When it comes to food and cooking, it doesn’t take much to make me happy. But I particularly love brunch. And trying new cuisines. So when I came across a recipe for shakshuka in Jerusalem: A Cookbook, I had to give it a try.

What is shakshuka?

A spicy sauce made with harissa with soft cooked eggs? Yes please! They also had me hooked in the description when they say, “Serve with good white bread and nothing else.” So I promptly drove to the store to gather the necessary ingredients to embark on my brunch experience.

shakshuka

Your ingredients

Step by step shakshuka recipe:

1. Mince the garlic, and dice the red bell peppers. While you’re dicing, heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.

Dice your peppers and garlic for shakshuka

Dice your peppers and garlic

2. Add garlic, bell peppers, harissa, tomato paste, cumin, and salt. Stir and cook for about 8 minutes to let peppers soften.

shakshuka

Add to your pan

3. Next, add the tomatoes, and bring to a simmer, cooking for another 10 minutes. Add more seasoning if desired. I like it spicy, so I ended up adding more harissa.

Simmer the shakshuka

Simmer

 

4. Next, make dips in the sauce and crack an egg into each dip. (Now at this point, I used a smaller pan and only used about ¼ of the sauce, and cracked only 2 eggs, as I was cooking for only one person. I saved the remaining sauce to be used for something else!)

Add the eggs

Add the eggs

5. Continue to simmer for 8-10 minutes until the egg whites are set, but the yolks are runny. (Oops, I got distracted and overcooked the eggs!)

Let them cook, but not too much!

Let them cook, but not too much!

6. Spoon onto a plate, and serve with warm bread!

shakshuka

Serve with warm bread!

 

When trying new cuisines, it can be difficult to find all the necessary ingredients! If you can’t find it in the international aisle at the grocery store, you may need to try a specialty store, or go online and look for alternatives that can be used instead!

 

Have you ever tried shakshuka?

What did you think?

An award winning recipe developer, Dietitian Kaitlin’s mission is to empower others to reach their health goals by encouraging them to get back into the kitchen. Co-author of Nourished: 10 Ingredients to Happy, Healthy Eating and Cooking with Diabetes.