Muhamarra is a spicy Middle Eastern snack that takes minutes to make. Serve with toasted pita triangles or raw veggies. Beware it’s addictive!

Use a good quality extra virgin olive oil for this, it makes all the difference. I picked up 10 litres of new gorgeous, green, organic Andalucian extra virgin olive oil from my friends Andrew & Margarita. They have quite a few olive trees and last year we helped with the olive harvest. You can read about the day and see some photos of how it’s done here.

This year the olives were harvested on 20 November (election day). The oil is a lot greener and fruitier than last year and it tastes amazing. I was desperate star it in a recipe. This is perfect, the peppers & walnuts are blended to a puree with lots of olive oil and then when you serve it, it is drizzled with more, the fruitiness is lovely with the peppers.

 

Muhammara – Roasted Pepper & Walnut Dip

Makes 2 small jars, vegan.

Prep time: 10 minutes

• 1 jar (about 250gr) roasted red peppers, buy ones with a few garlic cloves in the jar if you can
• 2 or 3 garlic cloves (if none in the jar with peppers), chopped
• 50 gr (1/3 cup) toasted walnuts, chopped
• 25 gr (2/3 cup)fresh breadcrumbs (I used panko)
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp honey (or pomegranate molasses)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 110 – 165 ml (1/2 -3/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
• salt & black pepper
• a handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• sesame seeds

Tip the peppers, garlic, breadcrumbs, walnuts, lemon juice, honey, spices, salt & pepper into a food processor and blend until smooth. Drizzle the olive oil in slowly and keep blending until you get a consistency you are happy with.

Taste and adjust salt/honey/lemon juice to your liking and stir in the chopped parsley.

Serve at room temperature in a bowl drizzled with more olive oil sprinkled with sesame seeds a few parsley leaves.

Tags: dip, easy, food, harvest, middle eastern, olive oil, quick, recipe, red pepper, roasted, vegan, vegetarian, walnuts