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The Pioneer Woman featured meals that she prepared based on items in her refrigerator. One meal Ree Drummond was able to make from fridge ingredients was shakshuka. Here’s how to make what she calls a “heavenly” meal.

‘The Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond’s fridge raid shakshuka

The Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond smiles while wearing a red shirt on the Today show.
Ree Drummond | Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

According to Drummond, you can have shakshuka for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (here are some of Drummond’s best breakfast recipes). What is shakshuka? Drummond says it’s a North African and Middle Eastern dish. She describes it as a tomato sauce with eggs baked in it.

“It’s appropriate for everything from breakfast to brunch to lunch to dinner to a midnight snack,” says Drummond on The Pioneer Woman show. “It’s just absolutely incredible.”

Making Ree Drummond’s shakshuka

Drummond starts by sautéing sliced onions along with red, yellow, and orange bell peppers. She then turns the heat on high and adds sliced garlic. She cooks the vegetables for 2 to 3 minutes until the edges start to blacken.

Next, Drummond adds a bowl of cherry tomatoes, a tablespoon of tomato paste, and crushed red pepper. She stirs the ingredients and then adds ½ cup of chicken broth.

Drummond also adds corn kale so that she can include something green in her recipe. She says she loves how kale turns “bright green” as soon as it mixes with a sauce like this. Drummond turns the heat down and lets the vegetables simmer for 9 to 10 minutes.

The finishing touches

Once the vegetables have finished simmering, it’s time to add the eggs. Drummond cracks six eggs into a bowl and then pours them into the vegetable and sauce mixture. She sprinkles salt and pepper on each egg. Next, Drummond puts the lid on the pan and lets the eggs set for about five minutes.

After five minutes, Drummond removes the mixture from the heat. She doesn’t stir the mixture because she wants the eggs to sit on top. Next, Drummond adds crumbled feta cheese and parsley. She completes the meal with a piece of bread.

The health benefits of shakshuka

If you’re looking for a healthy meal, you can add this one to your list (check out some of Drummond’s best vegetable dishes). Shakshuka has plenty of health benefits. Registered dietician Dana Angelo White tells Food Network that shakshuka is packed with antioxidants.

“Most shakshuka recipes include tomatoes, onions, and peppers,” says Angelo. This veggie-heavy one-pot meal is relatively low in calories but is packed with fiber and inflammation-fighting antioxidants. Canned tomatoes are commonly the star ingredient, which are higher in the antioxidant lycopene than fresh varieties.”

Ree Drummond’s egg recipes

Drummond has plenty of recipes with eggs as one of the star ingredients. Some of her famous egg-based recipes include pesto egg toast, baked eggs in potato nests, and egg in a hole.

Although egg in a hole is a simple dish, Drummond says it tastes great. She’s a big fan of this breakfast dish. “Sometimes it’s the simplest things that taste the best,” says Drummond on her website. “These delicious little numbers define comfort food, are painfully easy to make, and will turn any stressful, hectic morning into something entirely different.”

RELATED: ‘The Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond: 4 Quick and Easy Breakfasts

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