muhammara

we’re back home after a whirlwind trip up to washington and back. between driving endless hours, visiting a different city every day, spending loads of time with our family, and thinking about the future, i didn’t take many pictures of all the delicious food we ate. what a bad food blogger, huh? will a photo of mt shasta satiate you instead? i hope so, because it’s the prettiest picture on this post!

mt shasta 2

ok, so let’s get down to business. i bet you’re wondering what the heck muhammara is, right? well, it’s a delicious bell pepper, walnut, and molasses dip. it’s spicy and sweet and incredibly satisfying. what it’s not is lovely to photograph. the photos all turned out sort of blah. but the dip is so amazing that i couldn’t refrain from sharing the recipe with you.

muhammara ingredientswalnutsinto the food processorred bell peppers

one of my dearest friends, k, gave me super natural cooking, by heidi swanson, for my birthday last year, and i’ve been cooking my way through the amazing recipes ever since. i love the variety of grains, veggies, and unique ingredients that heidi uses in her recipes, and this one’s no different. i never would have thought to combine the ingredients in this recipe, or to use pomegranate molasses…or even that pomegranate molasses existed.

all blended together

the recipe in the cookbook suggests that you serve muhammara with grilled tofu, mushroom, onion, and lemon skewers, and i think that’s a great suggestion. i also think that serving it with pita chips or cut veggies is an excellent choice. as is eating the dip plain with a spoon. wait, did i really type that? that never happened. really….

skewer preparationmuhammara!couscous "tabbouli"ready to go into the oven

but i think you get the point – when you’re ready to try making an extremely versatile and delicious dip, ignore the hummus recipes (even though i’m particularly fond of this one), and go for muhammara!

dinner is served

one year ago: carrot oat coconut cookies

muhammara w/veggies @ book club

muhammara

yields 2 cups of dip
modified from 101 cookbooks and super natural cooking, both by heidi swanson

  • 1T chili pepper flakes
  • 1/2t salt
  • 1/2t ground cumin
  • 3/4c walnuts
  • 1/4c whole wheat bread crumbs
  • 1/4c olive oil
  • 2T pomegranate molasses (or 1T molasses and 1T pomegranate juice or just 2T molasses)
  • 1/4c tomato paste
  • 1 jar roasted red bell peppers (12 oz after draining, 15oz before. thanks for the tip, k!)
  • 1/4 – 1/2c warm water
    ______________________________
  1. in a food processor, blend the red pepper flakes, salt, cumin, walnuts, bread crumbs, olive oil, pomegranate molasses (or molasses and juice, or molasses), tomato paste, and red bell peppers until smooth.
  2. add warm water as needed – you want the dip to be the consistency of hummus. sometimes i don’t need to add any water, but other times i need to add the full 1/2c…you’ll know what’s right when you’re blending up the dip!

serving suggestions

  • to make this a full meal, i like serving the muhammara with couscous (ie fake tabouli) salad and Heidi’s kabobs (i simply broil mine in the oven for 25 minutes, instead of bbq’ing them…)
  • to keep it a side dish, serve with pita chips and/or cut veggies, and enjoy!

3 thoughts on “muhammara”

WordPress › Error

There has been a critical error on this website.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.