Take a Dip into Muhammara

Roasted red pepper and walnut dip is sweet-tart, smoky, lightly spicy and crave-worthy

Summer is the ideal time to make Middle Eastern dips the centerpiece of a light meal. Start with hummus and baba ghanoush, then add the colorful red pepper-walnut dip called muhammara. Grab some pita triangles and veggies and it’s dinner. Easy peasy.

Muhammara is what’s for dinner.

Meet Muhammara: pronounced moo-hahm-MA-rah, the name translates to “reddened” in Arabic. It originated in Syria, specifically Aleppo, which is why you see Aleppo pepper as a key spice in recipes.

Building on the foundation of red peppers, walnuts and Aleppo pepper, you’ll find breadcrumbs, pomegranate molasses, cumin and olive oil for a smoky, sweet-tart, nutty dip. Some recipes include raw onions, garlic, coriander, allspice and pomegranate seeds. As you’d expect, variations abound depending on the cook and the region.

In Jordan and parts of Syria, the peppers are unroasted, resulting in a brighter-flavored dip without smokiness. Cooks in Aleppo tend to use more walnuts and less bread, writes Sami Tamimi in his Substack newsletter, “Notes from My Kitchen.” “The Turkish acuka often has more chilli and a coarser texture. The version I grew up with in Palestine sat somewhere in the middle,” writes the chef whose most recent cookbook, “Boustany: A Celebration of Vegetables from my Palestine,” came out in 2025.

Traditionally, the dip is made with a mortar and pestle to grind the ingredients into a coarse blend. Today, recipes streamline the process with a food processor. And some recipes use jarred roasted red peppers, another time-saving hack.

Deep Dive: Muhammara, the dip, is unrelated to the port city of Khorramshahr, Iran, which until the early 20th century was called Muhammara for its reddish clay soil.

How to Use Muhammara:

“Muhammara is one of the great dips of the Middle East,” says Tamimi. “It is the dish I most often serve when people are arriving at the house and I want them to know, even before they have their drinks poured, that they are going to be looked after.”

The classic way to serve muhammara is as an appetizer with crudités and toasted pita bread or pita chips. Best of all, it accommodates diners who are vegan or vegetarian and can be made gluten-free.

Ladle it alongside grilled meats, kebabs or fish, roasted veggies, lentils or even eggs. Or use it instead of mayo as a sandwich spread.

Or as Tamimi writes, “Eat it with a spoon, standing at the fridge, when nobody is watching.” Been there, done that.

You can find ready-made muhammara at international grocers, Whole Foods and online. But we’re fans of making it yourself using the recipe below.

Fun Fact: Fruity, mild ground ancho chiles can sub for the Aleppo pepper, writes Robin Mather in the “Arizona Daily Star.” She also opts for tortilla chips over pita at times.

Sumac & Sunshine’s Muhammara Recipe

For this recipe, we opted to skip the breadcrumbs commonly used in muhammara and replaced them with Great Northern beans. The beans are neutral-flavored, add a nice creaminess and some fiber and protein. Because we use only a portion of the canned beans here, add the rest to a green or main-course salad, or freeze for future soups or chili.

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

• 1 cup walnut pieces

• 2 large red bell peppers

• 1 Roma tomato, or other meaty variety

• 1 clove garlic, peeled

• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided use

• 3 tablespoons canned Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• 2 ½ tablespoons pomegranate molasses

• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

• 1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

• ½ teaspoon ground allspice

• Pinch cayenne pepper

• Mint leaves for garnish

• Pita bread, warmed and cut into triangles

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put walnuts on a tray and bake for 3-4 minutes, or until golden. Remove from oven and set aside.

Line the same tray with parchment paper. Brush red bell peppers, tomato and garlic with extra-virgin olive oil, and put in the preheated oven. Remove the garlic clove after 5 minutes, and put in a large bowl.

Continue baking the tomatoes and red bell peppers, rotating them as they soften and develop brown spots. Remove the tomato at 25 minutes and put in the bowl with the garlic. Remove the red bell peppers at 30 minutes and place in the same bowl.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap for 15 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap and let the vegetables cool for 15 minutes, or until they are cool enough to handle.

Peel the skin from the tomato; peel the bell peppers, remove the stem and seeds and discard. (Don’t worry if you don’t get all the skin off.)

Add all the ingredients to the bowl of a food processor, excluding the liquid from the bell peppers and tomato. Pulse until the mixture has combined but still has texture.

Remove the dip to a bowl and chill. When serving, top with thinly sliced mint leaves. Serve with warm pita triangles.

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

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What’s adding ☀️sunshine☀️ to our plates:

• Sami Tamimi’s entire “Notes from My Kitchen” Substack

• Use the extra Great Northern beans from our muhammara recipe in Laura Nelson’s Deli Bean Salad in the Honey Street Supper Club Substack newsletter. (Don’t worry that you’ll be a little light on the beans for the salad)

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Beth and Sarene (more about us in the welcome post)