Mushroom and black rice chachouka recipe
A classic chachouka uses peppers and tomatoes, which are cooked together before being finished off with baked eggs, but the concept is endlessly adaptable. Bake or roast almost any tasty combination of veg (plus grains and/or pulses if you like), then break in the eggs for the last 10 minutes of cooking, and you have a tasty, well- balanced supper. This is also a good way to use up leftover rice or other cooked grains.
Ingredients
- 150 g black or red rice, or any other kind of wholegrain rice, pre-soaked if time
- 500 g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 1 –2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 small preserved lemons, finely diced, or finely grated zest of 1 lemon
- 250 g spinach
- 2 tsp crème fraîche
- 4 eggs
- 1 handful almonds, roughly chopped
- 1 pinch each of sea salt and black pepper
Details
- Cuisine: North African
- Recipe Type: Mushrooms
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 20 mins
- Cooking Time: 70 mins
- Serves: 4
Step-by-step
- Cook the rice in plenty of gently simmering, lightly salted water for 20–35 minutes (the time will vary depending on the particular type of rice). Drain well.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C fan/375°F/gas mark 5.
- Put the mushrooms and onion into a large roasting dish, trickle with 1 tbsp oil and season with a pinch of salt and a twist of pepper.
- Roast for about 30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the mushrooms are well coloured and the onion is tender.
- Stir in the garlic, diced lemons or lemon zest and the spinach. Return to the oven for 5–10 minutes, until the spinach is wilted.
- Stir the cooked rice into the roasted veg. Dot over the crème fraîche and swirl it in a little. Make 4 shallow dips in the veg, to accommodate the eggs.
- Break the eggs into the dips. Pepper everything generously and scatter the chopped almonds over the veg, between the eggs.
- Return the dish to the oven for 8–10 minutes or until the egg whites are fully set but the yolks are still runny. Serve straight away.
This recipe is from Eat Better Forever by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (Bloomsbury Publishing, £26). Out now. Photography by Simon Wheeler.
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