Easy Baked Shakshuka
Looking to spice things up for breakfast? Try these smokey tomato sauce poached eggs & crusty bread. A meal unlike any other.
Are you looking for some exciting ways to change up breakfast? Do you a half opened jar of tomato sauce chilling in your fridge or freezer? Shakshuka combines the beauty of a hearty tomato sauce & peppers with over-easy eggs and toast. Dip your way into heaven with this tomato poached egg dish that you can eat right out of the pan with whatever bread you have on-hand. This middle-eastern delicacy is simple, easy and only requires a few ingredients to pickup at the grocery store or farmer’s market.
I LOVE to dip my bread in tomato sauce. I’ve said this in my Tuna Mac recipe, but I used to drink my mom’s red sauce out of a dixie cup when I’d come home from school. My family and I are no stranger to sopping up her delicious red sauce with crusty Italian bread. This is the same concept, just with breakfast — and lots of crumbly FETA!
You start this recipe off with some form of fresh pepper and some form of tomato product. Use what you have available — canned tomatoes, jarred pasta sauce, tomato paste, etc. When it’s tomato season, use fresh tomatoes to add a light freshness to your breakfast. Speaking of freshness, this dish thrives off of fresh flavors in herbs, soft cheeses, and citrus. It can, like most recipes, be anything you imagine it to be.
Fresh bell peppers are the primary tang in this recipe. The sweetness from the bell pepper matches the sweetness in the tomato sauce and with a dash of ground cumin, a symphony of flavors. I very much relate these flavors to those found in Cacciatore sauce. It’s bright and lemony, with a deep richness from the tomato. If this is your first time, I assure you it won’t be your last.
I love recipes like this because how quick and mess-free they are. The last thing I want to do for breakfast is make a full blown recipe, so that’s why I made this one very straight-forward. Cook the peppers and garlic, cook the tomato and spices, bake with eggs, top with salty cheese. You can make this tomato stew the night before, freeze it, or do a very simple version with just tomato. I want to show you that eggs can be tasty, especially when you bake them in tomatoes.
Easy Baked Shakshuka
Diet: Gluten-Free Low-Fat Low-Calorie
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded & diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 5 Roma tomatoes, diced
- 1/4 cup water
- 5 eggs
- 1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- Crusty bread, for serving
Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 375° F.
- Using a cast iron pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil, diced red pepper, jalapeno, and garlic. Cook for 3 - 5 minutes or until the peppers soften and garlic starts to brown.
- Add diced tomatoes, cayenne, smoked paprika, and cumin to the pan and continue cooking for 8 - 10 minutes or until the tomatoes reduce to a jammy consistency.
- Turn the heat off, then make 4 - 5 little craters in the tomato sauce.
- Crack each egg into a bowl first, to preserve the yolk, then add one egg per crater. Season with salt and pepper.
- Place cast iron into the middle rack of the oven and bake for 5 - 6 minutes or until the eggs are opaque, but still runny.
- Garnish with feta cheese and fresh cilantro. Serve with crusty bread.