How to Make Shakshuka Breakfast Soup with Toast and Eggs

Soup for lunch? Yes, please! Soup for dinner? Sounds delightful. How about soup for breakfast? That… may be a little less familiar.

Breakfast soup has been trending on TikTok lately, which has some folks thinking that soup for breakfast is a brand-new thing. But really, it’s enjoyed all over the world, in many different forms.

What is ‘breakfast soup’?

This idea is both straightforward and complex. On one hand, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a hot bowl of savory soup enjoyed first thing in the morning. But breakfast soup is also complex because it can look very different from one table to the next, and be made with any number of ingredients and flavors.

In Japan, it’s common to have miso soup with breakfast, made with tofu, miso (fermented bean paste) and veggies. In Mexico, a soup called menudo, made with beef, tripe and hominy, is a morning tradition. Pho is a noodle soup that’s become an American favorite—but in Vietnam, it’s also a breakfast dish sold by street vendors and at markets. Breakfast soup is common in other countries too, including Colombia, Turkey and Tunisia.

Shakshuka Breakfast Soup Recipe

While breakfast soup can be any soup that’s typically enjoyed later in the day, for my version I turned to the spicy breakfast dish shakshuka. Normally served as eggs poached in a thick, chunky tomato sauce, my twist turns shakshuka into a brothy soup, with runny-yolked fried eggs and toast served on the side. It’s wonderfully filling and delicious. And after a late night out, this soup, toast and eggs are especially restorative.

The recipe makes four to six servings. The soup can be made the night before, then easily and quickly reheated the next morning while you make the toast and eggs.

Ingredients

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Soup:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• Pinch of caraway seeds
• 1 cup finely diced red bell pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1-1/2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Pinch of red pepper flakes, to taste
• 14 ounces diced tomatoes
• 14 ounces tomato sauce
• 2-1/2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• Optional: chopped cilantro, chopped parsley, crumbled goat cheese, plain Greek yogurt or labneh

Toast and eggs:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 4 slices of sourdough bread
• 4 large eggs
• Salt and pepper

Directions

Step 1: Saute

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Have the diced vegetables ready and the spices measured out.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. (Here are our Test Kitchen’s favorite Dutch ovens.) When it’s hot, add in the diced onion; saute for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft and translucent. Sprinkle the caraway seed over the onion and saute for another minute. Add the diced red pepper to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes until the peppers are soft.

Scrape the minced garlic into the pot and saute for one minute. Add in the smoked paprika, cumin, salt, cinnamon, black pepper and red pepper flakes. Stir everything together and saute for another minute, to “wake up” the spices.

Step 2: Add the tomatoes and stock

Pour the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and stock into the pot and stir everything together. Increase the heat to medium-high.

Step 3: Simmer

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Once the soup comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pot and simmer the soup for 20 minutes. Stir the soup once or twice during the simmer. Remove the pot from the heat; taste the soup and add more salt or pepper to taste.

Step 4: Make the toast and eggs

Heat two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of olive oil in a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, until the butter is melted. Place the pieces of sourdough bread in the pan to fry; once the bread is a light golden brown, flip the slices with a spatula and toast them on the other side. Remove the toast and place them on plates.

Melt the remaining butter and olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat. As soon as the butter is melted, crack the eggs into the pan, being careful not to break the yolks. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the tops. Cook the eggs without moving them for about 3 minutes, until the whites are cooked through, but the yolks are still soft. Use a spatula to top each piece of toast with a fried egg.

Step 5: Serve the breakfast soup

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Ladle the hot shakshuka soup into bowls and serve with fried eggs and toast on the side. Let each person top their soup with optional cilantro, parsley, goat cheese, yogurt or labneh.

Should you eat soup for breakfast?

If savory breakfasts like egg and sausage casseroles, quiche or breakfast burritos are your thing, then breakfast soup is right up your alley. Having soup to start your day will warm you up (especially nice on cold mornings,) plus it’s a great way to fill up on veggies and protein.

My husband and I loved our breakfast soup, eggs and toast. Just like traditional shakshuka, the soup is also very tasty for lunch or dinner, but it was fun to break out of the same old breakfast routine and try something new.

I made this shakshuka soup the night before; in the morning, it took just minutes to warm up a couple of bowls while frying up the toast and eggs. I’m excited to make this one to treat overnight guests for breakfasts, and convert even more people to the new (old) idea of breakfast soup!

How should I store breakfast soup?

Once the shakshuka breakfast soup is completely cool, store it in a sealed container in the fridge for up to five days. The soup can be reheated in the microwave or on the stovetop.