The muhammara is a roasted pepper dip typical of Syrian and Middle Eastern cuisine, a vegan recipe with a spicy flavor that’s easy to prepare. A delicious sauce made with few ingredients and very easily. Traditionally, it should be prepared with a mortar and pestle, but to make the recipe much simpler and faster, we can use a common mixer, food processor, or blender. It is usually served with pita bread, but we can accompany it with naan bread, crackers, chips, bruschetta, or chips, or with raw vegetables like carrots or tomatoes. Additionally, it can be great for spreading in sandwiches and perfect for enhancing vegetable salads or pasta, rice, or other grain salads.
The preparation is very simple: gather the roasted peppers with all the other ingredients in the mixer and blend until you get a thick and homogeneous sauce.
Perfect for appetizers and starters, or for snacks, all that’s left is to try this sauce and let us know if you liked it.
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very cheap
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
- Seasonality: Summer, All seasons
Ingredients to prepare Muhammara
- 3 peppers
- 1 3/4 oz breadcrumbs (or bread crumbs)
- 1 3/4 oz walnuts (or hazelnuts)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp maple syrup (or pomegranate molasses)
- extra virgin olive oil
- ground cumin
- chili powder
- salt
Tools to prepare Muhammara
- 1 Oven
- 1 Food processor
How to prepare Muhammara
To prepare the muhammara, first cook the peppers. Wash them, dry them, and roast them on a grill or alternatively in the oven for about 30-35 minutes at 392°F. Cook them, turning occasionally, until the skin becomes black.
Place them in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and when they are cool enough, remove both the skin and the internal seeds.
Toast the walnuts or hazelnuts in a pan, and separately the breadcrumbs with a drizzle of oil.
Put the peppers in a food processor and add the breadcrumbs, nuts, olive oil, lemon juice, molasses or maple syrup, cumin, chili, and salt.
Blend all the ingredients until you get a smooth and homogeneous cream.
Garnish the cream with oil, chili, and fresh parsley or mint.
Simo and Cicci recommend
You can store this cream well-sealed in an airtight container for up to a week in the fridge, covering it with some oil.
One of the main ingredients of this sauce is pomegranate molasses, which you can replace with maple syrup and lemon juice, or with honey and lemon juice.
Another ingredient used in muhammara is Aleppo pepper, which you can substitute with chili powder.
FAQ (Questions and Answers)
What is muhammara?
It is a Middle Eastern dip that originated in Syria and is essentially based on roasted peppers and toasted walnuts. The word that gives this dip its name in Arabic is pronounced “mhamara” and means “red,” just like the color of this delicious dip.
