When the colder weather starts I’ve noticed that I less likely choose a salad for my breakfast or lunch. Even though I still love a good salad, my body craves for something warm. I tend to eat more oat porridge or muesli with lots of seeds and nuts and hot coconut milk – that’s the quickest thing I can pack to work for my late breakfast or lunch (sometimes I manage to skip the breakfast, so I have oats at lunch time). But I miss the eggs, so on the weekend I can make for both of us hearty and full of flavour shakshuka.

“Shakshuka” is a term for “the mixture” and originates from Northwest Africa. It”s a dish made of eggs poached in a flavoursome sauce usually prepared from tomatoes, peppers, onion and lots of spices. Over the last ten years when shakshuka started being very popular in the world lots of different variations of it has been created. And it’s a great lazy meal you can actually make for yourself at any time of the day. You can keep it meat free or add for example some type of sausage that you like. You can use the whole galaxy of spices and prepare as many flavour variations as you like.

Shakshuka is also a brilliant idea to use all your leftover veggies you have in your fridge. So this time I mixed this lovely cherry tomatoes with some fried onion (tomatoes and onion goes together really well) and couple mushrooms I had in my fridge. But if you have some spinach or kale leaves that starts looking a bit sad, you can easily pop them into the mix. The base are though that juicy, sweet cherry tomatoes. I wouldn’t be myself if there would be no garlic in it, but if you’re not a fan of garlic flavour just skip it. If you love a spicy flavour add some chilli flakes or couple splashes of sriracha or tabasco. I also used dried basil and parsley, but if you have fresh leaves go ahead, chop them finely and add to your shakshuka.

Cream cheese mixes wonderfully with tomatoes and passata and gives smooth and creamy sauce – perfect for dipping a toast or fresh baguette. Even though delicious we skip the bread part and stay with delicious shakshuka.

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cherry tomato shakshuka

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INGREDIENTS:

• about 400 g cherry tomatoes
• 5 eggs
• 250 g cream cheese
• about 5 tbsp tomato passata
• 1 onion
• couple mushrooms (optionally)
• 2-3 small garlic cloves
• natural rock salt or sea salt to taste
• pinch of coarse black pepper
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tbsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Heat a large deep frying pan adding a tablespoon of olive oil. Slice one onion in rings, peel and slice the mushrooms. Pop them on the pan and fry until golden.

Next add cherry tomatoes and fry for another 3-4 minutes, adding slices garlic, salt, pepper and basil. Now add cream cheese and lower the heat. Stir all the ingredients, so that cream cheese combines with veggies. Place a blob of tomato passata in couple places. Make holes in the mix and place the eggs in them. Sprinkle eggs with some salt and parsley. Cover the pan with lid and simmer on a small heat until the whites sets. Make sure to keep the heat low, so shakshuka won’t burn. You can also spice up your shakshuka adding chilli flakes or couple drops of sriracha or tabasco sauce.

Serve hot on its own or with toasted bread or baguette.