Are you someone that’s craving variety in what you eat? Or do you just want to eat something that tastes good? Whatever your culinary desires are, shakshuka is for you. It’s a North African breakfast item that can actually be eaten at any time of day. I find it incredibly underrated because it checks all the boxes when it comes to the perfect thing to eat, despite not being well recognized. Shakshuka is fun to say. It’s easy to make. It’s healthy. But most importantly, it’s delicious.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

4 Roma Tomatoes

1 Red Bell Pepper

1 Onion

3 Cloves of Garlic

Salt

Aleppo Pepper

Cumin Powder

Paprika

4 Eggs

Feta Cheese

Kalamata Olives

Parsley

• Wash all produce. Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Slice the red bell pepper into small strips. You can also dice the bell pepper if you want.
• Dice the tomatoes and set aside. You can also use canned diced tomatoes for this recipe, as canned tomatoes retain a bright red color. I like using canned fire-roasted tomatoes sometimes. You would just need to use an equivalent amount of diced tomatoes.
• Heat a large, flat pan with some olive oil. Toss in the onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Sautee these vegetables until the chopped onion is translucent. In other words, they should be a little soft, but not brown.
• At this point, add the diced tomatoes and cook for around 10 minutes. Cover your pan and occasionally give the vegetables a good stir.
• Add the salt, Aleppo pepper, cumin powder, and paprika. You need to add these spices according to your taste. In addition, if you can’t find Aleppo pepper, chili flakes to your taste would work too. Moreover, the paprika is optional. It mainly gives the dish a bright red color and some mild flavor.
• After the vegetables and spices are well mixed, evenly spread them on the pan. It should be a chunky sauce consistency. Sometimes I also like adding some salsa to the mixture, but this is optional. Make four dents in the mixture to place your eggs.
• In a bowl, crack each egg one at a time and then carefully place it in the dents we made in the vegetable mixture. Sometimes I crack the eggs directly into the mixture. Doing so is risky because you might accidentally get some eggshells in the pan.
• Therefore, at this point we have our tomato and spice mixture stewing along with 4 gently placed eggs on the surface. The eggs must retain their yolks and whites; don’t mix the eggs before adding them to the surface of the vegetable mixture.
• Cover the pan and wait for the eggs to cook. You should make sure the whites of the eggs are fully cooked. I personally like my yolks to be a little runny. However, you can cook your eggs for as long as you wish.
• Sprinkle some crumbled feta cheese, sliced kalamata olives, and chopped parsley on top of your shakshuka. The amount you sprinkle is up to you. You get more brownie points if you can garnish your dish well.

I can’t emphasize enough how much I love this dish. Shakshuka goes really well with some warm bread on the side. Pita bread with some olive oil smeared on top would be ideal. I really like to dunk pieces of bread in the sauce and love making sure I get a spoonful of all the vegetables and eggs when I eat it. I hope y’all give this recipe a try! It truly is “breakfast all day” food. Feel free to leave comments on the website about how your Shakshuka turned out!