September 9, 2016
Fabulous Friday Flavour: One Pot Potatoes & Eggs Shakshouka
A straight-up carnivore like me cannot live without meat and I know I cannot live with all vegetarian diet. Well, technically I can do that but I would not be a very happy camper!
Like sleep, I also get grumpy when I don’t get my meat. It is no surprise that most, if not all of the dishes I whip out will no doubt contain some sort of meat. Or fish. It’s just the way it is. Food tastes better with them.
But, every once in a while, I’ll be challenged with the need to serve a vegetarian meal. This will inevitably leave me scratching my head to think of a no meat recipe so our guest would have something to eat and that we’d enjoy it too without me having to cook something for us separately.
Then I discovered a few one-pot recipes of Shakshouka – an Arabic/Tunisian/Jewish/Libyan dish with poached eggs in a base of tomato sauce, onions and cumin. They look pretty appetising and something I would definitely eat. The recipes came in variations using kale or eggplants but I had neither of those with me. What I had was a bunch of potatoes and capsicum.
And I had eggs! That would just have to do it. It was time to rumble Grubbecipe-style!
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, pressed
- 1 tbsp + 3 tspn paprika powder
- 1 tspn cumin powder
- 1 vegetable bouillon
- 1 can (or 250g) tomato puree
- 1 tspn chilli powder (optional)
- 1-2 fresh tomatoes, diced
- 2-3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 1 yellow capsicum, cubed
- 5-6 eggs
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- Feta cheese for garnish (optional)
- 2-3 springs of spring onions
- Heat olive oil in a large shallow pan
- Saute onions until translucent then add garlic, cumin, 1 tbsp paprika powder, vegetable bouillon and tomatoes.
- Simmer for 10 minutes and transfer to a blender to make a smooth puree. Set aside
- In the same pan, add more oil if need to brown the potatoes with the remaining paprika powder.
- Add capsicum and stir fry for about 5-10 minutes before adding in the tomato puree.
- While the mixture is cooking, add in the pureed sauce earlier into the potato-capsicum-tomato puree mixture.
- Add chilli powder if desired
- Mix well and make sure that the potatoes cooked well
- Once the potatoes are softened (not too soft or mushy!), crack the eggs one by one and spread them over the sauce. Cover for about 5 minutes till the whites are cooked
- Turn off the heat, uncover and let it sit for 2-3 minutes.
- Then garnish with feta and spring onions before serving
- Serve hot with baguette!
- Enjoy!
- The cooking time is estimated only as it depends on how long it takes for the potatoes to cook. Feel free to substitute the capsicum with kale or eggplants. And if you prefer, make it non-vegetarian and add in minced beef!
There was something satisfying with this recipe and the flavours took me by surprise. What I also love about making this is the part when I crack the eggs to poach it. I love seeing how they just bubble up and I imagine the egg yolks just running through the sauces when you start eating them. Too wonderful!
This post is in conjunction to Stomper Dad’s Taboo Challenge by not using the word “ON” today. Join in the fun as well and add your link to take part in the challenge!
It looks wonderful. Definitely something to make but please tell me what is a capsicum. Does it have another name?
Baffled in Canada.
It tastes wonderful too! 😀 Capsicum is also known as bell pepper – they come in green, red and yellow. Hope you won’t be baffled no more. 😀
Thank you for stopping by, Daniella! 😀
That’s my kind of meal – I do eat meat, but I’m the other way round, more veggies than meat. But I LOVE eggs. So that’s gotta be tried!
Try it, try it! 😀 I love meat AND eggs. I’m doomed! LOL Your way is definitely much healthier, Safar! 🙂
I try to stay away from meat at least once a week, usually on Fridays. This looks like it could be on rotation for our Friday meals 🙂
Yayyy! It certainly can, Jas! 😀
Why Fridays? Religion or….?
Eh, I’m a sorry excuse of a religious person, Ann. After a week long of heavy meaty meals, Friday just seems like a good day for abstinence. 🙂
LOL. Join the club! (On religion, I mean :p). Abstinence doesn’t really work for me. But then, I’m curious what you sort of heavy meaty meals do you eat for the rest of the days? Surely can’t be the whole cow on a daily basis! 😉
Haha, you’re too funny! Definitely not a whole cow, not even a part of a cow. Trying to stay away from red meat as much as possible. My cholesterol is sky high.
:p I admire your tenacity, Jas! You’ve gotta start planting turmeric then. It apparently is good for cholesterol control! 🙂