Spicy Shakshuka

I love eggs! Every Saturday and Sunday morning is a blessing for me: I am looking forward to it, not only because it’s the weekend but also because I can have my favorite egg dishes!

Even though people say it’s not healthy, I can eat eggs all day long.

Last weekend I decided to make Shakshuka. I and my husband always have it in the Israeli restaurant close to where we live, and its sooo delicious. Not to mention, they say it’s also very simple to make.




I have used David Lebovitz's recipe as a base, but of course made a few changes of my own. I have the cast iron skillet, which I love to use when I prepare eggs. But if you don’t have it, it’s not a big deal, use a regular skillet.

So, here it is:

1 medium onion.

5 cloves garlic.

1 poblano pepper or any other spicy pepper.

½ red bell pepper.

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.

1 teaspoon paprika.

1 teaspoon cumin.

1 teaspoon turmeric.

½ of 28-ounce cans of diced or crushed tomatoes/or 3 cups of fresh chopped tomatoes.

A handful of spinach.

½ cup of Feta or goat cheese.

5 eggs (for two people).

2tbsp of coconut oil (for frying).

3 tablespoon of tomato paste.

Directions:

Heat the coconut oil in the skillet. Add the chopped onions, in 3 minutes add garlic. In 1 minute add chopped spicy poblano and red bell pepper. Stir, make sure it is soft, and add spices.

Stir in spinach, tomato paste and canned tomatoes. Reduce the heat. Cook for about 7 more minutes.

Now, here is the problem I have faced: my canned tomatoes had too much juice in it. That’s not what I wanted. I had to add a sauce thickener to make sure I won’t end up with a tomato soup instead of Shakshuka. I personally think fresh tomatoes would work much better here. David Lebovitz recommends to cook the tomato sauce longer, to make sure, the sauce had thickened, it didn’t work in my case, I still had very watery skillet.

You are almost done with making this yummy dish! There are two ways of finishing the Shakshuka: in the stovetop or in the oven.

I prefer oven. So I pour eggs on the top of the tomato mixture (no, I didn’t make holes in my skillet for eggs, I failed in that), crushed goat cheese on the top of eggs, add a little extra black pepper and put it in the oven for 15-17 minutes (350ºF).

Enjoy!