Shakshuka with Silverbeet
Eggs poached in wells in a spiced tomato sauce with wilted silverbeet. A breakfast-and-brunch classic that uses the whole plant: stems first, leaves last.
Shakshuka is North Africa and the Middle East's gift to the world's breakfast tables: eggs poached in wells in a spiced tomato sauce. Silverbeet, the same plant many know as Swiss chard or mangold, slides straight into that tradition, and a layer of greens in the sauce makes the dish both more filling and more interesting than the original.
This recipe uses the whole plant. The stems are sliced and fried with the onion until sweet and tender, and the leaves are folded in at the very end, just long enough to wilt. Nothing in the bin, everything in the pan.
Ingredients
- 300 g silverbeet (about 1 small bunch), stems and leaves separated
- 4 eggs
- 1 × 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp chilli flakes, or to taste
- Salt and black pepper
- Fresh parsley or coriander, chopped
- Good bread and natural yoghurt, to serve
Method
- 1Slice the silverbeet stems into 1 cm pieces and roughly chop the leaves. Keep separate.
- 2Heat olive oil in a wide frying pan with a lid over medium heat. Cook onion and stems for 5 minutes until soft.
- 3Add garlic, cumin, paprika, and chilli flakes. Stir for 1 minute until fragrant.
- 4Pour in the tomatoes and half a tin of water. Simmer for 5 minutes until slightly thickened, and season with salt and pepper.
- 5Fold in the leaves and let them wilt into the sauce for 1–2 minutes.
- 6Make four wells in the sauce with the back of a spoon and crack an egg into each. Cover and poach for 4–6 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks still runny.
- 7Scatter over the herbs and serve straight from the pan, with bread for dipping and a spoonful of cold yoghurt.
Serving suggestions
Serve straight from the pan while the yolks are still runny, with good bread for dipping and cold yoghurt to soften the heat.
Make ahead, store, and reheat
The tomato-and-silverbeet sauce can be made 2–3 days ahead and kept in the fridge. Reheat it in the pan and poach the eggs just before serving; poached eggs don't survive reheating.
Troubleshooting
- The yolks set before the whites are done?
- The heat is too high. The sauce should barely murmur under the lid, not boil. Turn it down and check the eggs after 4 minutes: the whites should be milky and set, the yolks should still give.
- The eggs sink and disappear into the sauce?
- The sauce is too thin. Reduce it until the wells hold their shape before cracking in the eggs. Silverbeet releases water too, so give the sauce a couple of extra minutes after folding in the leaves.
- The dish turned out watery?
- The leaves carried too much washing water into the pan. Spin or pat them dry, and let the sauce thicken properly before the eggs go in.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use frozen silverbeet?
Yes. Thaw it, squeeze out the water well, and fold it in where the recipe calls for leaves. Frozen silverbeet has no stems, so fry an extra onion for body.
Is shakshuka breakfast or dinner?
Both. In Israel and Tunisia it's breakfast and lunch, but it works beautifully as a quick weeknight dinner. Serve with couscous or rice if it needs to stretch into a main.
Can I make it without eggs?
The sauce stands perfectly well on its own. Top it with crumbled feta or white beans instead, and let them warm through under the lid for a couple of minutes.