Shakshuka is a dish we discovered in our endless pursuit of exciting, robust flavors (more to come on that in a moment). Trust us, Shakshuka will not disappoint in that department!
Shakshuka has its roots in North Africa with some regional variation. The flavor of this simple dish will change the way you look at breakfast… or brunch… or – and this is the beauty of it – any meal. The version we have prepared is a basic form but don’t let that description mislead you. The dish plays nicely with add-ins across the meat and vegetable world. Once you get the gist feel free to experiment and let us know what creations you invent in your kitchen! That is really half the fun in cooking anyway. With that said, grab your ingredients and start prepping.
We are fans of two things in the kitchen (well, many more but we’ll stick to two here): using up ingredients while they are still good and shortcuts that do not sacrifice flavor. Don’t be ashamed of that second one if you share the same sentiment. Most of us lead busy lives, or at least we tell ourselves that.
On that note, you’ll notice two things in the ingredient photo below. The first being an orange bell pepper sliced up while the recipe calls for red. Orange works fine here and the red is merely a suggestion for color consistency in the sauce, if you’re into that sort of thing. What can we say, we had an orange pepper we needed to use up.
The second thing you may notice is a jar of Heirloom Shakshuka sauce. You can likely find this if you live near a Kroger (or chain owned by Kroger) where they carry the Private Selection line. This is actually what inspired us to make the dish. Prior to seeing this in the store we had never even heard the name Shakshuka. However, after a quick google search we knew we stumbled upon something great. This won’t be listed in the official recipe because it is likely not available in many places. Canned tomatoes will work just as well with the ingredients we will be adding in to make the sauce. We supplemented the balance of the tomatoes needed for this particular preparation with a can of crushed tomatoes (not pictured).
Begin with a saute pan (affiliate link) on medium-low heat and a couple of tablespoons of EVOO. Add in the bell pepper and onion with a healthy pinch of sea salt.
Add garlic, habanero and all dry spices (cumin, paprika, crushed red pepper) . Cook for another 2 – 3 minutes, with an intermittent stir or two to mix ingredients. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
Add tomatoes, salt, and black pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sauce will reduce and thicken slightly.
Stir in greens, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes.
Remove cover, stir in a splash of cooking wine and cilantro. Add the feta cheese crumbles.
Use the back of a cooking spoon to make 4 small indentations (or craters!) to top of sauce. Crack the eggs, adding one egg to each of the 4 indentations. Make sure the eggs are still on top of the sauce layer. Also, make sure the eggs are separate from each other. One egg in each quadrant (see photos). If desired add a small amount of salt and pepper to each egg.
Cover pan and cook for 7-8 minutes. The egg should firm up slightly but the yolks should still be runny. If eggs are desired to slightly greater doneness add another minute or so here. This is your dish, so own it. So many cooks are too rigid with instructions and, believe it or not, there is more than one way people are allowed to enjoy a dish! This is a judgement-free zone at Flavor Bible. Hopefully at this point your pan looks something like the image below.
A really nice add to this dish is a good bread because who doesn’t like bread? This isn’t in the recipe below as it is purely optional but for this instance we grabbed a quality thick sliced sourdough from the store bakery. We simply added some butter to the pan and toasted the bread on the stovetop. We did this during the last cooking stage of the Shakshuka. If you take this step you won’t regret it.
Now is the moment of truth. Why do we cook? For all the Instagrammable pics? Well, maybe a little. All kidding aside, we cook because we get almost instant payback through the enjoyment of the fruits of our labor.
Because of the nature of this dish (i.e. sauce and eggs) it can be a little tricky to serve. The recommendation here is to spoon a little sauce – sans egg – to form a base in your serving bowl. Then, grab your trusty spatula, get underneath an egg with more sauce and layer that on top of your base. Then, spoon in a little more sauce, if needed, around the bowl. Grab a piece of bread, jam it in the sauce, garnish with some leftover herbs and feta, send some photos to your friends, and then eat. Please don’t forget that last step!
It sounds like a lot but you’ll find out this dish is rather simple. The reward is a happy palate and the envy of all your friends and followers. Cheers!
Equipment: Shakshuka
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A quality set of pans is unquestionably one of the most essential items a home cook can have. For this dish we used a stainless steel skillet. We love the All-Clad skillets because they will last a lifetime if cared for making them far more valuable than any price tag. Take a look and see if this one may suit your needs (affiliate link)!
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Shakshuka
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 Medium Sweet Onion, Sliced
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, sliced Orange would work too as that is what I had on hand.
- 3 cloves Garlic, Sliced
- 1 Habanero Pepper, Diced Can sub in milder chili pepper to control heat. For this batch 1 habanero was not excessive for my taste.
- Sea Salt To taste
- 1 tsp Ground Cumin
- 1 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
- 1 tsp Paprika Smoked or regular depending on desired flavor. Can also use a mixture of the two.
- 28 oz Crushed Tomatoes (1 Large Can) See blog for reference to jarred Shakshuka sauce that may be available to sub for part of this.
- 1 splash Cooking Wine
- Fresh Ground Black Pepper To taste
- 1 cup Feta Cheese Crumbles
- 1 cup Greens Softer greens so they wilt quickly. I grabbed a handful of spring mix I needed to use up.
- 1/3 cup Fresh Cilantro Can adjust up or down depending on taste. Save some for garnish at the end.
- 4 Eggs
Instructions
- In a large saute pan, heat the oil on medium-low setting. Add onions and red bell pepper with a healthy pinch of salt. Cook until peppers begin to soften and onions are completely soft.
- Add garlic, habanero and all dry spices (cumin, paprika, crushed red pepper) . Cook for another 2 – 3 minutes, with an intermittent stir or two to mix ingredients. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
- Add tomatoes, salt, and black pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sauce will reduce and thicken slightly.
- Stir in greens, cover, and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Remove cover, stir in a splash of cooking wine and cilantro. Add the feta cheese crumbles.
- Use back of spoon to make 4 small indentations (or craters!) to top of sauce. Crack the eggs, adding one egg to each of the 4 indentations. Make sure the eggs are still on top of the sauce layer. Also, make sure the eggs are separate from each other. One egg in each quadrant (see photos). If desired add a small amount of salt and pepper to each egg.
- Cover pan and cook for 7-8 minutes. Egg should firm up slightly but yolks should still be runny. If eggs are desired to slightly greater doneness add another minute or so here.
- Spoon some sauce into a bowl as a base. Use a spatula to get additional sauce and an egg per serving bowl, placing egg on top within bowl (see photos). Garnish with desired amount of leftover cilantro and feta.
- Optional: Add a crusty bread to serve with dish (see photos, dish in picture is pan toasted thick cut sourdough).
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