Recently I whipped up some dinner with veggies I grew in the garden. It was a good time, and some of y’all requested a recipe so here we go:

Baked Eggs with Summer Vegetables

Ingredients

1 brown Onion, diced
2 cloves Garlic, crushed
1 long red chilli, finely chopped (inclusion of seeds is entirely up to you and your tolerance for heat)
1 bunch Coriander, stems finely chopped, leaves reserved for garnish
2 zucchini, diced
1 large eggplant (or a couple of Lebanese eggplants), diced
Around 800g tomatoes, diced and blended (OR two tins of tomatoes. Either is good!)
Zest of 1 orange
1tsp Cumin seeds (ground is good too, just halve the amount)
1tsp Coriander seeds (as above)
1/2 tsp Sumac
Pinch of cinnamon
4-8 Eggs (depending on how hungry you are!)
Ricotta

Method

Sauté onion, garlic, chilli and coriander stems with some oil and a big pinch of salt until soft and fragrant.
If you are using fresh tomatoes: In a different pot, simmer the blended tomatoes until the colour starts to deepen.
Add the zucchini and eggplant to the onion mix and cook until they start to soften- you’ll likely need more oil at this point. Add spices and zest, then add the simmered tomato puree (or your tins of tomato).
Add a good splash of water (maybe half a cup?) and allow to simmer until the veggies are soft and everything is delicious. If it starts to look a little dry add some more water, and stir occasionally.
Season with plenty of salt and pepper. You’ll likely also need a good pinch or two of brown sugar, depending on the acidity of the tomatoes.

The ideal pan for this part of the recipe is a large, deep frypan with a lid. You can still make it work with whatever you’ve got though. My frypan can comfortably do 6 eggs, 8 at a squish. Number of eggs is entirely up to you, although I’d say this recipe can serve 4 people, with the addition of your carb of choice: toast is an easy option, but couscous would be awesome too.

Create a little hollow in the sauce with the back of your spoon and carefully crack in the egg. Repeat for however many eggs you’re doing. Cover with a lid and let the eggs simmer on low heat for a couple of minutes. You want them to be runny, but not raw. I find shaking the pan gently is a good way to test the firmness of the whites. Also consider that the eggs will continue to cook in the warm sauce so you want to serve them when they’re neeeeaaaaarly perfect so they don’t overcook.

Use a large spoon to carefully scoop out each egg with some sauce onto whatever you’re serving this with (aka the aforementioned toast/couscous) and top it off with some ricotta, the coriander leaves and a big ole’ glug of extra virgin olive oil. A little more salt and pepper wouldn’t go astray.