Green Shakshuka

I didn’t have class until 10 AM today, so I had extra time in the morning and wanted to make something fun for breakfast, so I looked in my fridge for ideas. I had eggs and a lot of green vegetables, so I decided to try making my own version of a green shakshuka!

Shakshuka is a North African and Middle Eastern dish that is traditionally made of a tomato-based sauce with eggs poached on top. It is an Arabic term for “mixture”, so it has a lot of possibilities for ingredients to include! It can be eaten for any meal of the day, so it is a great “brunch-all-day” dish in my opinion.

The first time I ever heard of shakshuka was at Tatte my first year in Boston and I was very intrigued. I tried it and it was so tasty! The first kind I tried was the classic tomato-based shakshuka, and after I realized how much I love shakshuka, I tried many other types such as the lamb meatball shakshuka at Tatte and the Mediterranean shakshuka at Cafe Landwer. Click here to read more about Tatte, Cafe Landwer, and my favorite spots in Boston, and to see pictures of their shakshuka!

To make my shakshuka, I basically blended up all my veggies from my fridge to make the sauce, poured it into a skillet and added sauteed onions, tomatoes, and more asparagus and cracked eggs on top. I’m not sure if this technically a shakshuka because my base was not made with tomatoes, but since shakshuka means mixture, I think it can qualify!

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Ingredients

Sauce:

2 ½ cup spinach

⅓ cup mint

¼ cup cooked asparagus

¼ cup cooked green peas

About 1/4 cup plain yogurt

About 3 inches of a cucumber (I added this to thin out the sauce a bit)

1-2 tbsp olive oil

Salt, pepper, garlic, and basil to taste

Dash of turmeric (optional)

Add-ins:

Olive oil

About 1/4 cup onion, sliced

A few tomatoes, sliced in half

Salt, pepper, turmeric, and basil for seasoning

A few more stalks of cooked asparagus

2 eggs

Steps

1. Sautée onions in olive oil and spices until caramelized. Remove onions from the skillet, and add tomato halves flat side down into the remaining olive oil and spices, and cook until blistered. Remove from skillet and set aside.

2. Add sauce ingredients to a blender and blend until the majority of the spinach leaves are chopped up and you have an evenly mixed mixture that is relatively thick and slightly chunky.

3. Pour the sauce mixture into the skillet.

4. Add onions, tomatoes, and some more asparagus.

5. Cook at medium heat for a few minutes until the sauce starts to bubble, then crack an egg on top and cover.

6. Cook for about 4-5 minutes, until the whites of the egg are fully cooked. If you want your yolk completely cooked, leave it covered and on the heat for a few more minutes. I think runny yolks are part of the fun of shakshuka, so I prefer the egg to be poached, but it’s your shakshuka so cook your eggs however you like!

7. Let cool, sprinkle garlic, basil, and turmeric on top and enjoy!

tags: vegetarian, gluten free