Muhammara
After a few weeks of unheard of laziness, when I let my Mac languish in its case and my new recipes in my notebook, I finally came back online to share a small summer culinary experiment with you, an irresistible dip sauce called muhammara.
The “dip sauces”: hummus, baba ganoush, tzatziki, tershi, labna and good company, are the best way to start a summer dinner, they can be prepared in a short time with a blender and are always liked by everyone. Muhammara, what I am introducing today, enriches the dip sauce repertoire with new flavors: nuts, peppers, pomegranates, cumin … I bet you will love it!
Muhammara is a typical Syrian appetizer, very tasty and full of “character”. It is an almost unknown dish compared to the other dip sauces I just spoke about, now known to most people, thus it is a great opportunity to surprise guests.
As with all traditional dishes, you will find more or less spicy versions of muhammara, with a more or less homogeneous consistency. The following is my version!
Muhammara
Ingredients
- 3 peppers
- 1 pinch of chili
- ½ teaspoon of ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon of sweet paprika
- 90 g of shelled walnuts
- 25 g of breadcrumbs
- 50 g of oil
- 2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses
- 30 g of tomato concentrate
- ½ onion
- 100 ml of warm water
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 1 handful of hand-chopped pistachios to serve
- ½ teaspoon of sumac optional, to serve
Instructions
- Roast the peppers cut into strips in a hot oven until they are charred on the surface.
- Chop all the ingredients, including the peppers with their peel, in a blender or mixer, adding lukewarm water a little at a time, to obtain a more or less homogeneous paste.
- Transfer the muhammara into a bowl and decorate it with a handful of chopped pistachios and a sprinkling of sumac.
