Green Shakshuka

Green Shakshuka

Shakshuka is North African dish, usually made with a tomato-spicy base. I had a leftover spinach stew from the day before, and so I recycled it by doing this green shakshuka, I uplifted it by adding some more fresh green herbs as, parsley, leeks and dill. The spinach stew had some chicken and lemon flavours so I ran with that flavour profile.

This recipe yields 4 generous portions.

Ingredients:

1 onion (chopped)

3 cloves of garlic (mashed)

500 gr. of spinach leaves (rinsed, drained, and chopped)

1/2 cup chicken stock (or vegetable)

1 stalk of leek (rinsed and chopped)

100 gr. of parsley (rinsed and chopped)

100 gr. of dill (chopped)

1 green bell pepper

1 lemon (juice)

5 eggs

Olive oil for sautéing

2 tablespoons of butter

Labneh to serve in top (optional)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan add the oil and the butter, sauté the onion, and green pepper for a few minutes, then add the garlic, the spinach, the parsley (reserve a handful for garnish), and dill, cook until spinach has wilted.

2. Add the stock and let it reduce to half, turn the heat to low and add the lemon juice.

3. Make little wells with the back of a spoon, and crack the eggs in, season with salt and pepper, cover the pan for 3 to 5 minutes and let the eggs cook to your prefer doneness.

4. Garnish with more parsley, and labneh.

Tips:

1. There's a lot of chopping in this recipe, this can be done all in a food processor to save time, but do each item separately, not to overwhelm the machine, but also so you can add them to the pan in the order described above.

2. Any green herbs can be added.

3. Instead of going for a lemony-flavour, the lemon can be omitted and then cheese can be added.

4. I paired it with arepas (Venezuelan corn bread).

Enjoy!