Shakshuka for One
This Shakshuka for One recipe makes a simple hot breakfast, lunch, or dinner for when you’re just cooking for yourself. After only a little effort, adding the ingredients as the dish cooks, you’ll be diving into a dish that’s regularly enjoyed all over Israel, the Middle East, Northern Africa, in your home, and mine.
Read on find detailed step by step instructions and learn all about variations of eggs poached in tomato sauce around the world. Or grab your cast iron pan, hit that Jump to Recipe button, and let’s make an easy shakshuka recipe for one person. That means you!
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Ingredients
Shakshuka is a popular Middle Eastern and North African dish consisting of eggs poached in a spicy tomato and red pepper sauce. It’s typically flavored with cumin and paprika and often sprinkled with feta and fresh herbs.
To make shakshuka for one person, you’ll want an ingredient list that doesn’t leave you with a half-used can of tomatoes. Here’s how we’ll do it:
- Red onion – use only part of an onion, or substitute a shallot to use the whole thing.
- Red pepper – use the whole thing!
- Tomatoes – use ripe cherry tomatoes instead of canned. If you buy a pint, and don’t know what to do with extras, try my orzo pesto salad or pink sauce pasta with sauteed cherry tomatoes.
- Garlic – finely chop as many cloves as your heart tells you a shakshuka recipe needs.
- Tomato paste – buy your tomato paste in a squeeze tube, and you can store it in your fridge for all your future sauces, soups, and cheesy bean tomato bakes that need a bit more oomph!
- Harissa – a condiment made with roasted peppers and chili peppers, garlic, olive oil, and various spices. You can buy hot or mild versions.
- Feta – the salty, creaminess of feta provides a nice counterpoint to the spicy, tangy flavors of shakshuka. Please feel free to make your shakshuka with goat cheese or skip the cheese altogether.
Cast iron cooking
A six and a half-inch Lodge skillet is perfect for this shakshuka for one, or use one slightly larger. Cast iron is great because it’s inexpensive, holds heat well, and goes from stove top to oven. I have a range of cast iron skillets, Dutch ovens, and a griddle to make things like my pan-roasted chicken breasts, bacon kale frittata, Dutch oven pulled chicken, sweet potato pancakes, pinto bean burgers, and so on!
Please see the recipe card below for complete information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations and substitutions
- You can finish your shakshuka under the broiler or break apart the yolks if you don’t like runny eggs.
- Add a handful of spinach or kale or another green.
- Make it spicier by adding cayenne or another chili pepper to the spice mixture.
- Feel free to scale up to make shakshuka recipe for more than one person. When making it for family dinner, we’ll use a 10-inch cast iron skillet, a can of tomatoes, and eight eggs.
Eggs poached in tomatoes around the world
Wikipedia tells me that Maghrebi Jews brought shakshuka to Israel, but its origins are uncertain. Eggs poached in tomatoes or tomato sauce is one of those fascinating foods that is found around the world, whether by migration or convergent evolution.
There’s an Indian version that Meera Sodha calls Bombay Eggs in her fabulous cookbook, Made in India. It’s Oeufs a la Provencale in France. Uova in Purgatorio (Eggs in Purgatory) in Italy. Perhaps huevos ahogados (drowned eggs) is coincidence. And green shakshuka a modern adaptation.
Recipe tips and tricks
The beauty of this easy shakshuka recipe is that you just add one thing to your pan, right after another. There’s no need to prep anything – just chop as you go!
Step 1: Turn the heat on to medium low and add the olive oil. When it is hot, add the chopped onion, stir, and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
Step 2: Add the chopped red peppers and stir to mix with the onions.
Step 3: Add the cherry tomatoes and stir in to the mixture. Feel free to use cherry tomatoes in a variety of colors just for fun!
Step 4: Finely mince the garlic and add it to the pan.
Step 5: Add the tomato paste, harissa, cumin, salt, paprika, black pepper, and cayenne, if using, and stir to mix.
Step 6: Let cook a few minutes, then add half of the feta and stir it in.
Step 7: Use your spoon or spatula to create a large well in the shaksuka mixture for each egg. Then, carefully, as low as you feel comfortable, crack an egg and gently split apart the shell to let the egg fall intact into the indentation you created.
The egg yolk and most of the egg white should stay in the hollow you’ve created in the shakshuka mixture.
Step 8: Cover the pan and continue to cook over medium-low heat until the egg sets to your desired consistency.- You can finish your shakshuka under the broiler or break apart the yolks if you don’t like runny eggs.
Step 9: To serve, sprinkle with the remaining feta and the chopped herbs.
What to serve with shakshuka
Shakshuka is most commonly eaten at breakfast, but you can enjoy it as a main course any time of day:
- Serve over Israeli couscous or rice.
- Dip a crusty semolina bread, homemade pita, or garlic bread baguette into your shakshuka. Or enjoy these poached eggs on toast.
- For dinner, add a side salad, a crunchy raw carrot salad or purple cabbage slaw, or a roasted vegetable.
Recipe FAQs
Shakshuka (also shakshouka and chakchouka) comes from the Arabic and is typically pronounced “shock-shoe-ka.”
Shakshuka is best enjoyed fresh, but you can prepare the tomato and pepper sauce up until the point of adding the cheese. Refrigerate this mixture for a few days or freeze for three months. Slowly reheat the cooked tomato and pepper mixture in your cast iron pan, and then proceed with the recipe as written.
Yes, though it really is better fresh. Store any leftover shakshuka in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat it gently on the stove or in the microwave.
We love feta over all sorts of salads – green salads, Greek salads, watermelon salads. You can also use it for that viral Uuni feta pasta from a few years ago, or bake with it like in these spinach and feta muffins.
With about 250 calories, 13 grams of protein, and 15 grams of fat, this shakshuka recipe for one is a healthy dish when made as a part of a balanced diet.
Related recipes
Check out other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean-inspired recipes from the Ugly Duckling Bakery archives like:
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-heart 💜💜💜💜💜 rating in the recipe card below. Let me know how much you loved it, or any problems you had, in the comments section further down.
Recipe
Shakshuka for One
Equipment
- 1 small cast iron or other frying pan and lid
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ¼ medium red onion or whole shallot finely chopped
- 1 red pepper finely chopped
- 6 to 8 cherry tomatoes halved
- 1 to 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon harissa mild or spicy, plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon paprika I like smoked paprika here if you have it.
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 pinch cayenne optional, plus more to taste
- 1 ounce feta crumbled, divided
- 1 to 2 eggs
- 1 to 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, mint, cilantro, basil, or combination for garnish
Instructions
- Turn the heat on the pan to medium low and add the olive oil. When it is hot, add the chopped onion, stir, and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.1 teaspoon olive oil, ¼ medium red onion or whole shallot
- Meanwhile, chop the red pepper and mix it with the onions.1 red pepper
- Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and stir them into the shakshuka mixture.6 to 8 cherry tomatoes
- Finely mince the garlic and add it to the pan.1 to 3 garlic cloves
- Add the tomato paste, harissa, cumin, salt, paprika, black pepper,and cayenne, if using, and stir to mix.1 tablespoon tomato paste, 1 teaspoon harissa, ½ teaspoon cumin, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon paprika, ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 pinch cayenne
- Let cook for a few minutes, then stir in half of the feta.1 ounce feta
- Use your spoon or spatula to create a large indentation in the shaksuka mixture for each egg. Carefully, as low as you feel comfortable,crack an egg and gently split apart the shell to let the egg fall intact into the indentation you created.1 to 2 eggs
- Cover the pan and continue to cook over medium-low heat until the egg sets to your desired consistency. You can finish your shakshuka under the broiler or break apart the yolks if you don't like runny eggs.
- To serve, sprinkle with the remaining feta and the chopped herbs.1 to 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, mint, cilantro, basil, or combination
Notes
Nutrition
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Only people with a tendency to anemia (women who menstruate, people with bleeding ulcers, etc) or actual anemia can eat acidic foods cooked in cast iron. The acid of tomato, pepper, wine, vinegar, etc pulls iron into the food. I know people who have gotten iron poisoning from this and it took weeks or months to get over.
Hi there – thanks for the note. Actually, there’s a bit more nuance than “only” and “never.” I won’t speak to the risks of iron toxicity in hemochromatosis, but ATK did a nice non-medical review on the topic, which you can find here: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/guides/cook-it-in-cast-iron/busting-cast-iron-myths