Our recipes No. 1: Our Shakshuka

Shakshuka is a traditional middle eastern dish with many variations on both its spelling and it's exact recipe, but the essence of it is tomato and eggs. I have eaten it in Israel, if you check out my blip for August 16th 2011. This is a low calorie version inspired partly by Yotam Ottolenghi and his cookbook Plenty where he describes eating it in the backstreets of Old Jaffa. The ingredients and calories for two people in this recipe are:

350gm of tomatoes, finely chopped (65 cals)
1 small pepper, chopped (30 cals)
50gm diced onions (15 cals)
10ml garlic infused oil (85 cals)
20gm tomato puree (20 cals)
4 eggs (300 cals)
Plus a clove of garlic, a few strands of Saffron, a few dollops of smoked tobasco, a sprinkle of cumin seed and chopped fresh coriander

Which works out at just under 260 calories per person, although you really need to eat it with a chunk of good bread to fill you up, at least 80 - 100 calories per person.

Basically you cook the onion, garlic and pepper on a very low heat in a heavy pan with the infused oil for a few minutes. This version uses a lot less oil than the traditional one so is less rich but many fewer calories; so be careful to make the ingredients sweat in the heavy pan without sticking. Dry fry the cumin seed in a separate heavy pan like a skillet for two or three minutes then add to the mix, along with the chopped tomato and tomato puree, saffron and tobasco. From here on in you need to cook for ten or fifteen minutes, adding small amounts of water as you go. Yotam says you want something like a pasta sauce consistency, not too dry, not too sloppy, which is about right. When you have a nice rich sauce then season with salt and pepper and add the chopped coriander and divide the mixture in to four ramekins, breaking an egg on to each. Bake in the oven for ten - fifteen minutes until the eggs are cooked but not hard.

Believe me, when you eat it and dip your bread in, you'll be in heaven. Great brunch at the weekend.