In the Kitchen with The Anxious Enthusiast

Every Season Vegetable Shakshuka

Recipes for Anxious Chefs #1

What follows is not the first recipe I learned to cook. It is not the sexiest. And yet, it is the ultimate in comfort food. It is cozy and inviting. It is warming without bringing the heat of winter soup. It is entirely shareable. It is as easy as you’d like it to be, as quick as you make it, and always pleasing.

Shakshuka is a recipe I began making during lockdown for “meatless Monday”, our house’s endeavor to add variety to our diet while eating less meat.

This recipe is one of my favorites, a go-to not only because it is delicious, but also because it has infinite variations and changes throughout the year for us. As the wheel of the year turns, so too does the veg at the base of this delectable dish. In this way, it is entirely seasonal in its nature, a celebration of every cycle, every phase of the moon, month, and growing schedule.

In the Kitchen

There is no better cure for my anxious unrest than the making and eating of cozy, earthy, thoughtful food. My time in the kitchen is sacred to me, as is the time I spend partaking in the product of my love. I show myself the deepest, truest kind of self-care in the preparation, assembly, and consumption of creative and intentional nourishment.

The journey of creating food as therapy is one that I have let slip from my grasp as of late. Between dieting, working, meal planning and streamlining, eating out to save the restaurants, and then eating out because I could, I have lost some connection to the joy I feel in the kitchen and it is taking its toll.

Kitchen Therapy

When my dad died, I came to understand the therapy of my time in the kitchen. Of course I cooked for others to show my love for them in the beginnings of my cooking experience, but during the darkest hours of grieving, someone told me to read the children’s book Tear Soup by Pat Schwiebert and Chuck DeKlyen. It had great impact, not on my grieving, but on the way I understood my enjoyment of the journey of creating and enjoying food: when I create and enjoy food, I feel loved.

I feel loved when I arrive in the kitchen. There is a kind of slowness that I allow myself in the kitchen that I do not allow myself anywhere else. The movement of my hands over vegetables and sauces into pots and pans feels automatic. I can get lost in it and yet I feel entirely present. It is meditative. It is calming. In the kitchen, I know who I am.

I feel loved by my efforts to feed myself well. Like most recipes, this recipe is best when quality ingredients are used: happy/local eggs with thick, orange yolks, farmer’s cheese made from animal milks (or nuts) that are sustainably collected and manufactured, pasta sauce made from the season’s tomatoes or pasta sauce off of the shelf of your local grocer made with ingredients you can read and find fresh on the shelves around you (tomatoes, garlic, onion, oregano, parsley, etc) and vegetables that are in season or from a local market.

I feel loved as I grieve my anxiety and the thoughts that come about as I process my day. It is the best kind of therapy to let my thoughts come and go as I wash, chop, roast, and bathe vegetables and seasonings in sauce or broth. At the end of my cookery, I am often left with something that resembles peace. Rest. Sometimes fatigue, but always hope. Hope for tomorrow, hope for today, and then the promise of dinner, which fills the space my worries have left behind.

Please don’t picture me crying into my Shakshuka. I most often am not crying in the kitchen because it brings me joy. Within its warm embrace, I feel the joy of arriving and being and making and eating.

Sometimes I do arrive anxious and jittery. Sometimes I arrive sad. But most times I leave — after having taken the time to create a food that is for me, after allowing the chop, chop, chop of carrots, sweet potatoes, brussels, peppers, squashes, onions, and/or cauliflower to caress my aching mind, after tossing all of the colors into a roasting pan with all of my worries, critical voices, and disappointments — most times I leave remembering joy.

So here it is, our adventure “In the Kitchen” together is beginning. The following are tales about and conversations around the recipes I love to make and some I simply love to eat and so I suffer the making. Making, like healing, isn’t instant and always takes a little love.

I hope you try my Every Season Vegetable Shakshuka. Try it with carrots, sweet potatoes, brussels, peppers, squashes, onions, and/or cauliflower or make your own version. Try it with your favorite pasta sauce. Try it with pesto! Of all of the recipes that I love, Shakshuka may be the most forgiving and so I am giving it to you for your creation and enjoyment, for a few minutes of pleasure chopping and the full belly that follows.

The Recipe, Serves 3 Hungry or 6 Portion-Minded

What you need for Every Season Vegetable Shakshuka (Eggs in Tomato Sauce):

4 cups Fresh Vegetables, washed & chopped

2 T. Oil, S&P

Tomato Pasta Sauce, 1 large jar

4–8 Eggs

Cheese (optional)

Other Toppings (optional)

One Large Cast Iron Pan: at least 2 inches high, 8 inches in diameter. Enameled is fine. — OR — If you don’t have cast iron, you can use a ceramic dish (at least 8x8) or 6–8 small ramekins if you want to make individual portions.

Fresh Vegetables: washed and chopped for your texture preference. Sometimes I like chunky veg, sometimes I cut the veg smaller for a finer, soupier experience. I often use multiple kinds of veggies; this recipe is a great way to use up what you have in the fridge. You can use frozen or canned veg (skip the roasting step), but it never comes out quite as tasty. You need as much as or enough veg to fill your dish/dishes two-thirds of the way to the top.

Oil, S&P, Herbs & Spices: olive oil, enough to coat the vegetables. You can also use many other kinds of fat, including ghee or vegetable oil. Add Salt & Pepper to taste. You may add other seasonings as desired. Oregano is tasty, as is flaked chili or garlic & herb.

Tomato Pasta Sauce: I love Rao’s Marinara. They sell it at Costco in a two-pack. You could make your own sauce, but I usually don’t. Try making Shakshuka with your favorite spaghetti sauce from the supermarket! If you want to stay meatless, remember that when you are picking a sauce.

Eggs: the happiest you can find. At least one per serving if you are using ramekins. For a 10-inch round pan, I like to use 6 eggs. You can use more or less. I like to use eggs that have been allowed to come to room temperature because they always seem to cook more evenly when they’re not fridge-cold.

Cheese: (optional) I don’t measure cheese. Ever. If you’re like me, it's always like “that looks about right” and then I add a bit more. Just be sure you can still see the tops of the eggs so you can test when they’re done. If you do want cheese on your Shakshuka, get cheese that is melty (like mozzarella) or flavorful (like parmesan, romano, fontina, feta, or gruyere). You could also use spoonfuls of ricotta.

Other toppings: Upon a time or two, we decorated the top of our Shakshuka like a pizza. Meatless options include mushrooms, thinly sliced peppers or onions, olives, or an herb, like sage at the egg/cheese step or fresh basil at the end. Are you okay with meat? I mean, bacon crumbles would be fabulous, or sausage. We added “cupping” pepperoni one time. The sky is the limit people.

Step 1: Roasty Vegetables

Gather fresh, chopped vegetables for oven roasting. In a pan of your choosing (see the note above), toss vegetables in olive oil or melted ghee along with a teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of black pepper. Place uncovered in a 400-degree oven for 25 minutes or until veg is just fork-tender and browning, tossing veg halfway through to recoat with oil and redistribute for even roasting. ***Take eggs out of the fridge (optional, see the note above).

Step 2: Hot Sauce

Option 1: While the vegetables are roasting, you may achieve hot sauce by pouring your jar of pasta sauce into a small, covered saucepan and bringing to hotness over low heat. When vegetables are fork-tender, pour the hot sauce over the vegetables. Stir the sauce in and around, releasing any stuck veg from the bottom of the pan and coating all in sauce. Turn your oven up to 425 degrees.

Option 2: When the vegetables are properly roasted, remove your pan from the oven and pour your favorite pasta sauce over the vegetables. Stir the sauce in and around, releasing any stuck veg from the bottom of the pan and coating all in sauce. Turn your oven up to 425 degrees and place the pan back in the oven for 5 minutes. Retrieve pan from the oven for Step 3: Eggs and Cheese.

Step 3: Eggs & Cheese

Note: Your oven should be set at 425 degrees. Secondly, the Shakshuka base should be HOT. See “Hot Sauce” above. If the base is not hot, put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Count your eggs. With the back of a wooden spoon or ladle, press that number of egg-sized “wells” in the hot sauce and vegetable base BEFORE adding the eggs, leaving a wall of sauce in between each of the wells so that the eggs will not run together. Then, crack one egg into a small bowl and tip the bowl above the well so that the egg rolls neatly into its cozy cook-nook. Proceed similarly with each of the following eggs until the wells have eggs in. Reform the wells as needed with the spoon if they begin to fill with sauce.

Step 4: Bake & Serve

Add shredded, cubed, dolloped, crumbled, or pinched cheese and desired toppings, being sure to leave a “window” above each egg yolk. Place the pan in the oven for a final time. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Shakshuka in my oven usually takes 12–15 minutes. At this point, the cheese is melty and burnished and the eggs are just cooked. The yolk is warm, but thick and runny and just gives when a finger is padded atop it.

Eggs continue to cook in the melty, cheesy, saucy Shakshuka heat, so if you LOVE a good poach with runny yolks, stay close and take the pan out before the eggs are fully cooked. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to set for 5 minutes before serving.

Serving Options:

Serve it like a Francophile: with a glass of Cotes du Rhone and a torn baguette.

Serve it Gluten Free: over kale or riced cauliflower.

Serve it Italian (Eggs in Purgatory): top with fresh basil, serve over a hunk of crusty bread — for breakfast!

Serve it For a Crowd: make veg/hot sauce in ramekins ahead of time. Warm in the oven (hot sauce! 425 degrees for 5–10 minutes), and have each person add their own eggs and toppings if you want your guests to get hands-on. Begin with a salad course. Serve with crostinis, garlic bread, or parmesan crisps, and follow with something store-bought for dessert so you are enjoying your own party the whole time! Just add wine and people will think you’re a domestic goddess.

Serve it like The Anxious Girl: often and with changing seasonal vegetables and cheeses from her local cheesemonger. Alongside steamed green beans, sweet peas, or an easy Caesar salad. Sat in a plush chair with a scarf blanket, surrounded by dogs, drinking Pellegrino, Chianti or Zinfandel.

Please feel free to check out my profile: Brett Jenae Tomlin. Comment below if we have something in common, if you have anxiety or if you like what you’ve read. Do you have any questions for me?

If you love, love, love my writing and want to shout out, “You get it, anxious girl!” You can contribute to my cookbook collection here.

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On Planning Your Next Getaway: 9 Anxiety-Friendly Amenities of All-Inclusive Travel

On Learning to Let Go: Six Mental Health Benefits of Learning to Play

On Body Image: Summer Body, Part 1

On Coming Out: My Bi Life, Part 1