These boys are ROCKSTARS! SO excited to see one of my favorite dishes have its moment – especially on the streets of NYC. Recipes at the bottom of the post. xox
I met up with The Shuka Truck after discovering them on Instagram (@ShukaTruck). And what a treat it was. I mean, these guys are immediately warm and welcoming. So much so that the day we met, they invited me into the back of their truck to cook up some of their famous Shuka dishes.
For The Shuka Truck boys, that means a return to their childhood, staples of which are hummus (blended up chickpeas with tahini, lemon, garlic etc.) and shakshuka (eggs poached in a tomato/pepper sauce).
Only, theirs are no traditional Middle Eastern dishes. These guys have put a new spin on things, producing a vibrant, rich and silky green shakshuka for their customers on the daily. An original delicious monster of a dish, topped with pickled sumac, red onions, honey and goat cheese. I had never in my life seen a shakshuka like this, and I’m a shakshuka FREAK. So you can imagine how super excited I was to watch the magic go down. If you can, VISIT THIS TRUCK (stay posted on where they park via Instagram) and if, for whatever god foresaken reason, you can’t, you’re just gonna have to make this in your home.
Shuka Trucks- Hummus
2 cups dried chickpeas – soaked overnight
1 tblsp cumin
3 tblsp lemon juice
2-3 garlic cloves
salt to taste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 – 1 1/2 cups raw tahini
5 cups cold water
Hummus-
Strain the soaked chickpeas. Place the chickpeas in a pot with water and bring to a boil. Cook until extremely soft and tender. This should take about 1 – 1 1/2 hours. Now it’s time to turn the chickpeas into hummus! Drain the chickpeas and save the liquid they boiled in. Blend the chickpeas in a food processor, while pouring in some of the liquid to smooth out the mixture. In a bowl, add tahini paste, garlic cloves, olive oil, lemon juice, cumin and salt to the ground-up chickpeas. Combine all the ingredients and return the mixture to the food processor. Continue to blend while slowly adding cold water until the mixture is velvety smooth. Taste and serve.
Green Shakshuka
Green sauce-
1 tblsp unsalted butter
1 bunch roughly chopped asparagus (save 3 unchopped for later)
1 garlic clove – finely chopped
1 yellow onion – finely chopped
1 tblsp fresh oregano
1 bag/2 cups baby spinach
1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste
3/4 cup cream
olive oil
2-3 eggs
Directions-
Heat up butter in a large pan. Add asparagus and onion and saute until the asparagus is really bright in color. Add spinach, garlic and oregano. Saute until the spinach is cooked. (Be wary of overcooking.) Take off the heat and transfer to a blender. Add cream and season with salt and pepper. Once you have the sauce down, its up to you what to put inside!
I like to saute the extra asparagus in olive oil. Then add the sauce and cook for a minute or two. Break the eggs into the sauce and cover with a lid. Turn to simmer and cook for 3-4 minutes. Serve with red onion and goat cheese with honey. Enjoy!
