If you are not familiar with shakshuka, I am thrilled to introduce the concept to you! Shakshuka is a North African dish that is now popular throughout the Middle East. This easy and healthy egg dish is vegetarian, gluten free, and incredibly delicious. Shakshuka is one of the first recipes I ever blogged about, and has become one of the most popular posts on my site—a simple vegetarian meal that works as a breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner or “brinner.”
The shakshuka concept is very simple. A dish of eggs soft cooked atop a bed of thick reduced spicy tomato sauce with peppers. In the maghreb, this chunky sauce is known as matbucha. Similar preparations are made throughout the world, including a popular Italian dish known as “eggs in purgatory.” Shakshuka is somewhat different than the Italian dish; it’s generally spicier, and has the addition of peppers.
Shakshuka is very popular in Israel, where it is often eaten for breakfast. I usually find myself serving it with a side salad as a light evening meal. It’s a versatile vegetarian one-skillet meal that is easy to make, healthy, and addicting.
In Israel, the most famous place to eat shakshuka is a restaurant known as Dr. Shakshuka.
The charm of Dr. Shakshuka is evident from the moment you enter. The restaurant is housed in an aging building in the old port city of Jaffa. It’s buzzing all day long with local patrons as well as tourists, everybody eager to taste the “Tripolitanian”-style cooking. The owner Bino Gabso was born to a Libyan family that immigrated to Israel in 1949. He’s been serving shakshuka and other north-African favorites to enthusiastic restaurant patrons in Jaffa for the past 18 years.
Old kerosene stoves hang from the rafters of the place, just like the moms and bubbes cooked with when Israel first became a country.
Dr. Shakshuka is known for its Libyan-style home cooking. It’s a kosher meat restaurant with many traditional tripolitanian-style dishes including couscous, chraime fish, and kosher merguez sausage.
Of course, they are best known for– what else?– shakshuka. I couldn’t very well visit Dr. Shakshuka without ordering their signature dish. For a twist, I ordered it with mushrooms.
The waitress served my shakshuka in a small, sizzling skillet, as is the custom with most of the local Israeli restaurants. Delicious! After you’ve eaten the eggs, it’s customary to scoop up the remaining sauce with a piece of fluffy white bread. The bread at Dr. Shakshuka has a light, spongy consistency making it ideal for this purpose.
Of course, if you’re watching your waistline, gluten intolerant, or serving for Passover, you can leave out the bread; the dish is also wonderful on its own.
I can’t very well write a blog about shakshuka without sharing my own recipe! This is a basic, simple shakshuka spiced just the way I like it. If you’re looking for variations on flavor, different ingredients can be added to the tomato base—jalapeños, green chilies, parsley, red pepper flakes, smoked paprika, additional vegetables or anything else that sounds tasty to you. I’ve even made it with a spinach/tomato base that turned out great. Use your imagination!
Recommended Products:
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Video by Entice Films
Shakshuka
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 onion, peeled and diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 4 cups ripe diced tomatoes, or 2 cans (14 oz. each) diced tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon mild chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- Pinch of cayenne pepper, or more to taste (careful, it's spicy!)
- Pinch of sugar (optional, to taste - omit for low carb)
- kosher salt and pepper, to taste
- 6 large eggs
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley or cilantro (optional, for garnish)
NOTES
Instructions
- Heat a deep, large skillet or sauté pan on medium. Slowly warm olive oil in the pan. Add chopped onion, sauté for a few minutes until the onion begins to soften. Add garlic and continue to sauté till mixture is fragrant.
- Add the diced bell pepper, sauté for 5-7 minutes over medium until softened.
- Add tomatoes and tomato paste to pan, stir until blended. Add spices and sugar, stir, and allow mixture to simmer over medium heat for 5-7 minutes until it starts to reduce. At this point, you can taste the mixture and spice it according to your preferences. Add salt and pepper to taste, more sugar for a sweeter sauce, or more cayenne pepper for a spicier shakshuka (be careful with the cayenne... it is extremely spicy!).
- Crack the eggs, one at a time, directly over the tomato mixture, making sure to space them evenly over the sauce. I usually place 5 eggs around the outer edge and 1 in the center. The eggs will cook "over easy" style on top of the tomato sauce.
- Cover the pan with a lid. Allow mixture to simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the eggs are cooked and the sauce has slightly reduced. Keep an eye on the skillet to make sure that the sauce doesn't reduce too much, which can lead to burning.
- Some people prefer their shakshuka with more runny yolks. If this is your preference, let the sauce reduce for a few minutes before cracking the eggs on top-- then, cover the pan and cook the eggs to taste, making sure the egg whites are set before serving. Garnish with the chopped parsley or cilantro, if desired. A sprinkle of feta cheese on top is also nice!
Nutrition
I want to make this for a crowd….15 people. If I quadruple this, will it turn out okay? I’ve had bad luck doubling recipes in the past, and since i need to make so much, I want to make sure I do it alright!
It would be difficult to quadruple this on the stovetop. You might need to modify by cooking four batches of the sauce, then placing all four batches into a large roasting pan and cooking the eggs in the oven. Overall there shouldn’t be a problem quadrupling the sauce recipe, but keep an eye on the liquid content and if it seems overly watery, cook it down until the liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens.
Hmmm.
1) Buy a 28oz. jar of chunky garden combination tomato sauce and heat it up to low boil, adding seasonings
2) Crack eggs into it and simmer until eggs cooked to ‘over-easy’ state.
3) Serve
Seems much quicker and simpler.
Sautéing the veggies can add to the depth of flavors in a dish, especially when you cook the hardier of spices and herbs with them. Why skip a step that might make or break the recipe?
Hmmm, perhaps because this is an authentic recipe? Enjoy your simple version.
Absolutely delicious. We used our hen’s fresh eggs and the yolks were like bars of gold. I cooked the eggs in the sauce until they were just set which was perfect – not funny but not hard-cooked either. Left out the Peppers because my tummy won’t tolerate them. Also didn’t have cumin somfor spices I used: 1T sugar, 1tsp harissa seasoning, 1TBSP hot curry powder and 1tsp Moroccan curry powder that is heavy on the fenugreek. Salt and pepper of course. That’s what I had on hand and it was OUTRAGEOUSLY good. I served with a very high hydration, super crusty sourdough slathered thickly in butter. The richness of the buttered bread against the complex tomato stew made me drool it was so good. THe egg yolks cooked to this doneness were like little treasures. So good!
It was also super easy to make. Oh and i fried all the spices with the onions and garlic. I used avocado oil for higher heat to liberate the flavors of the spices.
Decadent Lola. You should be a food writer, if you aren’t one already! 🙂
my daughter tried it at her friends place and they had a can of baked beans in it! has anyone heard of that?
I am so excited to find this recipe. We just returned from Israel this past Sunday. It was amazing. The hotel we stayed at in tiberias served this and it was so good. They also made porridge and served a wonderful cinnamon spice blend with it. Now if I could only find the recipe for that.
Shakshuka is one of my all-time favorite dishes to make and your recipe brought me back to the many meals I had at Dr. Shakshuka. Instead of a side salad, I served it over a bed of spinach. The warm eggs wilted the spinach just enough. It was perfect!
So simple, and the most amazin things – it’s from ingredients that you usually have at home!
Super tasty, use it for breakfast or light dinner with a toast.
Great recipe! It looks just like a local dish we have in Ghana called Koobi stew but it has dry pickled fish in it plus the eggs. Lovely!
I made 1/2 recipe for breakfast this morning. It was so delicious my husband and I ate every bite! I added chopped spinach to the dish and garnished with sliced black olives.
This recipe is going in my recipe box.
Thank-You
How do you know when the eggs are done enough to be runny? Made it and it was excellent. Some of the eggs started to cook too much though.
Hi Nick, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. The easiest way to tell is by how opaque the yolk looks. The more solid/light yellow/opaque it appears, the more done it is. It’s really something that you will become easier to recognize the more you cook it.
If you gently press on the yolks you should be able to tell from how firm they are to the touch. It should be born to mind that they’ll continue to cook once served. My first egg was perfect but by the time I got to the next it was verging on hard.
I made your recipe and it was fantastic! I went today to Dr. Shakshuka in Jaffa and it was terrible! Not remotely close to your recipe. I’ll stick with yours and will find another doctor. I really enjoy your blog! Kol ha’kavod
I really want to try this it sonds like my kind of dish. but I live with my son and DIL and he is a real meat eater. So i am thinking of fixing bcon or sausage on the side for him. and maybe some hash browns??
There’s a local restaurant that crumbles merguez sausage right into the shakshuka, and it’s delicious!
I’d like to try this dish by starting with some ground lamb. I’ll probably use more garlic and throw in some allspice though. And parsley is NOT an option, but a necessity.
Mrs. Avey, you are the reason I got into cooking. I first made your shakshuka recipe when I was sixteen and was dating an Israeli. You inspired me to try and make different ethnic dishes, my favorite recipe of yours is for Israeli salad. I most recently made your Kobete. My parents and siblings loved it. I just wanted to thank you and to let you know that your work is appreciated.
That is so kind of you, Richard! So nice to hear from you. 🙂 Thank you for writing.
So true. I used to think that shakshuka is a middle eastern food (yemen, to be exact) but now I know it’s not. But anyways, I love shakshuka. My mom used to make it for me and my siblings in Yemen and we love, love, loved it. It was our favorite breakfast meal. But like you said, we sometimes ate it for lunch or dinner when we wanted something easy and delicious (other than pizza; ordering). Tori Avey, I just want to ask you: Are you from Israel?
Shakshuka is North African in origin, but it is popular throughout the Middle East. Dr. Shakshuka is a Libyan restaurant. I am not Israeli, but my husband is. I love Yemenite food!
SHAKSHUKA. Brilliant recipe, with many possible variations, all good. Why has it taken until I am 80 to discover this style of cooking.
Fortunately I am able to pass the recipe on to my children. I have been able to research the recipes by Claudia Roden and Ottolenghi on Mediterranean cooking, and have found them a complete revelation ! Better late in life than never!!
Absolutely better late than never! 🙂
Made this for lunch today and it was so good. I added portobello mushrooms to mine. Delicious!
I am from Yemen, and this is a dish my mother made for me and my brothers ( I was about 3 years old) and she would put cheese on top and season it with green onions. It was soooooo delicious. You should try it too @JW. ???????????mmmmmmmmmmmmmm……….mmm..mmm..
My husband surprised me with this one morning… It is super delicious! He cut down on the tomatoes and peppers, and served with pita bread. Wow! Delicious! I’m not usually a fan of green pepper, but this masked the flavor well. 🙂
So good! I came across this recipe looking for low carb healthy meals and wanting to try something other than the basic chicken breast. I added ground turkey for some added protein and to make more filling. Looking forward to making it again!
I have used this recipe on the regular for months now (so much so I have it memorized and don’t need the website anymore.) I just spent a ten day trip in Israel and actually went to Dr. Shakshuka! I knew it looked familiar but had never been to Israel before so couldn’t figure out where I recognized it from. So glad I realized it was your blog!
Love it Leah! I was just there myself again a month ago. 🙂
I heard about this dish yesterday morning and ended up using this recipe to make it for dinner. Absolutely delicious! I scaled it down for 1 person and served it with warm bread, steamed broccoli and red wine. I’ll definitely be adding this to my regular menu items.
Wow, really simple straight forward recipe. I enjoyed it thoroughly.