Shakshuka is a traditional and vibrant Israeli breakfast dish (with Jewish-Tunisian origins) consisting of eggs poached into a rich tomato and pepper sauce. It’s typically made with onions and is heavily spiced with cayenne, cumin, and sweet paprika. And the best thing about it? Not only is it the king of all breakfasts, it’s easy to make and baked in just one single skillet!
This Spicy Shakshuka with Rose Harissa is a vibrant and traditional Israeli breakfast dish of eggs poached into a heavily spiced, rich tomato sauce, all baked into a single skillet.
Because there are quite literally billions of Shakshuka recipes flying around the internet (and because I’m 1/4 Israeli), I decided to give mine a little upgrade with the addition of caraway seeds, fresh mint, and coconut yogurt. Some people only use onion in their recipes, others just garlic, but I like it with both. I’ve also added lemon juice into the equation as I’ve used tinned tomatoes and let’s face it – they are always a little lifeless.
Traditional Shakshuka often or not uses pilpelchuma (also spelled as filfel chuma or pilpelshuma), a hot sauce made with ancho chillies, cayenne pepper, sweet paprika, cumin, caraway, salt, and garlic. I decided to replace it with rose harissa paste and take it to a whole new level. Rose harissa is an aromatic and complex spice paste of red peppers, paprika, garlic, salt, mixed spices, and rose petals often or not used in Middle Eastern and North African cuisine. It compliments Shakshuka so beautifully too.
Although it’s usually served with a nice white bread or pitta you could also use my Paleo Granary Loaf or simply some sweet potato fries. This recipe is very simple to make – all you need is a 10″ cast iron skillet (I used the skillet from this Dutch oven combo I got from Eddingtons), you do a little cooking on the hob, before transferring it into the oven to bake the eggs. If you use a food processor you’ll have minimal chopping to do and you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy the spiced aroma wafting around your kitchen.
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp caraway seeds
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium white onion (finely chopped or minced)
- 4 cloves garlic (finely chopped or minced)
- 2 tbsp rose harissa ( preferably extra hot)
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- Dash cayenne pepper
- Pinch of fine Himalayan pink salt (if coarse grind)
- 1 large yellow pepper (sliced or diced)
- 800g tinned tomatoes (2 tins)
- 10 cherry tomatoes (halved)
- Juice half lemon
- 6 free-range eggs
- ¼ cup fresh flat leaf parsley (roughly chopped)
- ¼ cup fresh mint (roughly chopped)
- 8 tbsp coconut yogurt
- Firstly pre-heat your oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5.
- In your cast iron skillet, dry-roast your cumin and caraway seeds for two minutes. Add your olive oil and sauté your minced onions and garlic for a further two minutes. Now add your rose harissa paste, coconut sugar, tomato paste, sweet paprika, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, and salt. Stir until the ingredients have fully combined before adding your sliced yellow peppers. Cook for two minutes and then add your tinned tomatoes and halved cherry tomatoes. Cook on a low heat for 15 minutes until the tomatoes have thickened. Add your lemon juice and stir thoroughly.
- Next, make 6 indentations into your tomato sauce and gently crack your eggs into the indentations, over the tomatoes, one-by-one. Using a fork swirl the edges of the egg whites around being careful not to break the yolks. Season with salt and pepper if you wish and transfer your skillet into the oven. Bake until the eggs are just set (about 7 to 10 minutes). If like me you aren't a runny egg fan bake for a further 5 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle over your roughly chopped fresh flat leaf parsley and mint. Serve with 4 tbsp of coconut yogurt per person.
2 Comments
beckyd16
24th May 2016 at 7:32 pmMade it on Sunday. Couldn’t get ahold of the rose harissa fast enough but the dish came out great with some I had on hand. Would love to try the rose next time though!
greensofthestoneage
26th May 2016 at 9:42 amHey Becky,
Thank you so much for stopping by and letting me know how it went! So glad that you enjoyed the dish. Although rose harissa is delicious, standard harissa works just as well too.
Georgie x