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This easy Shakshuka is based on the popular Middle Eastern and North African brunch recipe. With a rich, tomatoey sauce with spices and runny eggs for dipping, I am ALL IN for this warming dish.
I am not exaggerating when I say this is one of my all time favourite meals to cook (egg-xaggerating?! Sorry… 😀)
This Shakshuka is perfect for serving up brunch to guests or just as a delicious, healthy weekend breakfast.
I have been known to throw this together for dinner too when I’m out of meal inspiration, because it’s largely made up of store cupboard ingredients, so is great for cooking up at the last minute.
Why you’ll love this Shakshuka recipe
⭐️ Quick and easy
⭐️ Budget-friendly store cupboard ingredients
⭐️ Easily adaptable with leftover vegetables
What is Shakshuka?
Shakshuka is a hearty North Africa stew-like dish made with tomatoes, spices and gently poached eggs in the rich sauce, with those mighty but delicate Arabic flavours that are simply divine.
A traditional Shakshuka recipe has similarities to a number of other dishes from around the world, including Huevos Rancheros from Mexico or Eggs in Purgatory, which is Italian American.
While I have adapted this version as my own tomato and eggs dish, I’m calling it Shakshuka because of the sweet smoked paprika flavouring.
Shakshuka Ingredients
- Garlic cloves – You can also use garlic from a jar or frozen.
- Onion – Fresh or pre-prepared frozen is OK too. They might need frying a little longer.
- Pepper – You can use a large red pepper or any other colour you like. (Bell peppers if you’re outside the UK.)
- Tinned tomatoes – Go for good quality if you can as it makes all the difference to the flavour.
- Spices – Ground cumin and sweet smoked paprika.
- Eggs – I use medium free-range.
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper – Season to taste.
- To garnish – Crumble over some feta cheese and fresh parsley.
How to make Shakshuka
1. Fry the garlic and onion until softened.
2. Add the pepper, cumin and sweet smoked paprika until fragrant as per recipe below.
3. Add in the tomatoes and season, then put the lid on and cook.
4. Add your eggs until almost cooked and finish off under the grill. Garnish with feta and parsley to serve.
Sarah’s Notes
➡️ I love to serve it with some crusty bread to dip into the egg yolk and soak up all that delicious tomato sauce.
➡️ There are ways to make baked Shakshuka, but for this we’re cooking it all in one big pot and using the grill right at the end to finish off.
Substitutions
- Pepper (Bell pepper) – You can swap this for any veggies you fancy. Aubergines (eggplant), courgettes (zucchini) or sweet potatoes would work well. You will just need to allow for extra cooking time.
- Shakshuka with meat – Add fried chorizo, bacon lardons or pancetta if you like.
Leftovers
In the fridge You can keep the base tomato sauce of this recipe in the fridge for 3 days. Cook to heat through and add eggs as before.
In the freezer If you’d like to store this in the freezer, it’s best to only freeze the tomato-based sauce, without the eggs or toppings.
What Else to serve with Shakshuka
- Sides, sprinkles and dips – Avocado, chopped chilli, mint, coriander or diced red onion would work.
Recipe Tip
Fifteen minutes is the MINIMUM cooking time for the sauce. The longer you cook it over medium heat, the better it will taste! Make sure you keep an eye on it.
More delicious breakfast recipes…
FAQs
This might be because you’ve taken them straight out of the fridge, so they have cooled the sauce and are now struggling to get up to temperature to cook.
It can be tricky to poach eggs this way, so just carefully turn the heat up and wait until the egg whites start to change colour.
Try and bring your eggs to room temperature before adding them into the sauce, but if not, just keep an eye on them and it will happen!
My method of using the grill also helps to finish the eggs off and get them to cook through.
The sauce will thicken over time, but don’t worry. Keep checking and if it seems as though it’s drying out, just add a little more water until you have the desired consistency and stir well.
Let me know how you got on and what you thought of these recipes. Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below.
Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
Shakshuka Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Olive oil
- 2 Garlic cloves, See notes
- 1 Large onion, Chopped
- 1 Large pepper, Diced
- 1.5 tsp Ground cumin
- 2 tsp Sweet smoked paprika
- 800 g (14.5 oz) Tinned tomatoes, 2x cans
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 Eggs
To garnish:
- Small bunch of parsley, Chopped
- 100 g Feta
Instructions
- Heat your olive oil in a pan and add your garlic and onion. Fry for a couple of minutes and allow them to soften.
- Add diced pepper, cumin, smoked paprika and give it all a good stir. Cook for a couple more minutes until you can smell the spices.
- Add the tinned tomatoes, half a can of water and salt and pepper. Stir well and put a lid on and cook for about 15 minutes. (Check it during this time as it may need a little more water if it's drying out.)
- Preheat the grill to HOT.
- When the sauce is thick and delicious, remove the pan lid, make a well in the sauce and break an egg into the hole. Repeat for all of the eggs.
- Allow them to cook on the hob for a couple of minutes until you can see the bottom of the eggs starting to set and turn white.
- Finish off under a hot grill until the eggs are cooked to your liking then scatter over the chopped parsley and crumble over the feta before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation. Nutritional values are per portion unless otherwise stated.
This post was originally published on July 15th, 2020. The recipe was updated on September 2nd, 2025 to improve the method and ingredients.
This post was originally published on September 2, 2025 and updated later to make improvements.
Absolutely gorgeous I put chorizo and kidney beans and green chillies for a bit of spice we had it with Crusty doughy bread just amazingly tasty dish
I can’t believe with these simple ingredients can make such a nice dish. Eggs can cook many different dishes but this is really delicious. Every dish from eggs we all sprinkle green onion. This Shakshula is suitable for a warm dinner in a short time.
We really enjoyed trying this recipe at our home. Thank you so much for publishing this
I wasn’t sure I’d be a big fan of this. I made it as we were running low on food but I had everything in to make this.
It was sooo good!! My partner has now requested we have this weekly 😁
Another great recipe – thank you !
Great recipe to try in this quarantine! ….. thank you so much for this update.
Nice blog to follow while preparing recipes.Thank you so much for sharing with us.