If there was ever a recipe worthy of “breakfast for dinner” it would be shakshuka. This rich, saucy dish is full of smoky spices, hearty beans, and rich eggs. Make sure to buy or make some homemade crusty bread for dipping, because you’re not gong to want to waste a drop of this delicious tomato sauce!
What is Shakshuka??
Shakshuka is delicious dish cooked all across the Middle East and North Africa. It’s an incredibly simple and hearty dish consisting of eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce. I decided to take my shakshuka in a slightly different direction by adding cannellini beans to bulk it up a bit, plus a hefty dose of smoked paprika to give it a deep, fire-roasted flavor.
How to Serve Shakshuka
Most people in the U.S. eat eggs mostly for breakfast, but this delicious dish is great for breakfast, brunch, OR dinner. You’ll want to serve the shakshuka with some crusty bread, pita, or naan to sop of the delicious sauce. No bread? No problem. Spoon the saucy mix over a bowl of grits or rice (like we do here in the south). Just don’t let one drop of that sauce go to waste, promise? K.
Smoky White Bean Shakshuka
Servings 4Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.32)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.16)
- 1 28oz. can whole peeled tomatoes ($1.69)
- 1/2 Tbsp smoked paprika ($0.15)
- 1 tsp ground cumin ($0.10)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper ($0.02)
- Freshly cracked black pepper ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp salt, or to taste ($0.02)
- 1 15oz. can cannellini beans ($1.19)
- 4 large eggs ($1.10)
- 1 handful fresh parsley, chopped ($0.20)
- 2 oz. feta, crumbled ($1.12)
Instructions
- Mince the garlic and finely dice the onion. Cook both in a large deep skillet with olive oil over medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent (about 5 minutes).
- Add the canned tomatoes and their juices, crushing the tomatoes with your hands as you add them to the skillet. Add the smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, red pepper flakes, and some freshly cracked pepper as well. Stir to combine.
- Allow the sauce to come to a simmer. Let the sauce simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 minutes, or until it has thickened slightly. Add 1/4 tsp salt, then taste the sauce and adjust the salt or other spices to your liking.
- Drain the white beans, add them to the skillet, then stir to combine. Allow the skillet to return to a simmer. Simmer for 2-3 minutes more.
- Crack four eggs into the skillet, then place a lid on top and let them simmer for 5 minutes, or until the whites are set but the yolks are still soft. Top the skillet with the crumbled feta and chopped parsley.
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Nutrition
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Shakshuka – Step by Step Photos
Start by mincing 4 cloves garlic and finely dicing one yellow onion. If you want to, you can also dice a jalapeño and toss it in there as well. Add the garlic and onion to a large skillet along with 2 Tbsp olive oil and cook over medium heat until the onions are soft and transparent (about 5 minutes).
Add a 28oz. can of whole tomatoes (with the juices) to the skillet. Use your hands to crush the tomatoes as you add them to the skillet. Word on the street is that the best tomatoes are reserved for the “whole” canned variety, while lesser tomatoes are used for “diced” or “crushed”. I’m not sure if that’s true, I just liked the organic shapes of the hand crushed tomatoes rather than perfectly diced bits. You can use diced or crushed if that’s easier for you.
Along with the crushed tomatoes, add 1/2 Tbsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp oregano, 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes, and some freshly cracked pepper (about 10 cranks of a pepper mill). Stir to combine.
Let the sauce come to a simmer over medium heat. Let it simmer for 5-7 minutes, or until it’s slightly thicker and saucy. It starts out more watery, but you want it closer to the thickness of V8 juice (if you’re familiar with that!).
Now that the sauce has thickened, it’s time to add the salt. Stir in 1/4 tsp salt, then taste and adjust to your liking. You can also add more smoked paprika or red pepper flakes, if you like an extra punch.
Drain a 15oz. can of cannellini beans and add them to the sauce. Cannellini is the best white bean to use for this recipe because they are larger, tend to be more firm, and don’t break down as easily as navy or great northern beans. Garbanzo beans also work well in this.
Stir in the beans and let it come back up to a simmer. Let it simmer just a few more minutes…
Finally, crack four eggs into the sauce and place a lid on the skillet. Let the eggs simmer in the sauce for about 5 minutes, or until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft. The yolks will be cloaked in a white veil when they begin to cook, so you’ll have to watch the vibrations in the simmering sauce. When they’re still liquidy, they’ll shake from the popping bubbles of the simmering sauce. :)
As it simmers, the sauce will settle some, so I always take a spoon and stir the sauce around the eggs to remix the beans and tomato pieces.
Finally, top the eggs and sauce with 2oz. crumbled feta and a handful of chopped parsley. NOM.
And seriously, every beautifully golden runny yolk deserves some bread for dipping, don’t you think?
Smoky White Bean Shakshuka, it’s what’s for break… dinn… BRINNER!
I have quick question- what size skillet did you use for this recipe? I only have a 10.25 inch cast iron skillet and I wanted to know if this would be enough.
Thanks!
Mine is a 10″ as well. :)
Great change for breakfast – boys loved it.
looks tasty. can you taste the metal with the tomatoes and cast iron? I made some sauce once and it started tasting metallic.
I didn’t taste it, but perhaps my taste buds are just not as sensitive as yours. Having a well seasoned skillet should help prevent the acid from reacting with the iron so much, too. It creates a nice barrier.
Great recipe however I did need to increase the salt and it felt as if it were missing something so I threw in a dash of sugar as well to cut the acidity. Feta gave it the salty dash and parsley the satisfying mellowness I was seeking!
My beans did turn out kind of tough, though, instead of good and silky. Any ideas what I did wrong there?
Delicious and super easy to make! Another great meal!!!
My mouth is WATERING just looking at this! I’m not one to comment before I actually make something, but I’m so excited to try this – especially with the addition of white beans to boost the protein. This would be so good with naan!
Wow
Finally, a shakshuka recipe that doesn’t require me to go out and buy a gajillion different spices that I’d never use again! This was really fantastic. I subbed in one can of Rotel with one can of tomatoes because I’m Texan and that’s what I have in my pantry (seriously, it’s one of my pantry staples) and cut out the red pepper flakes. It was amazing!
Being single and living on my own, this also works great as something that I can make the tomato/bean base and then cook just one-portion servings for myself a couple of times over the week. Makes for super-easy breakfasts all week even on busy mornings!
Your blog has been one of my favorite discoveries this year. Food that tastes amazing without spending hundreds on exotic spices or ingredients!
Really good! I’m having this for lunch every day this week. I made fresh bread to go with it and added a whole bunch of shredded choy sum for extra vegetables :D
Voted another keeper by the Hart household.
It was great! I simmered my tomatoes a bit longer just because I like them that way. Just amazing! I served it with garlic butter knots.
What kind of bread did you serve it with? It looks like a chocolate chip in it and can only think of something like a cinnamon raisin. Just curious.
Haha, it does kind of look like that, huh! It’s actually olive bread. :D
I made this last week and it was FANTASTIC!! I reheated the left overs the next day and just re”seasoned” with parsley and feta and they were just as delicious, if not even a bit better. I also added a bit of avacado the second day and went together nicely :)
I made this for the kids. They really liked it. We’d seen it on food network before and wondered how it was. Your version is very tasty.
This was such good inspiration for my dinner tonight! As an extra shortcut (so I didn’t need to saute onions and garlic) I used garlic salsa from Aldi in place of half of the tomatoes. It was perfect, and took out a lot of the prep time.
Thank you for all of your wonderful recipes!