Shakshuka or Baked Eggs by Chef Amy
When working from the pantry at home it’s great to understand substitutions. If you don’t have a red onion just use a yellow one. If you don’t have fresh garlic just throw in ½ tsp of garlic powder. No red peppers? That’s fine let’s chop up some carrots small and sauté them slightly longer. No paprika? Sniff around your spice cupboard and try something else, create a new flavour combination! Chickpeas, black beans, mixed beans even lentils can often be interchanged in recipes. Not a fan of eggs… why not try making some tofu scramble??
I think it’s so important to experiment and become flexible in the kitchen. It’s also way more fun and a great creative outlet for those of us that aren’t so fabulous with a paintbrush (not that I don’t still give that a go - doing anything creative right now is nourishing my soul!) My hope is that you will gain more confidence in the kitchen that will allow you to loosen up and start playing with things and seeing a recipe as a rough guide and not something that has to be exact...let’s leave that for baking (where measuring is very important)! Here’s my version of baked eggs or shakshuka from what I had at home! If anyone has any questions about substitutions leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to help you out!
1 small onion (diced)
2-4 cloves garlic (minced)
½ carrot (diced)
1-2tsp paprika
1-2tsp cumin
1/2tsp chili flakes (optional)
1/2tsp salt
Pinch of pepper
1 jar of tomato sauce/can puréed tomatoes/passata
½ can chickpeas
4 eggs
Yogurt sauce
¼ cup yogurt
½ tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp fresh parsley
Salt & pepper to taste
Optional garnish: avocado, parsley, lemon, crusty bread, pita, cilantro, feta
1. Preheat oven to 375F, wash veggies, chop veggies, measure spices, open tomato sauce, and chickpeas. I recommend setting up and measuring all your ingredients first, it makes execution much faster.
2. Sauté the onions and carrot for 2-3min in a cast iron pan then add garlic and spices and toast for 2min.
3. Deglaze with tomato sauce, add chickpeas and warm the sauce. Once bubbling slightly make a well in the pan and drop the first egg in, repeat with the next 3 eggs. (If you do not have an oven-safe skillet warm the sauce slightly longer and then pour into an oven-safe baking dish, create wells in the dish and drop eggs in.)
4. Bake for around 12 min on middle/top rack of the oven. You want the egg whites cooked but the yolk still slightly runny.
5. Mix yogurt, lemon zest, parsley, salt and pepper together.
6. Once out of the oven garnish with whatever toppings you like and serve with crusty bread.
