I’m about five years behind the trend with shakshuka: as I’m generally not the biggest fan of tomato-based sauces, it never really spoke to me. However, with my newfound enthusiasm for meat-free dishes I decided to give it a go recently and turns out I really like it. It’s also perfect for Easter and while I realise it’s too late for brunch by now (at least where I am), you can still make it for late lunch or dinner.

There are hundreds of shakshuka recipes on the Internet. The classic ones involve poaching eggs in a tomato-pepper sauce, maybe some cumin and chopped parsley on top. My version leaves the structure intact, but as I’m eager to up my vegetable intake, more veggies are included. You can obviously improvise and use whatever you like, omitting stuff you don’t.

Ingredients:
– two medium onions
– two cloves of garlic
– one long sweet red pepper
– one small eggplant
– three medium tomatoes
– one tin chopped tomatoes
– vegetable stock, about 400 ml
– salt, Aleppo pepper, cumin
– 4-5 eggs
– olive oil for frying
– feta cheese
– fresh tarragon

Dice the onions and fry in olive oil until translucent, add minced garlic and fry some more. Chop and add pepper, eggplant and tomatoes to the pan, in that order (from hardest to softest) and cook for 5-10 minutes. Pour the canned tomatoes into the pan and season with salt, pepper and cumin. I like to add some vegetable stock at this stage. You could also use another can of tomatoes to increase the volume of the sauce, but as I use more vegetables than is traditional, I feel stock works well. Cook until the sauce starts to reduce and crack the eggs into it (I use a wooden spoon to make a dent/well in the sauce, so that the eggs are more in the sauce rather than on top). Season the eggs lightly. Cover the pan and cook the eggs to your liking, in my case it takes about 15 minutes. Scatter feta cheese and tarragon on top.

I always love recipes that lend themselves well to variations. Shakshuka is an excellent example – once you know the basics, you can use whatever vegetables, spices and herbs you prefer. Courgette, different peppers and celery would all be great. You can replace feta with goat cheese and tarragon with coriander. I’m also planning to make a non-tomato version with lots of onion, spinach and cream. Full disclosure: I’ve also made this with onions, tomatoes, pepper and minced meat for a non-vegetarian crowd and it tastes fantastic – if possible, try lamb mince.

Happy Easter (whatever is still left of it)! Let me know what you’ve been cooking.