What Is Shakshuka and Where Did It Really Come From?

Shakshuka is eggs poached whole in a thick, slightly spiced sauce of tomatoes, peppers, onion and garlic, cooked and served in one pan and eaten with bread. Most of the time, Tunisia is given as the country where it originated. During the 20th century, it spread widely through the Middle East. It's neither Greek nor Turkish, but there is a dish in Turkish food that is very similar to it called menemen. Some people eat it for breakfast or brunch, and the spices aren't very strong.

The Dish Everyone Has Seen and Nobody Can Place

From Melbourne to Kampong Glam, you can find shakshuka on brunch menus. It's always cooked in the same cast-iron pan and photographed from above.

Not many people who order it can also tell you where it comes from. If you ask around, you'll get Israel, Turkey, Greece, Morocco, and sometimes, for some reason no one can explain, Japan.

There's only one that's close.

Come with me as I start by talking about what's in the pan.

What Is Shakshuka Made Of?

Fewer ingredients than the photographs suggest.

The eggs are the definitional part. They go in whole, they sit in shallow wells, and they poach in the sauce with the whites setting while the yolks stay loose. That single detail separates shakshuka from every dish it gets confused with.

Shakshuka Origin: What Country Is It Actually From?

North Africa. More specifically, the Maghreb. Food historians say that it comes from Tunisia, but you can also find versions of it in Libya, Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt.

The name backs it up. The word "shakshuka" comes from Maghrebi Arabic and means "mixed" or "shook together." This is a good way to describe what is happening in the pan.

Here's the bigger picture. This question comes up more often than any other, so it's important to get it right.

What is well documented:

• The dish is North African in origin, built on tomatoes and peppers, both of which arrived in the region from the Americas and were absorbed into local cooking over the following centuries.
• It travelled widely in the twentieth century, most significantly when Jewish communities from Tunisia and across the Maghreb emigrated to Israel in the decades after 1948, bringing the dish with them. It became a staple of Israeli breakfast and café culture, which is why a great many people outside the region first met it as an Israeli dish.
• Versions are now eaten across the Levant, the Gulf and the wider Middle East, each with local adjustments.

What is contested:

• Some accounts trace its spread through the Ottoman Empire rather than through North Africa. The evidence for a Maghrebi origin is stronger, but the Ottoman route is not a fringe claim and it is why the dish sometimes gets described as Turkish.
• As with hummus, baklava and most of the region's best food, the ownership argument tends to carry more freight than the cooking does. Multiple communities have been making versions of this for a long time and all of them have a legitimate claim on their own version.

So: North African by origin, Israeli by adoption and global reputation, Middle Eastern by current geography. All three statements are true at once.

Is Shakshuka Greek or Turkish?

Neither. But both countries have their own version of the same idea, and the confusion is understandable.

Three dishes, one idea, three different countries arriving at it independently because tomatoes, peppers and eggs are cheap, available and good together.

The one difference that matters: in shakshuka the eggs stay whole. In menemen and strapatsada they get stirred in. If the yolk is intact and sitting in a well, you are eating shakshuka. If it is a soft scramble streaked with tomato, you are eating one of the other two.

Is Shakshuka a Japanese Dish?

No. There is no connection at all, in ingredients, history or technique.

This question circulates for reasons nobody has satisfactorily explained, possibly a mishearing of the name. Shakshuka is North African, and nothing about it touches Japanese cooking.

What Does Shakshuka Taste Like?

With cumin sitting under it all, it's rich, sour, and slightly warm.

The main note is tomato, which was cooked long enough to lose its raw edge and become sweet and concentrated. With peppers, there's even more sweetness. Shakshuka doesn't taste like tomatoes with eggs in them; it tastes like shakshuka because of the earthy warmth that cumin gives it. When you break the shell, it makes the whole thing taste better and look better.

Is it hot? Not often, no. Most of them are warm instead of hot. In Tunisia and some parts of Libya, the dish is made with harissa, which can add a lot of heat. In cafés, the chilli is often served on the side instead of in the pan. For either direction, if heat is important to you, please ask.

It should have a thick texture. One that you can drink is one that didn't work out.

What Do You Eat With Shakshuka?

Bread, and this is not a suggestion.

There are no forks in a traditional shakshuka. The sauce is the point and bread is the tool, torn and dragged through the pan. Challah is common where the dish took hold in Israel, pita and flatbread across the Levant, and Turkish ekmek does the job as well as anything.

Beyond bread, the usual company:

• Feta or a salty white cheese, crumbled over at the end
• Labneh or thick yogurt, cooling against the spice
• Olives and pickles, for the salt and the acid
• Fresh herbs, parsley or coriander, thrown over at the last moment
• Harissa on the side, for anyone who wants heat without imposing it on the table
• A simple chopped salad, cucumber and tomato, which is how it usually arrives across the region
• Strong coffee or tea. It is a breakfast dish.

Skip the bread and you are eating a bowl of tomato sauce with eggs in it. The bread is structural.

Is Shakshuka Healthy or Unhealthy?

Reasonably healthy, with three honest qualifications.

What is genuinely good about it: eggs bring protein and the sauce is essentially cooked vegetables. Tomatoes, peppers, onion and garlic, slowly cooked in olive oil, is the backbone of the Mediterranean diet. There is no cream, no flour and no sugar in a proper version. It is filling for what it is and it keeps you going through a morning.

The three qualifications:

• Olive oil quantity. A good shakshuka uses a generous amount, and that is where a large share of the calories sit. It is good fat, but it is still fat, and café versions are often more generous than home ones.
• The bread. Nobody eats this without bread, and the bread usually contributes more calories than the eggs. That is fine, as long as you are counting it.
• The add-ons. Feta adds salt and fat. Merguez, sucuk or chorizo versions change the picture entirely. Plain shakshuka and shakshuka with sausage are not the same dish nutritionally.

Vegetarian: yes, in the standard version. Vegan: no, the eggs are the dish. Gluten free: the shakshuka itself is, the bread is not.

Compared with most things on a brunch menu, it is among the better choices. That is a fair claim and it does not need inflating.

Four Mistakes That Ruin Shakshuka

For anyone attempting it at home, these are the four that account for most failures.

• Sauce too thin. If the tomato has not reduced properly, the eggs sink and spread instead of sitting in a well. Cook the sauce down until a spoon leaves a track before the eggs go anywhere near it.
• Heat too high. Eggs poaching in tomato need a gentle simmer. High heat gives you rubbery whites and a split, oily sauce.
• No lid. Without one, the tops of the whites stay raw while you wait, and by the time they set the yolks are hard. Cover the pan.
• Eggs in too early. The sauce should already taste finished before the eggs arrive. Once they are in, you cannot season, stir or adjust anything.

What to Order if You Want This in Singapore

Straight talk: shakshuka comes from North Africa, and our kitchen is Turkish and Lebanese. It's not on our menu.

What we do have is its cousin in Turkey. It's the same idea: eggs, tomatoes, and peppers all in one pan, cooked the Turkish way, with the eggs mixed in to make a soft scramble instead of poached whole. Not as strong, but still tastes great with bread. For many Turks, this is the only thing they eat for breakfast on the weekends.

For people who like shakshuka, menemen is something new to try, not something the same as it.

It's also important to know about the rest of the table. There is more than one dish at a Turkish breakfast. There are cheeses, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, honey, whipped cream, warm bread, and tea that keeps coming. It should take two hours, and it does.

Anatolia Restaurant Singapore at 58 Arab Street, just Seven minutes from Bugis MRT, and it's open from 10 a.m. Every single thing is made with only safe ingredients. If you're going with a group, you should reserve a table because the breakfast spread tastes better with more people.

Related reading:

• What Makes a Traditional Turkish Breakfast So Special
• Turkish Food Culture: 27 Dishes You Must Know
• Turkish Lentil Soup: Why Mercimek Starts Every Meal

Frequently Asked Questions

What country is shakshuka from?

North Africa, with Tunisia the most commonly cited origin. Versions are eaten across Libya, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. It became a staple of Israeli breakfast culture in the twentieth century, carried there by Jewish communities from the Maghreb, which is how most people outside the region first encountered it.

Is shakshuka Greek or Turkish?

Neither. It is North African. Turkey has a close relative called menemen and Greece has one called strapatsada, but both scramble the eggs through the sauce rather than poaching them whole.

Is shakshuka a Japanese dish?

No. There is no connection to Japanese cuisine in ingredients, history or method.

What is the difference between shakshuka and menemen?

In shakshuka the eggs are cracked whole into the sauce and poached, so the yolks stay intact. In menemen the eggs are stirred through into a soft scramble. Menemen is also milder, using pul biber rather than cumin and harissa.

What does shakshuka taste like?

Rich and tangy from slow-cooked tomato, sweet from peppers, with earthy warmth from cumin. Most versions are mildly spiced rather than hot.

Is shakshuka spicy?

Usually not. Tunisian and Libyan versions using harissa can carry real heat, but most café versions are warm rather than hot. Chilli is often served on the side.

What do you eat with shakshuka?

Bread, above all, torn and used to scoop the sauce. Commonly served with feta or labneh, olives, fresh herbs, a chopped salad and strong coffee.

Is shakshuka healthy?

Reasonably. It is eggs and slow-cooked vegetables in olive oil, with no cream, flour or sugar. The qualifications are the amount of olive oil, the bread that comes with it, and add-ons like feta or sausage.

Is shakshuka vegetarian or vegan?

Vegetarian in its standard form. Not vegan, since the eggs are the dish itself.

Why is my shakshuka watery?

The tomato sauce was not reduced enough before the eggs went in. Cook it down until a spoon leaves a track through it, then make wells for the eggs.

Quick Recap

Shakshuka is a dish of whole poached eggs in a thick, spiced tomato and pepper sauce that is served with bread. It comes from North Africa, specifically Tunisia, and is famous all over the world because Maghrebi groups brought it to Israel as a breakfast food in the last hundred years.

It's not Turkey. It's still a good idea to add eggs to it instead of meat, though.

Order bread either way.

See the Turkish breakfast menu or book a table at 58 Arab Street.