This vegan shakshuka is made with spinach and silken tofu in a smoky tomato and red pepper sauce. It's perfect for breakfast or dinner, easy to make, and absolutely delicious scooped up on crusty pita wedges.
For a long time I've been both intrigued and grossed out by the idea of shakshuka. Grossed out because: eggs. They were always at the top of my least favorite foods list. But even if I could never get past the taste and the smell of eggs, I've got to admit, folks have come up with some pretty cool ways to cook them.
The eggs in shakshuka get poached right in the sauce, which is pretty cool indeed. That's one of the reasons the dish always sounded so intriguing to me. That and the sauce itself.
I got my hands on a jar of shakshuka sauce a couple of years ago (the sauce was vegan — yay!) and loved it. I created by own version and started cooking all kinds of things in it. Tofu and greens were my favorite! Tofu has an eggy texture that works great in dishes like tofu scramble and even vegan quiche. And I love greens in just about anything!
I've enjoyed this vegan shakshuka for broth breakfast and dinner. It's absolutely delicious, easy to make, and can be served plain or made fancy for brunch with delicious toppings and accompaniments.
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Olive oil. You could technically get away with using another high-heat oil, but olive will give your vegan shakshuka the best flavor.
- Onion.
- Red bell peppers.
- Spices. We're using ground cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper.
- Canned crushed tomatoes.
- Fire roasted tomatoes. These will add a delicious, smoky flavor to your shakshuka sauce. You can substitute with regular diced tomatoes if you absolutely must.
- Baby spinach. This isn't normally an ingredient in traditional shakshuka, but it makes a great addition to our vegan version, adding some texture and vibrant flavor.
- Salt and pepper.
- Silken tofu. This is our egg substitute. You can use any firmness of silken tofu that's available, but soft works best.
- Kala namak. This is for adding eggy flavor to the silken tofu. Kala namak (also known as black salt) is a type of salt that's common in Indian cooking and is high in sulfur content, so it's great for making things taste like egg. You can leave it out if you're not super concerned with making this taste like traditional shakshuka. Look for kala namak in Indian markets or online.
- Fresh cilantro.
- Fresh parsley.
- Optional accompaniments. I like to serve my vegan shakshuka with pita wedges, sliced avocado and tofu feta (or store-bought vegan feta).
How It's Made
The following is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Heat your olive oil in a skillet, then add diced onion and bell pepper. Cook the veggies until they start to soften. Add the garlic and spices and cook everything for a minute or so.
Add your tomatoes — both crushed and diced. Stir the mixture up, bring it to a boil, and let it simmer until the peppers are tender.
Tip: I love cooking shakshuka in a cast iron skillet. Make sure if you do this that your skillet is well seasoned. Otherwise the acid from the tomatoes could erode your patina.
Add the spinach. It might not all fit at once! Just add a handful at a time, mixing in each handful until it wilts before adding more. Give the sauce a taste test at this point and season it with salt and pepper.
Add your silken tofu. Grab a spoon and drop it in dollops right into the skillet. Let the mixture simmer for a minute or two more to heat up the tofu.
Take the skillet off of heat. Sprinkle each tofu dollop with some kala namak and black pepper. Top your vegan shakshuka with chopped cilantro and parsley, as well as any additional toppings you'd like to use, such as avocado and vegan feta.
Variation with Pan-Fried Tofu
Prefer regular tofu to silken? You can use it in this recipe! Start with diced super firm or pressed extra firm tofu and pan-fry your tofu in some oil. Optionally, sprinkle it with some lemon juice, kala namak or regular salt, then stir it into your shakshuka sauce.
Leftovers & Storage
Leftover vegan shakshuka will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about 3 days. Reheat it in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove.
More Eggy Vegan Breakfast Recipes
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Vegan Shakshuka
This vegan shakshuka is made with spinach and silken tofu in a smoky tomato and red pepper sauce. It's perfect for breakfast or dinner, easy to make, and absolutely delicious scooped up on crusty pita wedges.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 medium red bell peppers, roughly chopped (1-inch pieces)
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
- 1 (14 ounce/400 gram) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (14 ounce/400 gram) can fire roasted tomatoes
- 4 ounces baby spinach
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 (12.3 ounce) package silken tofu (Note 1)
- ¼ teaspoon kala namak, or to taste (optional)
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Optional Accompaniments
- Sliced avocado
- Vegan feta cheese (store bought or homemade tofu feta)
- Pita bread
Instructions
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Coat the bottom of a large skillet with the olive oil and place it over medium heat.
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When the oil is hot, add the onion and bell peppers. Sweat them for about 5 minutes, until they begin to soften, stirring occasionally.
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Add the garlic, cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper to the skillet. Sauté everything for about 1 minute more, stirring constantly, until the garlic becomes very fragrant.
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Stir in the crushed tomatoes and fire roasted tomatoes. Raise the heat and bring the mixture to a boil.
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Lower the heat and allow the sauce to simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes, until the peppers are soft and the sauce has thickened a bit. You can add a splash of water if it gets too thick while simmering.
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Stir in the spinach and allow the mixture to simmer for about 2 minutes more, until the spinach has fully wilted.
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Carefully taste-test the sauce (it will be hot) and season it with salt and pepper to taste.
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While the sauce is still simmering, use a spoon to scoop dollops of the silken tofu, transferring them right to the skillet. Get about 6 or 7 large scoops and try to distribute them relatively evenly over the sauce.
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Continue simmering the shakshuka for about 2 minutes, just to heat up the tofu.
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Remove the skillet from the heat and sprinkle the tofu with kala namak (or table salt) and black pepper to taste.
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Top with parsley and cilantro, along with any desired additional toppings such as avocado or vegan feta cheese.
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Divide onto plates and serve with pita bread.
Recipe Notes
- Some brands of silken tofu are available in different levels of firmness. Any firmness can be used, though soft is ideal for this recipe.
I have been wanting to make a Shakshuka for a while now, so I'm really excited to try this vegan version! I wasn't sure how best to replace the eggs, but tofu is a great idea.
Thanks Teresa! I hope you enjoy it!
I love your recipes! They are simple and easy to prepare with ingredients I can find! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! And keep ‘Em coming Please! 💞💕❤️😁
Very welcome!! I'm so glad you're enjoying them!
I'm also thinking of using Sliken tofu to give it that soft creamy feel that eggs would have. Asian dishes such as Ma Po tofu uses Silken tofu for a similar stew like type dish.
I wonder if using a silken tofu might make it more egg-like? Extra firm, of course, or it would just pretty much disintegrate. Or maybe smash it a bit and add a little slurry of corn starch and nooch that has the kala namak in it?
I've never made shakshuka, so I'm only guessing here...but that recipe sounds positively WONDERFUL!!! Definitely saving for later! I bet this would be great with injera as well!
I actually considered using silken tofu! I do think it would be eggier, but in the end I went with extra firm just because that's my personal preference. And yes! Injera would be amazing with this! I've been making a cheat version using sourdough starter, so perhaps I'll make some next time I cook this. :)
Hey! I finally got to try this, and I loved it! I didn't make any major changes, but I did add about 2 tsp of brown sugar to the sauce towards the end of the simmer to cut the acidity of the tomatoes and add a little depth to the flavor. I served it with some jasmine rice that I had cooked in coconut milk and it was lovely. My husband doesn't even like peppers or tomatoes very much and he had 3 servings! Thanks again!
That's awesome! And it sounds like a delicious meal! Thanks so much Teresa!
I made this for dinner tonight, and it's quite good! The black salt really does give it an eggy flavor, which I enjoyed. I cut down on the cayenne a bit, since I'm sensitive to the heat, and skipped the black pepper altogether as I dislike it. To me it was still spicy enough to taste good but not too hot. We ate it with homemade bread. Thanks for the delicious recipe--I'm sure I'll make it again sometime!
Sounds like a delicious meal! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
I just made this after having in my TB tried list for a while. Yummy. I did split the paprika at 50:50 b/w sweet and smoked, which I think gave it a lovely kick. I also used roasted Bulgarian style sweet peppers (the long ones) in place of bell peppers. And, I did the fat free trick of baking the silken firm tofu.
There won’t be anything left when we’re through eating, servings be darned.
Sounds delicious! I'm so glad you like it! Thanks Dee!
So tasty. Thankyou
This was really delicious! We have tofu one night a week, and this was our recipe tonight.
I actually had a bunch of recipes put aside before I went low carb, and I’m glad I looked through them to find this one. Bravo! I’ll have to check out your other recipes