Aristotle “The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts.
That is an understatement for this best easy shakshuka.. I have seen it for years on the internet and some very beautiful images on Instagram. I always thought to myself ….someday.
Well today is the day and the title of this post is exactly right because this was the only Shakshuka I ever made, so it was the best.
Wait!! Hold on!! The dish was great and I can’t find much to improve on. I looked at over ten recipes and used my years of experience and my mad chef skill to make a wonderful brunch. I served it with this spicy shrimp dish , a salad, and some pastries.
Shakshouka?
“Shakshouka is a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion and garlic, and commonly spiced with cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. The dish has existed in Mediterranean cultures for centuries”…. Wikipedia
That sounds about right. It wasn’t always with tomatoes and peppers. WHY? Because tomatoes and peppers came from the New World. You knew that, but think about it. Indian food (butter chicken, tomato chutney), Italian food, Greek food (largest per capita users), Middle Eastern food.
The recipe is quite easy and is so surprisingly good that this will definitely stay in my rotation, It was so easy that I remade the dish in under 15 minutes so I could try and get a better picture. Didn’t happen. Hey, I am trying.
The recipe below is a great super easy recipe. I went a little overboard by grinding my spices, and using fresh tomatoes. My neighbor was going on vacation so he gave me a box of Celebrity tomatoes that he didn’t want to throw away. Celebrity is my new favorite. Just an FYI. For Mexican food I don’t like fresh ground cumin, it is a little flowery but for all other cuisines I prefer it.
Once in the oven, cook it until the eggs are to the doneness you prefer. Garnish with any or all-parsley, cilantro, mint, feta, yogurt, avocado, hot sauce. Whatever you want. I used cilantro, parsley, feta and mint raita.
Here’s a great easy cinnamon bun recipe from a fellow blogger. When this covid mess is behind us and my catering company is back up and running this will be my go to.
My Favorite Shakshuka
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup onions chopped yellow or sweet
- 1/4 cup bell pepper chopped any type, I used orange becaue that is what I had
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander optional
- 1 tsp paprika smoked if you have it but not necessary
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 24 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- salt to taste
- 4 eggs
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400. In a small skillet saute onions, bell peppers, and garlic until soft
- add spices and temper
- add tomatoes and let simmer for a couple minutes
- taste for salt
- make 4 indentations for the eggs. I like to crake each egg in a bowl and slowly pour them into each indentation.
- bake until eggs are set or the doneness that you like
- garnish how you like, parsley, cilantro, mint, feta, hot sauce etc…
[…] This is a great brunch dish or potluck. Serve it wit this great recipe. […]