Fall-inspired Instant Pot shakshuka is a delicious and healthy meal with butternut squash, tomatoes, feta cheese, and eggs. Serve it with warm crusty bread.
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: Shakshuka is a lively flavorful dish with pretty simple ingredients. Butternut squash contrasts perfectly with the spicy tomatoes.
How long it takes: 15 minutes to prep, 30 minutes to cook
Equipment you’ll need: Instant Pot pressure cooker
Servings: 4
Shakshuka is a vegetarian tomato-based spicy stew, topped with eggs cooked right in the sauce. It’s popular in many Middle Eastern countries. Some of you may be familiar with it and it may be a new recipe for others. Of course, like any other recipe, there are many variations.
Today I’m deviating quite a bit from more traditional recipes to give a nod to one of my favorite fall vegetables: butternut squash. I think it goes well in shakshuka. The creamy sweetness of the squash contrasts perfectly with spicy tomatoes, balancing out the acidity.
This is a fun fall-inspired version, loaded with spicy tomatoes, green peppers, creamy bites of butternut squash, garnished with crunchy pepitas and briny feta cheese. And, better yet, it’s made in a pressure cooker, so it’s quick and easy!
About Instant Pot Shakshuka With Squash
- It’s a healthy meal. Whether you enjoy it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, shakshuka is a nutritious and satisfying vegetarian meal. Eggs add extra protein, along with feta cheese. With loads of vitamin A and potassium, along with fiber and antioxidants, this is a good-for-you choice. Shakshuka is low calorie, gluten-free and easy to adapt for Whole30 and low carb diets.
- Easy to make and clean up! You’ll need about fifteen minutes of prep time to get this shakshuka recipe in the pressure cooker. That’s the only pan you’ll have to wash, too!
- So much flavor! This Instant Pot shakshuka is guaranteed to wake up your taste buds. It’s loaded with green peppers, onions, and chunks of sweet, flavorful butternut squash, and seasoned with garlic, chili powder, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and oregano. Fresh parsley, shelled pumpkin seeds, and feta cheese add a final flourish to the dish.
Cooking Tip
Be sure to check out this tutorial on how to cook butternut squash. It includes step-by-step photos of how to peel and cut butternut squash.How To Make Instant Pot Shakshuka
I’ll give you a quick overview of the recipe here but be sure to refer to the recipe card for the list of ingredients and specific instructions.
Prep the vegetables you’ll be using. Peel and halve the squash, then cut it into cubes (or buy pre-cut butternut squash in the deli). Chop an onion and a green bell pepper. Mince a clove or two of garlic.
Sauté. Use the Sauté function of the Instant Pot to soften up the onions and green peppers. Add the garlic for a minute, stirring constantly. Turn off the Instant Pot.
Pressure cook the sauce. Add the canned tomatoes (don’t drain them), butternut squash, and the spices: chili powder, smoked paprika, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Stir well; cover the pot, and set it to Pressure Cook for 8 minutes. Remember that it will take about 10 minutes to come to pressure.
Pressure cook the eggs in the sauce. Once the sauce has cooked, uncover the Instant Pot, and carefully add the eggs. I crack the eggs into a ladle, nestle the ladle into the hot tomato stew and gently transfer the eggs. eggs are poached right in the hot tomato stew. Set the Instant Pot to Pressure cook again, for zero minutes. It will come to pressure quickly and be done! The eggs will be perfectly cooked with a soft yolk.
Serve. When the eggs are finished cooking, the shakshuka is ready to serve. Serve it in shallow bowls, garnished with toasted pepitas, crumbled feta cheese, and a sprinkling of fresh parsley.
The flavors are cozy, comforting, and irresistible. Be sure to have warm crusty bread to dip in the tomato sauce and egg yolk for the perfect breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Try my no-knead Dutch oven bread, homemade beer bread, or no-knead whole wheat bread.
Adaptations You Can Make to Shakshuka
- Omit the butternut squash. If you prefer, substitute carrots or sweet potatoes. You can also make a more traditional version of shakshuka without squash.
- Make it Whole30/gluten-free: Make this Whole30 compliant by omitting the feta and skipping the bread.
- Cook the eggs differently: The whites are cooked fully and the yolks are perfectly runny when you serve this immediately. If you let the eggs sit in the hot tomato sauce, they will continue to cook. If you don’t care for runny yolks, leave the eggs in the sauce for 2 to 3 minutes (with the pressure cooker on warm) or until they achieve the firmness you desire.
- Love the idea of making eggs in the pressure cooker? You’ll love making boiled eggs in the Instant Pot. They peel amazingly well!
Refrigerate/Freeze: The sauce can be made ahead of time and refrigerated, up to 3 days in advance. It can also be frozen for up to a month.
Reheat: If the tomato stew is frozen, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator or in the microwave. When you’re ready to serve the shakshuka, heat the sauce in a skillet or saucepan until it’s simmering. Slip the eggs into the tomato stew, cover the pan and continue to cook 4 to 8 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs to be done.
Instant Pot Shakshuka Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup diced yellow onion (about ½ large onion)
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 cups diced butternut squash (½ inch cubes)
- 1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes, undrained, coarsely chopped (reduce sodium by choosing no-salt-added canned tomatoes)
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, additional for garnishing
- 4 large eggs
- ¼ cup crumbled feta, more to taste
- 1 tablespoon shelled roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
- Bread for serving
Instructions
- Using the Saute function, heat Instant Pot and add olive oil. Add onion, bell pepper, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring, for 4 to 5 minutes or until onions are soft and translucent. Add garlic and continue to cook, stirring, for about 1 minute or until garlic is fragrant.
- Add squash, tomatoes, chili powder, smoked paprika, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine.
- Lock the lid on the pressure cooker; set valve to seal. Select Pressure Cook (or High on the manual setting, depending on your model) for 8 minutes. When time has elapsted, quick release pressure and remove lid.
- Stir in parsley. Crack 4 eggs into the tomato mixture (see the note below for a good method to do this). Replace cover, set valve to seal. Select Pressure Cook (or High pressure on the manual setting) for 0 minutes (ZERO minutes – not a typo!). Quick release pressure and remove lid.
- Serve immediately (see note about yolks) topped with crumbled feta cheese, pumpkin seeds, and additional parsley. Warm crust bread is perfect for dipping into the sauce.
Notes
- Crack the eggs into a ladle first. Press the egg-filled ladle down into the sauce; pour the eggs into the well created by the ladle. That prevents the egg whites from spreading too much.
- The whites are cooked fully and the yolks are perfectly runny when you serve this immediately after you do a quick release of the pressure. If you continue to let the eggs sit in the hot tomato sauce, they will continue to cook. If you like a firmer yolk, leave the eggs in the sauce for 2 to 3 minutes (with the pressure cooker on warm) or until they have cooked to your liking.
- Make this paleo and Whole30 compliant by omitting the feta and bread.
- Nutrition information does not include bread.
- Diced tomatoes can be substituted for the whole tomatoes. I like to cut the whole tomatoes using a scissors right inside the can for a rustic cut for this recipe.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
This looks like a dish I would love either for breakfast or dinner. I would probably have a protein shake on the side for breakfast, but what protein would you recommend for dinner? I find the protein content to be too low, and I would love to increase it. What would you suggest?
Some breakfast sausage would be yummy! An apple chicken sausage would complement the flavors well. You could serve it on the side or saute it with the peppers and onions and incorporate it in the shakshuka. If you’re looking for meatless protein, adding some chickpeas into the shakshuka would be tasty as well!
I made this tonight. It was delicious! So easy and quick to make!
My hubby loved it too! I may have overcooked the eggs but it was so tasty it didn’t matter. Next time the eggs will be perfect!
Thanks Rachel!
So glad to hear that! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment, it means a lot to me!
This was amazing! Best IP recipe I have made in a bit. Spot on with the egg timing, After much debate with my partner about egg doneness, I left them in for exactly one minute of pressure and they had just slightly firm yolks but still tender.
I’m so glad to hear you liked this! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
This is one of the oddest things I have ever made but it was so so good!!
I love that you tried something new and unique! Glad you liked it!
wow! this sounds good and easy.
It’s so easy and good! Thanks Denise!
Rachel this is delicious. I’m did substitute zucchini for butternut squash as I’m eating keto and just cooked 2,minutes in instant pot. Thank you for such a great recipe.
I’m so excited that you made this already! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment! I love how you adapted it to be keto – sounds yummy!