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Shakshuka
One of the best things that I ate on my recent trip to Israel was shakshuka, a one-skillet dish of eggs poached in a smoky, spicy, vegetable-laden tomato sauce. The dish was brought to Israel by Jewish immigrants from North Africa, and it can be served for breakfast, dinner, or anytime in between. It’s also just fun to say: shakshuka! Variations of the dish with different vegetables, cheese and even sausage abound — one popular version called green shakshuka replaces the tomato sauce with a rich spinach and cream sauce loaded with green vegetables. My version is traditional, with a few small twists. I add a splash of heavy cream to marry the acidity of the tomatoes with the richness of the eggs, and I sprinkle crumbled feta on top. Shakshuka is traditionally made in a cast iron pan (though any stainless steel or nonstick pan will work) and served straight from the pan at the table so everyone can dig in and help themselves. A good bread is a must to mop up the sauce.
Begin by chopping the onions, peppers and garlic. Be sure not to chop the garlic too finely or it will burn.
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic and bell pepper.
Cook, uncovered, for about 8 minutes, until softened.
Add the smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, 1-1/4 teaspoons of the salt, sugar, and tomatoes.
Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce is slightly thickened.
While the sauce cooks, chop the greens.
Add the chopped greens and heavy cream to the sauce, and continue cooking, uncovered, until the greens are soft and wilted, about 10 minutes more.
Turn off (or remove the pan from) the heat. Then, using a spoon, make 6 wells/indentations in the sauce.
Carefully crack an egg into each well, then spoon a bit of the sauce over the egg whites (this will contain them and also help them cook a bit faster than the yolks), being careful not to disturb the yolks. Sprinkle the eggs with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. And then sprinkle the feta around the eggs.
Set the pan on the stove over low heat and cover with a lid. Cook for 5-7 minutes, until the egg whites are mostly set but still translucent on top. Transfer the pan to the oven and broil until the eggs are cooked to your liking, 1 minute or less for runny yolks. Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the cilantro over top.
Serve hot with bread and enjoy!
Shakshuka
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 small yellow onions (or 1 medium), peeled and diced
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 bell pepper (red, orange or yellow), diced
- 3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes, with juices
- 2 cups finely chopped greens, such as Swiss chard, kale, or spinach, tough ribs removed, gently packed
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
- 6 eggs
- Handful chopped cilantro
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic and bell pepper and cook, uncovered, for about 8 minutes, until softened. Do not brown; reduce the heat if necessary.
- Add the smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, 1-1/4 teaspoons of the salt, sugar, and tomatoes. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until the sauce is slightly thickened.
- Add the chopped greens and heavy cream to the sauce, and continue cooking, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the greens are soft and wilted, about 10 minutes more. While the greens are cooking, set an oven rack in the top position and preheat the broiler.
- Turn off (or remove the pan from) the heat. Using a spoon, make 6 wells/indentations in the sauce. Carefully crack an egg into each well, then spoon a bit of the sauce over each of the egg whites (this will contain them and also help them cook a bit faster than the yolks), being careful not to disturb the yolks. Sprinkle the eggs with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, then sprinkle the feta around the eggs. Set the pan on the stove over low heat and cover with a lid. Cook for 5-7 minutes, until the egg whites are mostly set but still translucent on top (check frequently towards the end as cook time can vary). Remove the lid, transfer the pan to the oven, and broil until the eggs are cooked to your liking, 1 minute or less for runny yolks (see note below on cooking eggs further). Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle the cilantro over top. Serve hot with bread.
- Note: You can cook the dish entirely on the stovetop for just a few minutes longer (without using the broiler) if you like your egg yolks cooked through. If you like your eggs runny, however, I find that the stovetop-to-broiler method is the only surefire way to cook the egg whites thoroughly without overcooking the yolks.
- Make Ahead: The tomato sauce can be made up to 2 days ahead of time and refrigerated, or frozen for up to 2 months. Reheat the sauce on the stovetop and proceed with the recipe when ready to serve.
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (6 servings)
- Calories: 254
- Fat: 20 g
- Saturated fat: 9 g
- Carbohydrates: 12 g
- Sugar: 7 g
- Fiber: 4 g
- Protein: 10 g
- Sodium: 636 mg
- Cholesterol: 200 mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Reviews & Comments
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I would like to reduce calorie/fat what do you recommend substituting the heavy cream with?
Hi Kim, You can use half and half or just leave it out – will still be delish. 🙂
Just made this for dinner tonight. Fabulous. Followed directions as written and served with garlic toast. Everyone loved it. Thanks Jen!
Hi jen! I have eaten shakshuka in a similar tomato sauce but which also has lentils. Can you please advise which lentils I could use and when they can be added in? Thanks in advance. Vanita
Sounds like an interesting addition – I’d suggest brown or green lentils here.
Shakshuka is a genius simple dish. You mention that that Shakshuka was brought to Israel by migrants from North Africa. I’d like to note that my family in Palestine has been making this dish for generations long before there was ever a country called Israel and before immigration of North African Jews. It has always been a part of the Palestinian harvest season where they would cook it in a skillet over woodfire in their farms. Thanks.
I have made this several times to the raves of hubby and the in-laws. My only changes are to cook in the cilantro and blend the mixture before adding eggs. (Hubby likes more of a sauce than chunky version.) This meal is perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner and healthy. Can I challenge you, Jenn, for a “green” version? “Spring Shakshuka” is popping up at restaurants and I would love a tested recipe. 😉
I’m on it, Jane – I LOVE green shakshuka!
Recipe sounds great but I don’t eat any type of bell peppers. Any suggestions for replacements? Maybe sun dried tomatoes? Onions?
Hi Judi, Eggplant or carrots would be good here, and so would sun-dried tomatoes. You really can’t go wrong!
This was delicious and my husband loved it too. It reminded me of a greek saganaki dish. Great, substantial choice when I did not have any meat and was not sure what to make for dinner. My heavy cream had gone off so I used some cream cheese and low fat milk in place which worked fine. Used fresh spinach as the greens.
Wow, this was amazing! It will for sure be in heavy rotation as an easy and comforting weeknight meal at my house. It felt like a more substantial, next level tomato soup. Great flavor. I had never heard of shakshuka before this, so happy you posted this recipe, Jenn!
My only issue is that I do not have a skillet with a lid, and so I used my dutch oven instead and completed it on the stovetop. I would have loved to use the broiler method for runny egg yolks.
My daughter and I had shakshuka for the first time in a little breakfast place in Alexandria, VA. I was so excited to see this recipe on your blog! We made this for the family on Sunday night for dinner. It was easy to follow and AMAZING! We used fresh spinach in our recipe. More than 2 cups- we love spinach. We also used crushed tomatoes instead of diced. We will definitely make this again! Can’t wait for your cookbook! Hope you will be doing a book tour!
Loved it. Better than the one I get at Tatte. Over cooked my eggs though 🙁
Just made this. The only change we made was to use half and half in place of cream. You are definitely right about making sure to have bread with it. Absolutely delicious!!
This is a great dish. Its easy to make and the sauce is very flavorful. I used chopped kale and cooked the eggs on the longer side. May try goat cheese next time. Works really well as leftovers to warm up on busy work mornings.
Amazing recipe, as usual. I could eat this once a week for the rest of my life and be a happy woman. I don’t know how I stumbled on your site years ago but I’m so grateful I did. If the meal we’re eating is really good my hubby knows it I got the recipe from you. Thank you!!!
My 15 year old daughter woke up this morning and asked me what she can have for breakfast. I said to her, “I’m making Shakshuka!” She was bewildered! I’m always looking for ways to add vegetables to breakfast entrees. It turned out delicious and my daughter is not a big fan of eggs but she ate it up. I didn’t have tomatoes so I used Rao’s spaghetti sauce. I like to cook the spices in the vegetables until fragrant before adding the tomatoe sauce. I put the sauce in single serving baking dishes and poached the eggs separately.
Made this today for the first time and it was delicious. Ate it with fresh home-made bread. My pan must be smaller than yours, as it was full to the brim. The eggs got a little bit lost in there, and because of that I overcooked the yolks, but it was still delicious. I will make it again and hopefully will get runny yolks next time around. Thank you for another wonderful recipe.
I’m looking forward to making this for brunch this weekend, but I had a hard time finding ground coriander. What would be a good substitute for this dish — more fresh cilantro or ground cumin? Dry cilantro? Something else? Thank you!
Hi Flo, I would just leave out the ground coriander. It will still be delicious. Hope you enjoy!
Thanks so much, Jenn. Eight eggs were perfect and it was a success — I was sopping up the last drops of sauce at the bottom of the pan! 😋 (And we ended the meal with your super delicious Irish Cream tiramisu!)
I made this today. It was delicious. I was skeptical. The vegetables (tomato taste) remind me of ratatouille from south of france.
Jen, your recipe for shakshuka was absolutely delicious. I made it for myself and a friend for lunch one day and she just raved about it. The only change I made, since I didn’t have cilantro on hand, was to substitute Italian flat leaf parsley. I then served it with a warm whole grain baguette. Thanks again for your wonderful recipes.
Love this dish! I made it with spinach and added some basil for extra flavoring, and omitted the heavy cream because I didn’t have any on hand. Super simple and so yummy, especially on a cold day!
Great brunch dish on a cold day- we all loved it. I used spinach & only about 1/4 cup of the cream. Delicious!
Jenn I’ve always noticed a funny metallic taste whenever I use my cast iron cookware to cook an acidic dish. It could be that my pan is not seasoned enough? Anyway, could I use my stainless steel pan to make this? With the high moisture content would it stick?
Hi Gary, Yes, I’m guessing your pan is not seasoned enough – a well-seasoned cast iron pan should be able to handle acidic foods. But no need to risk it – stainless steel will work just as well.
One pot wonderful!
Wonderful flavors! This recipe is definitely a keeper. We ate it with French bread and I think I could have ate the whole pan by myself.
We love this. I am lactose, so could not add the cream. Did not miss this one bit. We followed the other instructions, but since we are only 2, we had left overs. The next night I added another bag of baby spinach and more eggs on top. It was fantastic.
Try this one!!
We tried this about a month ago, and my husband and I both loved it!! We’ve had to be intentional not to make it weekly, just so our kids don’t hate us for not having any variation in menu. Thanks for this amazing dish!
Shakshuka was great!! My daughter is a vegetarian so we tried it as a family meal made it with sausage on the side and bread.
Everyone loved it we will make it again it is very easy to make.
This is a fantastic recipe. I love the veges and adding the eggs for protein topped it off. The second time I made this, I added some sautéed breakfast sausage and it amped it up just a bit. Love your recipes and the variety you offer.
I’ve made Shakshuka 3 times. So delicious! This is VERY easy to make, too! The ingredients are things I typically have on had, so this is a super easy weeknight meal. The 1st time, I followed the recipe exactly, the next 2 times I changed one thing: I just put a lid on the skillet and finished the eggs on top of the stove. This saved me heating up the oven. Kitchen not so hot, and a little quicker for me. The stovetop method worked just fine and I di not find the egg yolks got hard, that is, I kept an eye on them and they seemed nice and “over easy” consistency. Great recipe!
OK Jenn, you took me way out of my comfort zone trying something I never heard of before. But I have come to trust you and your recipes completely so I tried it. Let’s just say this dinner made me and my family extremely happy.
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This was great! Loved the flavors and it was surprisingly easy to make. We added crumbled sweet Italian sausage and used goat cheese instead of the feta. Not sure why but my sauce turned out very thick, so the bread was nice to have but couldn’t really use it to sop up any sauce. While this was still amazing, I am hoping for a little more sauce-like consistency for next time — any suggestions on how to do that?
Glad you liked it, Kathryn! You could add a bit of chicken stock to the pan to make it a little more liquidy/saucy.
Where I live in Central America it’s very difficult to find greens…I hunted for spinach yesterday but was unsuccessful. Do u think cabbage would work instead? I know the flavor is kind of strong but I really want to try this!
Hi Grace, I probably wouldn’t use cabbage but it’s perfectly fine to omit the greens (or you could always use frozen, if that’s available).
This was very yummy, the flavor was delicious. There are only 2 of us so I only made 4 eggs. I was going to freeze the extra sauce but when my husband saw me taking chicken cutlets out of the freezer he asked if I could make them smothered “in the sauce from the other night.” It was very good that way as well.
We just finished dinner and this was amazing!!!! I love so many of your recipes. The only change I made was using fire roasted diced tomatoes with garlic because that was all I had on hand. We served it with naan bread and it was amazing. We will definitely have this again.
Like Jenny, I was skeptical as I was putting all the ingredients together. I even told my husband I wasn’t sure we’d like it, however, it all comes together amazingly! It is absolutely delicious!
Thank you Jenn for another winning recipe!
We are trying to eat more veggies and less meat so this was a perfect start for us. The flavor is great and I love that I can make the tomato sauce ahead of time. I didn’t have smoked paprika so I used regular, but I think I will use smoked next time. We like firm yolks so left the pan on the stove top for about 12 minutes until they were just firm. I served it was crusty multigrain bread to sop up the extra sauce. My 2 year old son who has suddenly become picky finished his bowl and asked for more!
Simply amazing! Made this for dinner tonight for our 5 children ages 9-20 and they all loved it. They were skeptical watching all the ingredients go in but the flavors are just perfect. We served it with a huge platter of pita bread and your feta dip. I have made several of your recipes and they are always a huge hit with the family. Our 20 year old is leaving on Sunday for Israel and the timing is perfect for all your new recipes. Can’t wait to try more! Thank you!
FABULOUS! Made this for dinner the other night and my family is STILL talking about it! I did manage to squeeze in an additional egg in the pan as we are soft yolk lovers 😉 Thanks Jenn!!
Wondering if you think 8 eggs would be too much? We are big egg eaters! 🙂
You should be able to squeeze another one in, Flo. Enjoy!
Amazing as always! Only thing I changed was fat free ricotta for the heavy whipping cream. So delicious! Thanks as always…you’re my go-to!
Wow! This was so so so good and easy! Thank you for the delicious recipe!!!!
I had no idea that the dish was brought to Israel by north american immigrants! That is such a neat twist! I sound like a giant nerd! But I LOVE the background behind how certain cuisines came to be. And Shakshuka is indeed one of our favorite foods!
LOVED this recipe!
Eating it right now. It is so good and very easy to make. These are not spices I normally use, other than the red pepper flakes, so I was worried I would not like it just by the smell of it cooking. But this is by far one of the best things I’ve eaten in a long time.
So delicious!!! The second time making it I used half of the red pepper flakes, as it had an bit of a kick the first time. I also used fresh parsley instead of cilantro. I made the sauce and then portioned out single servings to make with the eggs. My new favorite meal!!! Thank you so much!
Ok Jenn!!! One of your best. Delicious!! Healthy!!! Perfect!!! My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this recipe. Just perfect. Thank you for sharing this.
Absolutely delicious!!! We used Glen Ellen roasted tomatoes and fresh chard from our garden. So flavorful. We believe meat would detract from the melded flavors. Serves 2-3 for a full dinner with sopping bread of course. So glad you went to Isreal!
We made this tonight for dinner. It was delicious beyond belief. Thanks for a wonderful recipe.
Hello Jenn, I would love to try this but the cream puts me off. Is it necessary or would a non dairy milk be acceptable?
You can leave it out, Susan – just drizzle some olive oil over top before serving.
Looks yummy.
Can I reduce to make for one or two. Or,’can I follow recipe and refrigerate ?
There’s a Jewish market in my town that sells the Persian bread sanjak
Hi Ellen, You can easily cut the recipe in half – or make the full quantity of sauce and freeze half for another time.
Looks amazing! What other cheeses might you recommend if we don’t particularly like feta?
Hi Kathryn, I think goat cheese would be a good choice, but you could also try something a little milder and gooey-er, like cheddar or Monterey Jack.