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Oh well, now this is going to be an interesting way of sharing a recipe – because I will attempt to share ONE dish prepared for 3 different diets. Let me explain. I don’t like to cook 2-3 different dishes for 2-3 people, no one does. Just because one eats no eggs, the next doesn’t want the dairy, vegans and vegetarians …. eurgh! Anyway, so here we have a very traditional recipe of shakshouka, but it can be prepared 3 ways at the same time. Which is what I do. Plus on the top of it, it’s as colourful as possible, so I call it rainbow shakshouka. I hope you get some inspiration of trying different ways of cooking this North-African delight.
What is shakshuka?
Shakshouka or shakshuka (I’m not sure which one is spelt correctly) is a Maghrebi (region of North Africa) dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion, and garlic, spiced with cumin and paprika. Cayenne pepper is also used traditionally and sometimes harissa as well.
The traditional recipe itself isn’t set in stone, you can vary the vegetables and spices as you like it. It’s referred as the most satisfying Mediterranean breakfast – despite of it’s North-African origins, because if you leave the harissa and spicy pepper out of it, you essentially get vegetables cooked in tomato sauce with some eggs on the top. So that’s basically Mediterranean diet summed.
Feta isn’t very commonly added to it either, but I think it’s a nice version to make if you aren’t vegan. So, this just proves, it’s a versatile dish with flexibility of what ingredients you want to use or depending on what you have at home.
Is shakshuka healthy?
Oh yes! It’s low calorie and basically only contains nutrient-packed low calorie vegetables, that aren’t overcooked either. Plus fiber, and antioxidants. Like I said, you can skip the eggs anyway, but that would be your protein content. I do love a nice piece of sourdough going with it, though.
As a result, it can be eaten for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner too.
Can you make shakshuka without eggs?
I worked out a way of not cooking the eggs in the veggie ragout when it’s baking the oven, thus allowing me to cook for both vegans and vegetarians at the same time. It’s not rocket science: you just have to poach the eggs and add them later. Yes, I KNOW it’s not the same as cooking the eggs in the sauce, but allow me to be flexible here, so that I don’t have to prepare 2 different dishes plus everyone is happy.
Now, if you have a large dish, you can pop the lightly poached eggs onto the one side of the shakshouka as well and add them to the last 1-2 minute of baking, so that the eggs aren’t overcooked. For this, you do need to poach the eggs just about to the point when they won’t break as you lift them out of the boiling water. Bit tricky, but doable.
What about the feta cheese?
Of course, it’s the same with the feta cheese. You can add them or not, nowhere near that complicated as the eggs. If no eggs, nor feta is happening, scrambled tofu is another option or simply slice up an avocado. I prefer the latter.
The bottomline is – it’s really easy to make shakshouka and keep everyone on a different diet happy.
Enjoy!
Rainbow Shakshuka Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red onion thinly sliced
- 3-4 cloves garlic minced
- 200 g colourful cherry tomatoes
- 1 yellow pepper sliced
- 1 green pepper sliced
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 handful fresh parsley chopped
- 1/2 handful fresh coriander chopped
- 1 400g tinned tomato
- 100 g feta cheese crumbled, optional
- 1 avocado sliced
- 4 eggs poached, optional
- 1/2 tsp dark brown sugar to reduce acidity, optional
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the vegetables: wash and chop them.Heat olive oil in an oven proof skillet or pan. Add the onions and the brown sugar, let it caramelise for 2-3 minutes. The brown sugar is entirely optional - I use it to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Add all the tomatoes and peppers, cover with a lid and let them soften for 4-5 minutes.
- Add the tinned tomato (I prefer the "polpa" aka pureed tinned tomatoes) and the herbs and spices. Cook for another 5 minutes.
- In the meantime - if you are like me and trying to cook once but serving it both people who would eat eggs and who won't, you can poach a few eggs. Make sure they are poached to the minimum where hey are still quite runny, but you can lift them out of the boiling water without breaking them.
- You can now crumble the feta cheese onto the top of the shakshuka (if you use any) and place it into the oven. Bake for 10-15 minutes. If you want to add the poached eggs on the top or just one side of the dish - do it during the last 1-2 minutes of baking.You can just simply add sliced avocados on the top for vegan peeps.It's all entirely up to you, but even with traditional dishes like shakshuka - everything is possible!Enjoy.
