This vegan baked shakshuka with butter beans is a plant-based take on a beloved Middle Eastern dish. It swaps eggs for hearty butter beans and leans into a smoky, spiced tomato base. The recipe comes from Happy Vegan Food by Bettina Campolucci Bordi.

This version keeps things simple but delivers big on flavor. The sauce simmers with sweet paprika, cayenne, and sun-dried tomatoes. Red pepper, onion, and eggplant add texture and depth. Butter beans soak up all that rich flavor while offering a good dose of plant protein and fiber. Once the sauce thickens and gets sticky, it’s ready to serve straight from the pan.

This dish works well for brunch, lunch, or dinner. You can enjoy it with crusty bread, a drizzle of pesto, or a dollop of plant-based yogurt. It’s easy to batch cook and reheat too, making it ideal for busy days. If you want to level it up, try it with sliced avocado or lemon wedges on the side.

Put together the baked shakshuka with butter beans

This baked shakshuka is cozy, smoky, and full of flavor. Butter beans replace eggs for a plant-based twist, while sun-dried tomatoes and spices bring depth. Perfect with bread, pesto, or a spoonful of yogurt. A fuss-free one-pan meal you’ll keep coming back to – any time of day.

a pan of baked shakshuka with butter beans and aubergine

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Servings

Ingredients

80 ml olive oil
½ red onion chopped
½ red bell pepper chopped
½ aubergine chopped
1 x 400 g tin of tomatoes
230 g tinned butter beans drained
4 sundried tomatoes chopped
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pink Himalayan salt and black pepper to taste

To serve

Handful of chopped parsley
Good-quality shop-bought bread
Drizzle of pumpkin seed pesto
Dollops of plant yoghurt shop-bought or home-made
Lemon wedges
A few cherry tomatoes to garnish (optional)
A few endive leaves to garnish (optional)

Instructions

In a medium pan, heat the oil and fry the onion, pepper and aubergine with a tiny pinch of salt for 10–15 minutes. It is important you use a good amount of oil here to get it going and to make sure that the veggies soften properly.
Then add the tomatoes, beans, sundried tomatoes and all the spices and seasoning, give it a good stir and leave on a medium heat, covered, for 10 minutes.
Check on the mixture when the time is up, give it a stir and leave for another 10 minutes.
By now the shakshuka should be done, the liquid should have mostly cooked off and turned sticky and there should be a smoky gorgeous mixture in your pan.
Serve immediately from the pan with a good sprinkle of chopped parsley, avocado slices, home-made bread for dipping and if you have some pumpkin seed pesto, get that in too, along with some plant yoghurt and lemon wedges to squeeze over.

This recipe is republished with permission from Happy Vegan Food by Bettina Campolucci Bordi (Hardie Grant, £15), Photography © Nassima Rothacker.