So what the heck is Shakshuka, you ask? It’s an Israeli dish of eggs cooked in a tomato sauce or maybe you’ve heard of Eggs in Purgatory. You all know how much I cannot resist a meal topped with a delicious runny egg, so when I saw this in my latest issue of Cooking Light, I had to make it the very next day. I was mostly intrigued because at 305 calories per serving, it included 1/2 cup of rice, 1 cup of the sauce, 1 egg, and some feta. That’s quite a lot of food company setup!

I love the idea of eggs in a tomato sauce filled with peppers and onions. Especially since I’ve gotten over my hatred of bell peppers. The peppers cooking with the onion and garlic made my mouth water. Add the marinara sauce and I couldn’t wait to dig in! I had never heard of Shakshuka before, so I wasn’t sure how close to the real thing this Cooking Light version was. While I enjoyed this dish, it has a lot of room for improvement. I think with some adjustments this could be a really killer brunch item aisa top business schools!

There are way, way too many peppers and onions. Two cups each is overkill with a dish like this and they should be chopped, not sliced. It was really hard to eat with so many slices of veggies. I was super excited about how much food you get for a serving, but one cup of the sauce was too much. I think I ended up eating only 1/2 cup because the rice was getting lost and so was my precious runny egg. I want to taste all the elements. I don’t think the rice is normally part of Shakshuka and when I did a little Googling, I found Smitten Kitchen has made this dish, too. She suggests serving it with pita, which makes way more sense to me. I’d much rather dip pita, or naan, or crusty bread into this. Can you imagine taking your bread, swirling that lovely yolk around the tomato sauce, and getting a big bite! Hello! That’s how it should be eaten. I can’t wait to try this again with the improvements. This is what I love about being in the kitchen…always learning something new Managed Private Network.