I recently attended Gefiltefest, where a highlight of my day was watching Itamar Srulovich of Honey & Co cooking up a delicious shakshuka. As a result, I’ve been craving shakshuka pretty much every day since! Fortunately, a dish of spicy, saucy vegetables and eggs is entirely compliant with my current Whole30 diet – hurrah! And furthermore, yum!
Itamar used 15 cloves of garlic in his shakshuka, saying, “It sounds like a lot of garlic….. and it is!” Who am I to argue with an expert? In went 15 cloves of garlic 😀
However, after that, our paths diverged. Itamar’s was a simple sauce of garlic, spices, tomato puree and water, while I decided to make mine more substantial by the addition of a couple of aubergines (eggplants) and tinned tomatoes rather than puree. I did use a generous hand with the spices though. The end result was fabulously delicious.
I’m off grains (Whole30, sigh) but Kipper dipped a pitta bread into the rich, spicy sauce, and DH scooped his into a tortilla, wrapped it up and ate it that way. I’m not sure what he was saying through mouthfuls of delicious shakshuka, but it sounded appreciative, and it certainly disappeared very quickly!
Kipper polished hers off too – aubergines and eggs are among her favourite foods, so I’m not surprised she enjoyed it. I’d toned down the heat for her benefit, which DH complained about – you can’t please all of the people etc. – so adjust the cayenne to your liking if you prefer it hotter.
I scattered what I thought was a generous handful of chopped Greek basil over the top, although in retrospect it could happily have handled more. Use plenty, and maybe throw a little parsley on there too.
The whole dish was extremely tasty, and the eggs add plenty of protein and make it a very satisfying and filling meal. Add a salad and follow with some fruit for a healthy and delicious dinner.
I should just point out that while we ate this for dinner, in Israel shakshuka is more commonly served for breakfast or brunch. Feel free to eat it at any time of day.
We scoffed the lot! This serves 2-4.
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- 2 small/medium aubergines (eggplant)
- 6-7 tbsp olive oil
- 15 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1.5 tsp cinnamon
- pinch cayenne pepper
- 400g tin peeled tomatoes
- 4 eggs
- Generous handful of Greek basil leaves, torn basil leaves, or chopped parsley
- Pita or crusty bread, to serve
- Cut the aubergines into 1cm dice. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan or skillet and saute the aubergine pieces for a few minutes until the soften and begin to colour.
- Peel and crush the garlic and add to the aubergines with the cumin, paprika cinnamon and cayenne. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes until the spices are toasted and fragrant.
- Add the tinned tomatoes, stir well, and break up the tomatoes with a spoon. If the sauce seems very thick, add a splash of water to thin down slightly.
- Cook the sauce for around 15 minutes until the tomatoes are cooked and the sauce has darkened. Make four indentations in the sauce with the back of a spoon, and crack an egg into each one.
- Cover the pan and continue to cook for another 4-6 minutes until the egg whites are cooked - the yolks should still be soft.
- Scatter over the basil/parsley and serve at once with bread to soak up the sauce.
Other shakshuka recipes you might enjoy include:
My recipe for Shakshuka: eggs poached in pepper & tomato sauce.
Braised eggs (shakshuka) from Ceri at Natural Kitchen Adventures.
Shakshuka with chickpeas (not Whole30 compliant) from Sus at Rough Measures.
Chokshuka – chocolate shakshuka with goats cheese (not Whole30 compliant) from Choclette at Tin and Thyme.
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Thanks for this – I will be making this as soon as our veg dodger is out for the evening!
LOL! I hope you enjoy it.
Made this for supper last night and found it to be both a surprisingly filling and highly nutritious meal!
LOVED! I actually added some tomato paste cause I thought my DH would want it but…. not so necessary! Passed the link on to all I thought would enjoy!
I did not use 15 cloves i used about 8 cloves and garlic powder…
Thanks for a great recipe!
Thanks Dee! So happy to hear you enjoyed it 😀
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I just made it and it was delicious, especially with the aubergines, but I only used 12 garlic cloves as 15 seemed too excessive, but will definitely up the garlic next time!!
Even better it is Slimming World friendly and was polished off between two of us!
Thanks Helen – really happy to hear you enjoyed it ?
Delicious. I just made it and ate it for brunch. Many thanks.
Wow this looks really interesting 🙂 I’m looking for some good egg recipes 🙂
Thanks Natalie. I love eggs and this is a delicious way to eat them! You might also like this crustless quiche or these omelette muffin bites. 😀
Love the use of aubergines in this, and all the garlic!!
Thanks! Anything with plenty of aubergines and garlic is bound to be a big hit here!
So many garlic cloves!!! This looks amazing though and I’m a massive fan of runny egg yolks, it’s the only way to eat them.
Thanks Jemma. When the runny yolks mix with the spicy sauce…. Mmmmmmmm.
I’m making this for breakfast tomorrow, it looks scrumptious. 🙂
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it 🙂
Ooh I do love shakshouka and although aubergines aren’t my favourite things, I’d happily tuck into this. Next time I make it, I shall definitely up my garlic addition.
Thanks Choclette. I think more garlic can only be a good thing 🙂
Love the addition of chickpeas here!
Do you mean aubergines?!
Wow 15 cloves of garlic, that’s one dish to keep the vampires away! ha. Love the idea of adding aubergines to this dish – yum!
It was actually not overpoweringly garlicky (to DH’s disappointment, I think!).