Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Brik
A crisp fried pastry parcel with a runny egg, tuna, and herbs inside, the essential Tunisian starter-lunch.
Tunisian · medium · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 10 min
~343 cal · 24g protein · 44g carbs · 7g fat · 3g fiber · 5g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Brik is one of Tunisia's most iconic dishes, a thin, crackly pastry parcel that hides a runny egg at its heart. A test of skill and nerve, eating one neatly, without the yolk escaping, is a small art form Tunisians take seriously.
A sheet of malsouka (a thin warqa pastry) is folded around a filling of whole egg, tuna, capers, parsley, and sometimes potato, then deep-fried quickly so the pastry crisps while the egg stays soft and just set. Served with a wedge of lemon, the first bite releases the molten yolk into the crisp shell. It is a starter, street food, and part of the Ramadan table.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
4 brik or spring roll pastry sheets
4 eggs
1 can (5 oz) tinned tuna, drained
1 medium potato, boiled and crushed with a fork
1/2 tsp
1/4 cup capers and parsley
1/2 onion, finely chopped
for frying oil, for frying
Instructions
1
Boil the potato whole, peel it and crush it roughly with a fork, leaving lumps rather than working it to a smooth puree, then mix it with the flaked tuna, onion, parsley, capers, harissa, salt and pepper.
✎ Chef’s note
Potato is the part most people outside Tunisia leave out, and it is what gives a brik its body: crushed roughly so there is still texture in it, spiked with a little harissa. Without it the filling is thin and the pastry has nothing to hold.
2
Keep the malsouka sheets under a damp cloth so they do not dry and crack, then lay one out and spoon the filling into the centre, hollowing a well in the middle of it.
3
Crack an egg into the well without breaking the yolk, season it, then fold the sheet into a triangle or square and dab the edges with water to seal.
✎ Chef’s note
Work fast once the egg is in. The well in the filling is what stops the yolk sliding out to the edge, and wetting the rim is what keeps the parcel shut in the oil.
4
Slide it into oil at about 340F (170C) and fry 2 to 3 minutes a side, until deep amber and crisp.
✎ Chef’s note
Oil temperature decides everything here. Too cool and the pastry drinks oil and goes limp; too hot and the outside burns before the white sets. The white should be just firm and the yolk still running.
5
Drain and serve at once with lemon.
Tunisian tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tunis. The Tunisian egg-in-tomato dish is properly ojja: peppers and garlic fried in olive oil with harissa and caraway, tomatoes reduced down, eggs cracked in at the last moment and eaten straight from the pan with bread. Shakshuka is its gentler relative and its origins are argued across Tunisia, the Ottoman lands and Yemen, so Tunis is not where to settle that question.
🗺️
Tunisia. Brik is judged on one thing: whether the egg inside is still runny when it reaches the table. A sheet of malsouka pastry is folded around egg, tuna, capers and parsley and fried for barely a minute, then eaten by hand at a careful angle. Tunisia's coast supplies the tuna and its olive groves the oil it is fried in.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Tunisia
Shakshuka bel HarissaEggs poached directly in a fiery, harissa-laced pepper and tomato sauce, eaten from the pan with bread.
LablabiChickpeas in garlicky cumin broth ladled over torn bread, hit with harissa, lemon, and a soft egg, Tunisia’s working breakfast.
Couscous bel HoutTunisian fish couscous: steamed semolina under a spicy tomato broth of fish and vegetables.
Browse all Tunisia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Blender.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Tunisia meal
Thé aux PignonsDrink
MakroudhDessert
Couscous bel HoutDinner
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Brik?
A crisp fried pastry parcel with a runny egg, tuna, and herbs inside, the essential Tunisian starter-lunch.
Where does Brik come from?
Brik is a Tunisian dish from Tunis, Tunisia.
Can Brik be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Brik recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Brik safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Brik take to make?
About 25 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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