Eat Healthy and Cheap
Shakshuka, Egg-Free
Shakshuka began as a Maghrebi way to stretch a few eggs across a whole pot of peppers and tomato, and the peppers were always the point: cooked low and slow until they give up their own liquid, they build a sauce thick enough to need nothing else. This version keeps that base and swaps the eggs for chickpeas, mashing a portion into the sauce for body and mounding the rest into wells the way a cook would crack in eggs. The trick to any oil-free version is patience with the onion and peppers: give them a full ten minutes in a few spoonfuls of water before the tomato goes in, and they collapse into the same sweetness frying would have forced out faster.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tsp Cumin seed
- 1 tsp Coriander seed, ground
- 1 Yellow onion, chopped
- 3 Bell peppers, sliced into strips
- 4 cloves Garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 tsp Smoked paprika
- 1/4 tsp Cayenne
- 3 tbsp Tomato paste
- 3 cups Canned crushed tomatoes
- 3 cups Chickpeas, cooked and drained
- 1 Lemon, juiced
- 3 tbsp Flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Method
- Warm a wide, deep skillet over medium heat. Toast the cumin seed and ground coriander in the dry pan until they turn a shade darker and smell nutty, about 90 seconds. This blooms the spices' oils with heat instead of fat.
- Add the onion and bell peppers with 3 tablespoons (45 ml) water. Sweat, stirring occasionally and adding a splash more water whenever the pan looks dry, until the peppers slump and the onion turns translucent, about 10 minutes. Do not rush this part, it is where the sweetness comes from.
- Stir in the garlic, smoked paprika, and cayenne. Cook for 1 minute, until the garlic loses its raw edge.
- Push the vegetables to one side and add the tomato paste to the bare spot of the pan. Let it sit undisturbed until it darkens to brick red, about 1 to 2 minutes, then stir it through. This step builds the savory depth that oil or salt would otherwise carry.
- Pour in the crushed tomatoes and 1/2 cup (120 ml) water. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 12 minutes.
- While the sauce simmers, mash 1 cup (about 165 g) of the chickpeas with a fork and half the lemon juice until coarse and pale. This pale mash stands in for the egg white a traditional shakshuka would have here.
- Stir the mashed chickpeas into the sauce for body. Nestle the remaining whole chickpeas into the sauce in four mounds, one per serving, the way whole eggs are traditionally cracked into wells. Cover and simmer 5 minutes so the mounds heat through and pick up color at the edges.
- Remove from heat and squeeze the rest of the lemon juice over the top. Scatter the parsley and serve straight from the skillet, spooning sauce over each mound of chickpeas.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 228 calories, 11 g protein, 10 g fiber. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt.
