Recipes › Tomato (Plum) › Quick Plum Tomato Shakshuka
Quick Plum Tomato Shakshuka
A proper shakshuka needs tomatoes that actually taste of something — plum tomatoes in August are exactly right. This is the version you make on a weeknight when you want something satisfying in under half an hour: a deep, smoky, slightly spiced sauce with eggs poached directly in it, eaten straight from the pan with a heap of crusty bread. It is unapologetically simple and completely delicious.
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Ingredients
- 1000 g Tomato (Plum), roughly chopped
- 8 eggs
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely sliced
- 1 red pepper, deseeded and finely sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp harissa pasteor 0.5 tsp chilli flakes
- ½ tsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 15 g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped (optional)
- 80 g feta cheese, crumbled (optional)omit for dairy-free
Contains: eggs, milk.
Method
- Heat the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan or wide sauté pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and red pepper with a pinch of salt and cook for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.About 6 min
- Add the garlic, smoked paprika, cumin and harissa. Stir and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.About 1 min
- Add the chopped plum tomatoes, sugar and salt. Stir well, increase the heat to medium-high and cook for 7 minutes, crushing the tomatoes with the back of your spoon as they soften. You want a thick, chunky sauce — not waterlogged, not dry.About 7 min
- Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning. Make 8 small wells in the sauce using the back of a spoon. Crack one egg into each well. The sauce should be thick enough that the eggs sit in their wells rather than sliding around.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan with a lid or a large baking tray and cook for 4–5 minutes until the egg whites are fully set but the yolks are still soft. Check at 4 minutes — the carryover heat will continue cooking the eggs once the pan is off the heat.About 5 min
- Remove from the heat and immediately scatter over the crumbled feta and chopped parsley if using. Bring the pan straight to the table and serve with crusty bread or flatbreads for scooping.
Tips
- The most common shakshuka mistake is adding the eggs to a sauce that is too thin or too cool — the whites spread everywhere and never properly set. Make sure your sauce is thick and the pan is hot before you add the eggs.
- Crack each egg into a small cup first, then lower it into its well. This gives you much more control than cracking straight from the shell and avoids broken yolks.
- If your plum tomatoes are particularly watery, cook the sauce for an extra 3–4 minutes before adding the eggs to reduce off the excess liquid.
Ring the changes
- Add 400g of drained, rinsed chickpeas to the sauce before adding the eggs to make it more substantial and boost the protein.
- For a fully vegan version, omit the eggs and feta. Serve the thick tomato sauce over toasted sourdough with a drizzle of tahini.
Keeping it
Leftover sauce (without eggs) keeps refrigerated for 3 days and freezes well. Once the eggs are added, eat immediately — reheated poached eggs in sauce are not worth the effort.
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