Prep:
15 minutes
Cook:
20 minutes
Makes:
4 portions
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small cooking onion, chopped
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1 small sweet potato, diced
- 1 chipotle in adobo, chopped
- 1 cup canned diced tomatoes
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup quick cooking oats
- 2 cups spinach or other cooking greens, chopped
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp salt, to taste (varies with salt content of canned tomatoes)
- ½ tsp black pepper
Garnish
- ½ avocado, sliced
- 4 stems cilantro, chopped
- ½ cup feta cheese, crumbled
Method
- Preheat oven to 175 C.
- Heat oil in large skillet/cast iron pan over medium-high heat. Add onions, peppers, sweet potato and half of the salt and pepper amount. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often to prevent sticking to bottom of the pan. Cover with lid, stir occasionally. Cook another 3-5 minutes until sweet potato is al dente.
- Add tomatoes, oats, water, chipotle pepper, remaining salt and pepper and cook for 1-2 more minutes, stirring constantly, until mix is thick enough to part and make room for eggs. Mix in the spinach.
- Break an egg in separate cup, part the oatmeal and nest egg inside the oatmeal mix. Repeat with remaining eggs.
- Place pan in pre-heated oven for 5-10 minutes until egg whites are opaque. Watch closely so that eggs do not overcook. Once removed from oven, eggs will continue cooking from residual heat of oatmeal.
- Serve directly from pan garnished with avocado slices, cheese and cilantro.
Tips and variations
You can use various garnishes to give this dish a different twist: smoked cheddar- parsley or sesame seeds- bonito flakes- green onion, dill-ricotta-olives, arugula-mozzarella-fresh chili slices.
The chipotle in adobo brings smokiness and enough heat to complement the sweetness of the vegetables, but if you don’t have any, you can substitute with 1 tsp smoked paprika, hot or sweet, or a combination of both.
For carnivores, you can add chorizo slices when cooking the veggies.
The eggs will continue cooking in the hot pan even after removed from the oven so if your guests or family are running late you can portion the shakshuka on plates to keep the yolks runny.
You can freeze the leftover canned tomatoes (portioned one cup at a time) and use next time you make shakshuka.
