Recipe: Green-Eggs-and-No Ham (aka Green Veggie Shakshuka)

We’re trying to be a bit more adventurous with our eating at the moment, with at least one new recipe a week. And ideally adding an exciting weekend breakfast into the mix too. This Sunday brunch ticked off the two boxes in one go – and bloody yummy it was too!

With my tomato allergy I’m often looking over enviously at people tucking into their shakshukas – and in all honest the usual tomato-y ones do look delicious. Spicy sauce, gooey yolks, it’s basically my idea of perfection. This is a take on the classic. It’s still nicely spiced, with heat coming from cumin and fennel seeds. There’s a good combination of green veg in there, all adding vitamins as well as bulk and a great texture. The best thing about this dish though is it’s freshness. It feels so incredibly good for you, despite being really rather filling and scattered with a frankly obscene amount of feta.
Recipe (generously serves 2, recipe adapted from Sunday Brunch)

• ½ tsp each of cumin and fennel seeds (don’t use ground cumin), and ½ tsp of dried thyme
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 green peppers finely chopped
• 1 fennel bulb, finely chopped
• 2 small courgettes, grated (if using 1 large courgette I’d recommend removing the ‘fluffy’ watery center before grating)
• 1 fresh green chilli, finely chopped (and deseeded if you don’t want it too spicy)
• 100ml stock – veg is best here
• 4 eggs
• 1 handful fresh coriander, chopped
• 100g feta cheese

Toast the cumin and fennel seeds in a dry pan (we used a 25cm frying pan which worked well) until they become fragrant (about 1 minute) whilst shaking constantly. Add the oil, thyme and onion, and sauté for 5 minutes until golden.

Put the green peppers, fennel, bay leaf, thyme, parsley and half the coriander into the pan, and continue cooking for another 5-10 minutes until starting to soften. Then add the courgette, chilli and stock – turn the heat down and simmer for around 15 minutes. Make sure it doesn’t burn! By this point everything should be soft but still with a slightly bite. Taste and season if necessary.

Make 4 ‘dents’ in the mixture and crack in the eggs. Cover the pan (foil or greaseproof will do) and continue cooking on a low heat for amount 5 minutes – or until the egg whites are set. If you want your yolks set (and if so I question your sanity!) then cook for a little longer. Crumble over plenty of feta (I subscribe to the more-is-better when it comes to feta!) and sprinkle on the rest of the coriander, before serving with plenty of good toast.

Not only was this super Instagrammable, it was also super-tasty. Full of veggies too, it was worth the wait on a slightly worse-for-wear Saturday morning. Now to decide what to cook for our next weekend brunch!

Do you have any favorite breakfast recipes? What’s your go-to brunch dish?