Are you tired of the same old breakfast routine? Spice things up and take your taste buds on an exotic adventure with my Easy Moroccan Shakshuka recipe! This sizzling dish packs some serious flavour, and will leave you craving more…
What Is Moroccan Shakshuka?
Shakshuka is a gorgeous Moroccan-style dish! Eggs poached in a rich spicy tomato sauce infused with spices. As soon as you think you have tasted it all, you get a kick from the chilli. This is one mouthwatering dish to add to your repertoire.
Shakshuka isn’t just about flavour; it’s also about versatility! You can enjoy it for breakfast, brunch, lunch or even dinner – there are no rules here! Pair it with some good hearty bread to mop up all those delicious juices.
Spices For Shakshuka
Now, I have tried making this Shakshuka recipe two different ways. For a super flavourful and spicy version, I use smoked paprika powder, cumin seeds and red chilli. I have also tried using just harissa as the spice base for the shakshuka sauce. I like both but how much harissa you use will depend on how spicy your particular brand is. All instructions are in the recipe card! Some people use ras el hanout, saffron, turmeric. That’s the great thing about this dish, you can really play around with it to get a rich spicy (or not so spicy) tomato and red pepper sauce that suits you, and what you have in the cupboard!
Equipment
- Measuring Spoons
- 26-inch frying pan
- Chef’s Knife
- Wooden Spoon
- Small Sieve
The Importance Of Fresh Eggs
When making this dish, it’s important to use as many fresh eggs as possible. As an egg ages, the white becomes more watery, which can ruin the dish’s overall look when you try to poach watery egg whites. If you are unsure your eggs are older, try the sieve trick. Crack the eggs individually into a sieve and let the excess watery white run away. You are left with an egg with a firm yolk and white, which will poach and sit well in the little pockets you create in the tomato sauce. Once you have sieved off any watery white, carefully decant the eggs into ramekins, ready to add individually to your sauce.
How To Make Shakshuka
Shakshuka is very simple to make and involves some simple steps to a super-delicious dish:
- Build the flavour base
This dish begins with onions, garlic and red peppers, softened in the pan to help develop the base of the dish. This is the starting point for a great shakshuka, simple yet super tasty.
- Spices
Once the vegetables have softened, you can then add your favourite spices. Gently cooking these out helps to release their flavours into the tomato sauce
- Tinned chopped tomatoes
This brings together all the spices and gives you something to poach the eggs in. Tinned tomatoes vary greatly and I always try to get a good tin so they are not acidic and give as much sweet tomato flavour as possible. If using cheaper tinned tomatoes, you will probably need to add a little sugar to take the acidity away.
- Add eggs and simmer gently
Once all the ingredients are added, you can make small craters in the sauce to add the eggs into for poaching. Simmering on a gentle heat lets the eggs cook gently so you can have lovely runny yolks.
- Cover the pan
Covering the pan once you have added your eggs into the sauce helps the eggs to cook all over and not get overdone on the underside (yep, speaking from experience!)
Watch How Easy It Is To Make Shakshuka
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Moroccan Shakshuka
Equipment
- 1 sieve
- 1 26 inch frying pan
- 1 chefs knife
- 1 wooden spoon
- 4 ramekins
- 1 set of measuring spoons
Ingredients
- 400 g tin of tomatoes
- 1 small onion
- 1-2 tsp harissa paste (sub 2 tsp smoked paprika and 1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds)
- ¼ tsp dried chili flakes
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 red pepper
- small Handful chopped coriander
- small Handful chopped parsley
- 4 large eggs (preferably free-range)
Instructions
- Chop onions, red pepper and garlic
- Gently sauté onions and peppers for around 5 mins to soften over medium heat, then add garlic and chilli
- Cook for a minute then add the spices and cook spices out for a couple of minutes before adding the tin of tomatoes
- Stir and simmer gently for a few minutes
- Makes holes for eggs to poach in the tomato sauce. Add each egg to a sieve if necessary to drain away any watery egg white before adding to each hole, then cover the pan with a lid or plate and cook for between 5-8 minutes for runny egg yolks or until eggs are done to your liking
- Season the eggs with salt and pepper and garnish with fresh parsley and coriander then serve
Notes
- To help keep the yolks runny, spoon some of the tomato sauce over the egg whites before covering the pan with a plate. This will help cook the whites quickly and make it easier to get runny yolks.
- Keep the heat on low when you add the eggs, once you cover the pan with a plate, you are cooking the eggs from below with the gas and steaming them from above, overdone eggs can happen very quickly!
