, with market stalls selling it by the plate, usually with bread on the side.

Everything fried, everything chopped, everything good

Each vegetable keeps its own character — crisp potatoes, silky eggplant, sweet peppers — before the egg binds them into one glorious, messy pile. A splash of harissa in the pan brings the full street-stall heat, and it is also a brilliant way to use up the last vegetables in the drawer. It is rustic, generous, and deeply satisfying, scooped up with crusty bread or stuffed into a sandwich. Tunisians eat it at any hour, and there is no wrong way to do so.

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