Shakshouka Rancheros

Servings6

Time to Cook15 minutes

Time to Prepare15 minutes

Recipe developed for BC Egg by Diversivore

Looking for a hearty, nutritionally dense, low-fat, low-calorie meal that’s also delicious? Here it is!

Ingredients

1 ancho chili
4 roma tomatoes
4 tomatillos
1 medium onion
1 tbsp butter
1 cup summer squash diced
4 cloves garlic
8 squash blossoms thinly sliced
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp ground chipotle powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp ground annatto (optional)
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
1 can pinto beans
6 large eggs
2-3 sprigs cilantro chopped, to serve
50 g unaged goat cheese to serve
1 large avocado diced, to serve

Instructions

Bring a kettle of water to a boil. Remove the stem and (if you like) shake/scrape out the excess seeds from the ancho chili. Soak the stemmed/seeded pepper in 3/4 cup very hot water and set aside.
Boil water, add tomatoes and tomatillos, cook for 8 minutes or until tomatillos are soft and olive green.
Place the softened ancho chili and the soaking liquid in a blender or food processor along with the tomatoes, tomatillos, and onion. Puree the mixture thoroughly.
Melt the butter in a large skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-high heat. Add the squash and garlic and saute for 1 minute, then add squash blossoms and cook for an additional minute. Add the tomato sauce to the pan and stir in all of the spices. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Add the beans and simmer the mixture until the sauce is thickened and reduced; about 6-8 minutes.
Use a spoon to create six ‘pockets’ in the sauce. Crack an egg into each pocket and poach the eggs in the sauce until done to your liking (I recommend a slightly runny medium-poach myself).
Serve the eggs and the veggies/sauce in individual bowls and garnish with avocado, cilantro, and goat cheese. Alternately, you can garnish the entire pan and serve it in the center of the table, family style.

Notes

Squash blossoms are a lovely, textural, tasty element to add to a dish like this, but they can be tricky to find. If you don’t have any, day lily buds actually make a tasty replacement as well, but unless you garden your own (and many people do – they’re a wildly popular ornamental), they’re not likely to be easy to find either. If you don’t have either flower, take the recipe in a different direction and add some savoy cabbage, or even just a larger portion of summer squash.