When we lived in London, we enjoyed the occasional brunch at BEAM in Crouch End. My friend J always raved about their shakshuka, but I was never in the mood for a spicy, tomatoey brunch. It therefore wasn’t until we moved to Münster that we started making shakshuka ourselves, after coming across this recipe from Melissa Clark at NYT Cooking.
According to Wikipedia, shakshuka most likely originated in North Africa but has been adopted and adapted by many cultures. Melissa Clark implies that adding feta cheese is not particularly traditional, so this version may not be very authentic. What it is, though, is delicious!
Some shakshuka recipes, including Clark’s, call for finishing the eggs in the oven. However, after reading through the “helpful” comments on the NYT recipe, I elected to skip that step and steam-poach the eggs on the stovetop. It works well and saves energy by eliminating the need for the oven.
While it takes patience to cook down the peppers and onion until they are soft and browning, I love how shakshuka is a true one-pan dish. It is also flexible in terms of ingredient proportions (you’ll see in the recipe below that I’ve given generous ranges for most ingredients): you can amp up the spice or tone it down; use more peppers or go onion-heavy; sprinkle coriander over the top or leave it out; go heavy on the feta or crumble sparingly. Make it your own!
F and I often eat this with pita, but if you don’t have any around, you can easily sub in regular bread or another kind of flatbread: we’ve been known to cuisine-mix and have leftover roti on the side.
Shakshuka with Feta (adapted from NYT Cooking; serves 2-3)
Ingredients
- A generous glug of olive oil
- 1 large or 2 small-medium onions, halved & thinly sliced
- 1-2 red bell peppers, seeded & thinly sliced
- 2-3 garlic cloves, crushed or thinly sliced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika (sweet or smoked – you choose)
- to taste: pinch of ground cayenne pepper
- 2 cans (700-800g) crushed tomatoes (you can also use a combination of crushed tomatoes and passata/tomato puree)
- to taste: salt & pepper
- 150-200g feta cheese (we often use an entire 200g block)
- 4-6 eggs (we usually use 4, but you could easily fit 6 into the pan)
- optional, for serving: chopped fresh coriander/cilantro & hot sauce
Procedure
- Heat olive oil in a large cast iron or stainless steel skillet over medium heat. Add onions and peppers and cook gently until they are very soft and starting to brown.
- Add garlic and cook another 1-2 minutes, then stir in the cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper.
- Add the tomatoes and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened to your liking, 10-15 minutes.
- Crumble the feta into the skillet and gently mix it in.
- Crack the eggs into the skillet, nestling them into the tomato sauce. Season the eggs with salt and pepper then put a lid on the skillet and simmer for 8-10 minutes or until the egg whites are set.
- To serve, sprinkle the shakshuka with coriander/cilantro and/or hot sauce. Scoop it up with your favorite flatbread and enjoy!
- One Year Ago: What’s Been Cooking? Pandemic Edition (the first…)
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Wherever I am, you are there also 