July 14, 2026

Stop Saving Shakshuka for Brunch. This Cottage Cheese Version Is a 38-Gram-Protein Dinner.

A 25-minute North African one-pan that promotes the brunch classic to a real dinner: two eggs poached in a smoky tomato and bell pepper sauce with white beans stirred through for fiber, finished with cool cottage cheese pools that melt in like cream for a fraction of feta's fat. Thirty-eight grams of protein and twelve grams of fiber, and it eats like a Tunisian cafe dinner, not a brunch afterthought.

Shakshuka, eggs poached in a spiced tomato stew, was born in Tunisia and Libya before North African Jewish migrants carried it to Israel in the 1950s and the rest of us rebranded it as brunch. It is the dish everyone makes on a weekend and nobody makes on a Tuesday, which is a waste. The version below keeps the soul of it and adds two things that turn it into a weeknight dinner: a half cup of white beans stirred through the sauce for bulk and fiber, and a cool swoop of cottage cheese pooled on top that melts into the tomatoes like cream for a fraction of feta's fat. It is cozy and bright, with runny yolks that break into the sauce and a creamy, faintly tangy finish, and it lands at 38 grams of protein without a single gram of powder.

Per serving (makes 2): about 520 calories, 38g protein, 48g carbs (12g fiber), 20g fat. Macros are mine, computed honestly from the ingredient nutrition data linked below.

The move that matters is swapping cottage cheese for the feta most shakshuka recipes call for. Lowfat cottage cheese runs about 84 calories and 2.3 grams of fat per 100 grams, against feta's 273 calories and 19 grams of fat, per the USDA FoodData Central database (myfooddata mirror). That is roughly an eighth of the fat, and the cottage cheese's mild tang lets the cumin and smoked paprika come through instead of getting buried under a salty cheese. The recipe adapts a cottage cheese shakshuka from FitChef, which makes the same swap in a lighter 21-gram-protein brunch portion for one. Here it is scaled to a dinner for two: two eggs per person instead of one, a generous half cup of cottage cheese each, and a half cup of canned cannellini beans stirred through the sauce for 8 more grams of protein and 6 grams of fiber at 110 calories.

Cottage cheese melts into the tomato sauce differently than feta. It creates creamy pockets rather than crumbly streaks.

— FitChef

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 large red bell pepper, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (or to taste)
• 1 can (14.5 oz) crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup lowfat (2%) cottage cheese
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• Fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped (to finish)

Steps

1. Heat the olive oil in a 10- or 12-inch skillet, cast iron or nonstick, over medium heat. Add the onion and bell pepper with a pinch of salt and cook, stirring now and then, until softened and starting to char at the edges, about 6 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, and red pepper flakes and cook 30 seconds, just until fragrant.
2. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and the drained cannellini beans. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered until the sauce thickens slightly, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. The beans warm through and soak up the tomato.
3. With the back of a spoon, make four small wells in the sauce. Crack an egg into each well and season the eggs with salt and pepper.
4. Dollop the cottage cheese in spoonfuls around and between the eggs. Cover the pan and cook over low heat until the egg whites are set but the yolks still run when nudged, about 5 to 7 minutes. Go 8 to 9 minutes for firmer yolks.
5. Uncover, scatter with parsley or cilantro, and bring the skillet straight to the table. Spoon an egg, some beans and sauce, and a pool of cottage cheese into each bowl.

Make it better

Blend the cottage cheese smooth before dolloping. Thirty seconds in a food processor, or with an immersion blender right in the tub, turns the lumpy curds into a silky, ricotta-smooth cream that melts seamlessly into the tomato sauce instead of sitting on top in clumps. It is the single upgrade that converts a cottage-cheese skeptic, and the same trick works anywhere you would spread or dollop it, on toast, in a grain bowl, under roasted vegetables.

Batch prep

The tomato-bean sauce is the slow part, and it scales cleanly and holds beautifully. Double or triple it, more cans and a bigger pan, and keep it in the fridge up to five days or freeze it for a month. On a weeknight, reheat a portion of sauce in a skillet, crack in the eggs, add the cottage cheese, and cover. Five minutes from fridge to dinner. Keep the cottage cheese and eggs separate from the sauce until you cook.