Shakshuka

I love a savory breakfast with veggies, eggs, and cheese. Shakshuka is a perfect marriage of all those things with the flexibility to spice things up to your heart’s content.

Ingredients

• Cherry tomatoes (I used 2 pints fresh tomatoes, but you can also use canned diced)
• Red bell pepper
• Jalapeno
• Red onion
• Garlic
• Cumin
• Coriander
• Smoked paprika
• Ancho chile powder
• Salt and/or TJ’s mushroom umami powder for saltiness
• Goat cheese or feta
• Eggs
• Scallions for garnish

Prep your veggies

Start by chopping up your veg, onion, and garlic. You’re going to cook these bad boys until they get all saucy and jammy, so give them a head start with a chop.

Cook your veggie base

Once your fresh ingredients are all prepped, start by sautéing your onions in a good amount of extra virgin olive oil. Once they start to become translucent, add in your chopped garlic.

As you get all that caramelization going, add your chopped veggies to the pan. Sprinkle in your powdered spices and now cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally.

Keep cooking everything until it gets thick and jammy.

Add in the eggs

Once everything in your pan has reduced to a jammy state, reduce the temperature to low. Make little indents in your sauce (where you want to place your eggs) and slide your cracked eggs on top of the veg mixture— I put each egg in a small ramekin in order to slide them into my pan without breaking the yolks. The number of eggs you add depends on how hungry you are. For two of us, we did 5.

Cover your mixture with a lid until your eggs are cooked to your preferred doneness. I like my eggs to have cooked, opaque whites but soft, runny yolks. Once that happens, crumble in your cheese and sprinkle on your scallions.

Plating

Plate your shakshuka on its own or with some delicious bread. Pictured above is sliced buckwheat pave with homemade ghee. Add some extra cayenne or Kashmiri mirch to your shakshuka if you didn’t add enough of the peppery stuff during cooking!