Vegan Beany Shakshuka

 

Shakshuka is a traditional North African dish that is usually made of tomatoes, onions and bell peppers, and often flavoured with paprika, cumin and garlic. You'll usually see it with poached eggs on top which of course isn't particuarly vegan.  

There's definitely been an influx of brunch posts on my Instagram feed recently, and many of them featured Shakshuka. It always looks delicious but everywhere I've seen it listed adds eggs to it making it non vegan, so I decided to give it a go myself.

A lot of regular Shakshuka recipes recommend adding feta cheese, so I figured I'd try replacing the eggs with vegan mozzerella. I used Sheese as I love this one and I know it melts really well, but you could always try vegan Greek style cheese if you'd rather!

I also added some beans to add some protein to the dish, and as I didn't have any nice bread to serve it with like how it is traditionally served. You can use whatever beans you fancy; I used butter beans as they're my favourite, and black eye beans to add a different texture.

This made 3 large portions (or 4 if you want to serve it with a side!) and took around half an hour to make.

Ingredients

• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes (around 400g)
• 2 tins of beans in water (I used butter beans and black eye beans)
• 1 red onion
• 2 bell peppers
• 3 bundles of frozen spinach, defrosted
• 2 tsp olive oil, for frying
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 pack of vegan cheese
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• Salt, to taste
• Coriander leaves (fresh or dried), to garnish 

Method

1. In the olive oil, toast the back pepper for a couple of minutes until it becomes fragent
2. Chop up the onion into small pieces and fry in the pan until translucent and golden
3. Chop the peppers into small pieces and add to the onion. Fry until it begins to soften
4. Drain and add the beans a fry for around 10 minutes until they soften
5. Add the spices and stir to coat the veg
6. Add the tinned tomatoes and tomato puree and let it simmer until it begins to thicken
7. Add the spinach and stir to distribute it evenly throughout the sauce
8. Add 6-8 (depending on how many servings you want) pinches of vegan cheese and spread them evenly around the pan. Add a lid and set simmer for around 5 minutes until the cheese has melted
9. Serve with a spinkle of coriander and enjoy!