u/Earl-The-Badger

I'm new to the Mediterranean diet (switched to support a loved one who is switching due to a heart attack), and am loving it so far. It helps that I already loved a ton of the main staples and ingredients before. I had never had shakshua before - and now it's my favorite food! No, seriously, I found my #1 favorite food by switching to this diet.

I want tips and tricks from shakshuka experts on what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, and what you do with yours to make it better.

I know it looks messy and I suck at taking photos but damn, this tastes so good. My method (cooks a single serving, and I cook one serving on its own every morning because it's fun):

• Dice about 1/4 of a yellow onion and 1/6 of a red bell pepper, sometimes also some green onion or shallots
• Add a swizzle of olive oil to a preheated pan, throw the onion and pepper in
• Saute for however long it takes until they look how I want them to
• Mince 2-3 garlic cloves (I love garlic) directly onto the pan
• Add a small sprinkle of red pepper flakes, a sprinkle of salt, a sprinkle of ground black pepper, a sprinkle of cumin, and a sprinkle of paprika
• Stir it up, let everything get acquainted until aromatized
• Add about 1/3 can of low salt or unsalted stewed or crushed tomatos
• Let stew for about 20 minutes (perfect time of the day to do last night's dishes, feed dogs, make a coffee, whatever)
• Make a little divet, crack one egg in, try to cover everything but the yoke
• Cover, poach, hopefully I get the timing perfect and the white is set but the yoke is runny (but it's delicious even if over-poached)
• Put it on a piece of toasted sourdough

I need to experiment more with other things to add in it. Definitely want to try it with mushrooms, maybe other colors of onions/bell peppers. Has anyone tried it with black olives? Is that good? Also excited to play around with the spices a bit, any recommendations?