Shakshuka with toast for dipping
Eggs gently cooked in a spiced tomato and pepper sauce, served right from the pan with toast for dipping.
- 40 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $3.10 a serving
- 600 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Most of the time here is hands-off, so you can sit down while it cooks.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- ½ yellow onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 4 large eggs
- 4 slices sourdough bread
- ¼ cup feta cheese, crumbled (optional)
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes (optional)
- ½ tsp salt, divided
- 1 pinch black pepper
Each serving has about 600 calories, 26 g protein, 66 g carbs and 26 g fat, and costs about $3.10 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No diced tomatoes? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No sourdough bread? French bread or white bread or whole wheat bread works.
- No feta cheese? Goat cheese works.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the onion and bell pepper and the garlic.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Heat the olive oil in a 10-inch that has a lid over medium heat. Add the onion and pepper and cook, stirring now and then, until soft, about 8 minutes.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heatTimer: 8 min
Dolly’s tip: No lid that fits? A sheet pan or a big plate on top works just as well.Stir in the garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, tomato paste and red pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute, .
Fragrant. Fragrant means cooking until you can clearly smell it, usually garlic or spices, often in about 30 seconds. That’s the moment the flavor is ready, just before it can burn.
How you’ll know: You can smell it from a step back, and garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Medium heat
Add the tomatoes and ¼ teaspoon salt and , stirring now and then, until thick enough that a spoon leaves a trail, 8 to 10 minutes.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Medium heatTimer: 9 min
Dolly’s tip: A thick sauce holds the eggs in place. If it’s still watery, give it a few more minutes.to low. Make 4 wells in the sauce with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each.
Reduce the heat. It means turning the burner down, usually to medium-low or low, so food cooks gently instead of hard. Electric burners cool slowly, so lift the pan off for a moment if it’s bubbling hard.
How you’ll know: Within a minute the bubbling calms to a gentle simmer, or the sizzle turns quiet.
Low heat
Dolly’s tip: Crack each egg into a small cup first, then slide it in. If a bit of shell falls in, it’s easy to fish out.Sprinkle the eggs with the rest of the salt and of pepper, cover, and cook until the whites are completely set and the yolks are starting to , 6 to 9 minutes.
Pinch. A pinch is what you can hold between your thumb and two fingers, less than an eighth of a teaspoon. It’s a small, forgiving amount, so there’s no need to measure.
How you’ll know: It’s a light sprinkle you can barely see on the food, not a little pile.
Thicken. Thickening means cooking a sauce or soup until it’s less runny, by simmering it down or adding something like cornstarch. A thicker sauce clings to food instead of pooling on the plate.
How you’ll know: It coats the back of a spoon, and a line drawn through it with your finger holds its shape.
Low heatTimer: 7 min
Dolly’s tip: Peek at 6 minutes. Done whites are solid white all the way to the yolk, with no clear or wobbly patches.Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
While the eggs cook, toast the bread.
Scatter the feta and parsley over the top and serve straight from the pan, with the toast for dipping.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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