Over the past few months, I have seen this dish all over the internet and food blogs. Although I have heard of people serving it for dinner, traditionally it is breakfast food in the middle east/ northern Africa and served with challah or pita on the side. It’s a one-skillet recipe with eggs backed with tomatoes, red pepper and various spices – sounds like a spicy breakfast brunch dish made in heaven; except… the big part of it -eggs (and occasionally being served with feta).
To make this dish plant-based, I knew I had to find some substitute that would compliment the dish just as well as eggs and still hold up so I decided to try it with polenta instead! Polenta has three great aspects for my egg stand-in: it is a great breakfast food; it compliments peppers and tomatoes and has the same golden yellow colour as eggs. Of course, since I was making the recipe my own by omitting the eggs and adding in the polenta I thought – why stop there? I decided to add vegan goat’s cheese and serve it over a bed of kale with avocado on top. It is perfect with my vegan challah recipe too!
vegan shakshuka
Ingredients
- 15 ml olive oil
- 150 grams onion halved and thinly sliced
- 150 grams bell pepper thinly sliced
- 8 grams garlic cloves minced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1/8 tsp ground cayenne or to taste
- 400 grams plum tomatoes canned
- 50 grams polenta dried
- salt and pepper to taste
- hot sauce and chopped cilantro for serving
Instructions
- Heat oven to 190 °C (375 °F).
- Heat oil in a large skillet (or water if avoiding oil) and add onions and bell peppers and cook gently until very soft about five to seven minutes over medium/high heat.
- Add in garlic and spices and continue to cook for two minutes.
- Pour in tomatoes and season with salt and pepper and simmer until tomatoes have thickened about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place polenta and 200 ml water in a separate saucepan and cook as instructed (stirring over medium heat for five to six minutes).
- Make five slight dents in the shakshuka using the back of a serving spoon and spoon in polenta into each section and sprinkle with vegan goat’s cheese if desired.
- Transfer pan/ skillet to oven and bake for six to seven minutes until the polenta firms slightly and gains some colour.
- Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with hot sauce and avocados or any other topping that you would like.
