The perfect "I don't know what to cook for dinner" dish.
For our first recipe on the blog, we bring you our go-to shakshuka. We love to cook, but the hardest part for us is deciding what to make. On nights when the creativity wasn't there and we wanted a quick and filling meal, this was our staple recipe. It did not disappoint.
“On nights when the creativity wasn't there and we wanted a quick and filling meal, this was our staple recipe”
We made many memories while cooking this dish and we hope you do too. Alright, are you guys ready for it? Here we go!
Tips and Tricks
At this point, I cannot even recall how many times we have made this dish and I think its safe to say that we are now masters of it. First things first, always toast your spices in a dry pan. It makes them fragrant and lets the oils in the spice release and come together with the rest of the ingredients. We toast the cumin powder, then add our onions and a touch of brown sugar to jumpstart the caramelization process.
Low and slow is the secret to this recipe. Let the ingredients cook continuously on medium heat, this allows all the vegetables to soften and become tender while letting the flavours infuse.
Ok, I know I just said the secret was the constant medium heat but I got ahead of myself. The real secret ingredient is bay leaf. This addition honestly makes the dish. It rounds out the spicy notes and adds depth to the flavour profile. If you are a seasoned shakshuka maker please let us know in the comments if you do this as well or if this new tip just blew your mind.
The great thing about this dish is it is perfectly designed for two! We find it so relaxing to cook together following this recipe, as one person can man the stove while the other focuses on chopping up the vegetables. The environment is relaxed because this dish does not require strict timing. So perhaps do like we do, grab a glass (bottle) of wine and chat while one does some rough dicing and the other keeps an eye on the simmering shakshuka.
For our shakshuka we use a lot of peppers, one or two fresh tomatoes and a can of tomatoes. Of course this can be adapted to your liking. We also tried it with only red peppers and two pints of cherry tomatoes. This sauce had a much fresher taste than the deep and warming taste you get with the canned tomatoes.
As a completely optional step, we highly recommend to get out your kitchen torch for this one. Once the eggs have cooked to your liking, its time to add the finishing touches. Crumble some feta over the top and torch it! Also if your eggs are not cooked enough on the top, you can use the torch to help finish off the eggs rather than keeping it longer on the stove and overcooking the bottom. Finally, add some chopped cilantro (or coriander as they call it across the pond) and parsley. Now you are ready to serve, family style! We think its best enjoyed with some whole made naan (recipe coming for you soon!!). Its got the perfect amount of spice from the cumin, freshness from the cilantro, sweetness from the peppers and salty bite from the feta. We hope you love this dish as much as we do!
The Recipe
How this works?
Seeing as this is our first blog post, our recipe structure deserves a little explanation. The idea behind twotocook was to design recipes for a fun game-like experience. The idea is you and your partner decide who will be chef 1 and who will be chef 2. Following your selection you will be brought to your individual instructions. We will start with a split grocery list for those that maybe want to split the shopping and come together for the meal. Then you will find the recipe steps are written per person rather than chronologically. For example, one person can chop vegetables while the other is sautéing onion. The idea is for the recipes to be structured so working together in the kitchen is a seamless experience (and fun too!). We have game-ified cooking from start to finish (including clean up duty!).
If you guys try out this activity please let us know in the comments your experience doing it! We would love to hear from our twotocook community.
For those of you that prefer a pdf of the recipe click the link below:
Step 1: Pick your role!
Alright it's time to start. Between the two of you decide who will be chef 1 and chef 2. It will be a surprise what tasks you will have to do and which lucky (or unlucky haha) winner will be on dishes tonight. Its all part of the fun!
Step 2: Grocery List
Step 3: Cooking
Thanks for making this recipe! We hope you enjoyed it and would love to hear your thoughts on our game-ified cooking adventure. Let us know in the comments.
Until next recipe!
- twotocook
What a fantastic idea. Thanks for the great fun recipe. I can’t wait to try it! Tanya
Toronto, Ontario