Any of you guys remember my Shakshuka post? The following recipe might remind you of that for two reasons; it’s got eggs and it’s cooked in a skillet. Otherwise they’re pretty different recipes altogether. I’m not gonna lie this was pretty time consuming for a breakfast but well worth the effort. Or at least that’s what my boyfriend seemed to think when he was eating it. That’s right I didn’t even eat this amazing meal. Crazy right?
One thing you should know about me (if you haven’t read many of my blog posts yet), is that I tend to cut certain things out of my diet, either for health or experimental reasons. I am trying to be way more flexible now and allowing myself to have those “forbidden foods” once in a while as opposed to never, but with dairy I still try to eat it on rare occasions. And I usually want those occasions to be realllllly really worth it. Like for a decadent dessert or an amazing pasta.
But just because I skip the dairy doesn’t mean that everybody else does and so in the spirit of living vicariously through other peoples’ diets, I made this. I know I might sound like I’m completely off my rocker here but sometimes making something really creamy cheesy for someone else almost satisfies me in a way. Is that weird? Glad you can’t answer that to my face.
I love the colours in this Pico de Gallo. I normally wouldn’t use heirloom tomatoes for a Pico but I had some from the farmers’ market and thought this would be a wonderful dish to use them in.
This dish, just like Shakshuka, is great served with some bread for dipping. A baguette is always great or a healthier whole grain toast.
- 2 red bell peppers, seeded and halved
- 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and halved
- 1/3 cup crème fraîche
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp fresh cilantro,
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/8 tsp ground cumin
- freshly ground pepper
- 2 cups crimini or white mushroooms, sliced
- 1 tbsp butter or olive oil
- 2 eggs
- parmesan sheese (optional)
- 2 heirloom tomatoes, diced
- 1 bell pepper (red or yellow), seeded and diced
- 1 small onion diced
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- Preheat oven to 400f degrees. Place bell pepper halves shiny-side up on a baking dish lined with parchment paper.
- If you want to add flavour to your sauce, you can roast your garlic. To do so, it works better to roast a whole garlic at once, you can save the rest for other recipes. You want to peel the loose skin of the garlic head and cut off the tops. Place the bulb on a sheet of foil, drizzle over 1 tablespoon of olive oil and rub the olive oil onto the entire surface of the bulb. Close the foil and place in the same dish as the peppers. Place in oven and bake, the peppers will only take about 25-30 minutes while the garlic may take closer to 35-40.
- In the meantime, chop up all Pico de Gallo ingredients and mix into a bowl. Set aside.
- When peppers and garlic are done, remove from oven and wrap the peppers up loosely in the parchment paper. Place in the freezer for about 15 minutes, this will allow the skins to peel off a lot easier. Take the garlic out of the foil and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- While the peppers and garlic cool off, heat up 1 tbsp of either butter or olive oil and saute mushrooms for about 7-8 minutes or until browned.
- Now that the garlic has cooled off, you can use a small knife or your fingers to remove the garlic from the skin. A good way to do this is to remove the whole clove from the bulb and squeeze out the soft pulp.
- Once both the peppers and garlic cloves are peeled you can place them in a small food processor along with other sauce ingredients and blend until smooth.
- Now that all your ingredients are ready you can start the assembly. Start by mixing your cooked mushrooms with the sauce and divide into 2 small skillets (if you don't have those you can simply cook the whole thing int a bigger skillet).
- Once the sauce is in the skillets, create little holes with the back of a spoon where you can drop the eggs. I used 1 egg per small skillet but feel free to add more. Cover and allow to simmer on low heat for about 15-20 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs done. Add shredded parmesan 5 minutes before removing (if you are adding it).
- Remove from heat and garnish with Pico de Gallo.