The Good, the Bad, and the Irresistibly Delicious: Shakshuka

I recently took a trip to Israel and discovered Shakshuka. Shakshuka is originally from North Africa, but easily found in the middle east. Traditionally, it is a spicy egg and tomato stew served with bread. Although traditionally served for breakfast, this dish is also served as the main course or one of several smaller dinner courses.

I found this recipe online on the blog of David Lebovitz, who also first ate Shakshuka in Israel. Here is his original recipe.

This makes about 4-5 servings, and will take about an hour to prep and cook.

Ingredients:
2 T olive oil

1 M onion or 2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1 chili pepper, diced with seeds removed--adjust for desired spice level
1 t salt
1 t black pepper
1 t paprika
1 t caraway seeds, crushed
1 t cumin seeds, crushed, or 3/4 t ground
1/2 t turmeric
2 lb (1 kg) fresh tomatoes, diced (canned is okay)
2 T tomato paste
2 t honey
1 t red wine vinegar
1 c loosely packed greens (~ 1-2 leaves) I used kale, but swiss chard, spinach, radish greens, and watercress will work
4 oz (~1 c feta cheese)
4-6 eggs
Fresh bread or couscous for serving

A note on ingredients: This list includes a few adjustments I made while cooking or after tasting the final product. The original recipe called for 1 1/2 t salt, but I found this to be too salty. It is always better to use less salt when cooking and add more later. For the greens, I used more--probably closer to 2 cups--and it still came out fine. Because the dish was so salty, I used much less feta cheese, than the 4oz called for in the recipe.

First, prep all the veggies. Measure and mix the spices and crush the caraway and cumin seeds. Heat the olive oil in a pan on M/H, add the onion and garlic and cook ~5 minutes until soft. Add the chili pepper and spices. Stir constantly for 1 minute, then add the tomatoes, tomato paste, honey and vinegar.

Reduce heat to M/L and cook for 12-15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened, but is still somewhat thin. Stir in the greens. If you are not ready to eat, turn off the pan and set aside.

When you are ready to serve the shakshuka, place the pan over L heat and sprinkle in the cheese. Use a large spoon to make 4-6 indentations in the stew. Crack one egg into each spot, and gently drag the whites out into the rest of the stew. Do not disturb the yolks. Cover and cook 3-5 minutes, until the eggs are cooked as you like.

Serve immediately in a bowl with fresh bread or over couscous.

In addition to the changes noted above, I found this to be a bit too thick compared to the shakshuka I had in Israel. I underestimated how long it would take the eggs to cook, and much of the liquid was lost in this stage. Next time I will cook it for 10 minutes prior to adding the eggs, and maybe even add more fresh tomatoes to balance out the other ingredients.

Overall, this was still very tasty--and spicy too--and I look forward to sharing it with friends.