Moroccan Cooked Tomato Salad and Shakshuka
Growing up, my Moroccan mother introduced me to the exotic and delicious world of traditional Moroccan appetizers known as mezze. Mezze is a selection of cold and room temperature small plates enjoyed at the start of nearly all midday and evening meals. In our house the array of appetizers would often consist of a carrot salad (raw or cooked) flavored with cumin, garlic and lemon, a dish of roasted pepper strips with olive oil, salt & pepper, cooked spinach in a fresh lemon & olive oil dressing, and diced fresh tomatoes with raw peppers, preserved lemons, parsley and olive oil, kind of like a Moroccan salsa. All were enjoyed with some crusty bread for dipping and scooping before the main course.
There were many other appetizers in and out of rotation, but one dish that always made an appearance was the cooked tomato salad, which my mother called salade cuite (pronounced "kweet"), meaning "cooked salad" in French. Called Matbucha in Arabic, cooked tomato salad is a stew of tomatoes, roasted peppers, olive oil, garlic, lots of paprika, and an optional pinch or two of cumin. Chile flakes or diced jalapeno can also be added for a hint of heat. Slow-cooked for 2 hours, until it reaches a jam-like consistency, cooked tomato salad also forms the base for shakshuka, that popular menu item at restaurants everywhere. Traditionally topped with poached eggs, our plant-based version features the rich, intense Matbucha topped with spice-rubbed tofu fillets getting the kala namak (black salt) and turmeric treatment for a no-egg, yet eggy experience.
Cooked tomato salad is often made with canned tomatoes and sautéed peppers, but my version starts with fresh tomatoes and uses peppers roasted over an open flame for extra depth of flavor. I’ve used Roma tomatoes, but feel free to use other varieties such as heirloom, cabernet, kumato, yellow, and/or darkloom. Instead of bell peppers you can use veggie sweet peppers, long sweet peppers, and/or Anaheim peppers, and these can be cooked on a parchment lined baking sheet, drizzled with olive oil and roasted in a 375 F oven for about 30 minutes. De-stem, de-seed, and then chop the ingredients, combining them with the others.
The steps necessary to make the cooked tomato salad, and then turning that into shakshuka, are well worth the effort. I’m very pleased to say that it definitely brought back many fond childhood memories, and it was even more delicious than I remembered. I hope it makes some good memories for you too.
Cooked Tomato Salad
Ingredients
8 Roma tomatoes, blanched, peeled and chopped
3 Organic Tri-Color Peppers, roasted, peeled and chopped
1 jalapeño, stem & seeds removed, and diced
1 pouch peeled garlic, roughly chopped
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 ½ tablespoons paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
For the Shakshuka:
1 package Organic Pressed Tofu, cut into 4 fillets
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/2 teaspoons kala namak (Indian black salt)
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
½ teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon dried parsley
Fresh parsley for garnish
To make the Cooked Tomato Salad:
To prep the tomatoes, heat a large pot full of water until it boils, score the top of each tomato, and then add them to the pot of boiling water. Blanch for 2-3 minutes, then remove the tomatoes and dunk them into an ice bath. When the tomatoes can be handled, remove the peel and the core, cut the tomatoes into ¾" pieces, and place in a large sauté pan.
To prep the peppers, place 1 pepper on each of 3 stove-top gas burners turned to high heat. The flames will char the outside of the peppers, and you will need to rotate them to char the entire pepper. This will take about 12-15 minutes. Then remove the peppers from the burners, place them in a bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set the bowl aside for about 15 minutes or until the peppers are cool enough to handle and peel. You can now remove the charred skin (leaving a bit still on is actually a good thing). Cut the peppers open, pour out the liquid, remove the core and seeds, cut the peppers into 1” pieces, and add into the sauté pan with the tomatoes.
Add the oil, garlic, diced jalapeño, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper to the tomato and pepper mixture. Turn the heat to high, cook for 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to simmer and continue cooking for another hour and 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so. (You can cool the cooked tomato salad to room temperature and serve as part of a selection of mezze (appetizers) along with some crusty bread.)
For the Shakshuka:
To make the Shakshuka, start with the hot cooked salad in the sauté pan on low heat. Combine the spices in a bowl and stir together until well blended.
Put the tofu fillets on a platter and rub the spice mixture on both sides of each fillet. Place the tofu fillets on top of the hot cooked salad in the sauté pan and cook the fillets for about 5-7 minutes per side.
Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve with crusty bread.
