Smoky Bean Shakshuka

Name: Smoky Bean Shakshuka
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil; 1 large onion, sliced thin; 2 red peppers, cut into strips; 4 garlic cloves, sliced; 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1/4 tsp chilli flakes, or more; 400 g tin of chopped tomatoes; 400 g tin of butter beans, drained; 1 tsp caster sugar; 6 eggs; salt and black pepper; 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped; 80 g feta, crumbled; thick toast, to mop

A pan of soft beans and blistered peppers under six eggs, cooked until the whites just set and the yolks still run. It is a breakfast that eats like a dinner, which is the point.

Prep 10 min
Cook 30 min
Total 40 min
Serves 4
Vegetarian

A wide black pan of red pepper and tomato sauce with six baked eggs, crumbled feta and chopped parsley scattered over the top.

Method

Step 1. Warm the oil in a wide, shallow pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and peppers with a good pinch of salt and cook for 12 minutes, stirring now and then, until both have collapsed and taken some colour at the edges. Do not rush this — the sweetness comes from here.
Step 2. Add the garlic, paprika, cumin and chilli flakes. Stir for one minute only, until the spices smell toasted rather than raw.
Step 3. Tip in the tomatoes and the sugar. Fill the empty tin a quarter full with water, swill it out and add that too. Simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce is thick enough to hold a channel when you drag a spoon through it.
Step 4. Stir in the butter beans and warm through for 3 minutes. Taste now and season properly — once the eggs go in you cannot fix it.
Step 5. Make six shallow wells in the sauce with the back of a spoon. Crack an egg into each. Season the yolks lightly.
Step 6. Cover the pan and cook over a low heat for 6 to 8 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks still wobble. Check at six — they go from perfect to hard-boiled in under a minute.
Step 7. Scatter with parsley and feta. Take the pan to the table and let everyone dig in with toast.

Notes from the kitchen

No lid that fits? A baking tray laid over the pan works, or slide the whole thing under a hot grill for three minutes instead.
For a vegan pan, leave out the eggs and feta, and finish with a spoonful of thick coconut yoghurt and a handful of toasted almonds.
The sauce keeps for three days in the fridge without the eggs. Reheat it, crack in fresh eggs, and breakfast takes eight minutes.

Cooked this one? Put a photo of it in the gallery. No account needed.

Method

Notes from the kitchen

More breakfast