Turkish Muhammara Recipe: Easy & Homemade

Muhammara is a thick red dip built from hot pepper paste, coarsely ground walnuts, and stale bread, seasoned with garlic, lemon, cumin, and coriander. You soak the bread in lemon juice and water, then mix everything together until it reaches a spreadable consistency.

Muhammara is one of the most beloved appetizers of Syrian, Levantine, and Turkish cuisine. Like many recipes, it can be made with different ingredients in different countries. Even in Turkey, muhammara is prepared quite different region to region. But the main ingredients are the same; red capsicum, walnuts, and bread. You can add other ingredients according to your tasting until it becomes a spreadable consistency. What makes muhammara a delicious mezze is the correct ratio of the ingredients.

Muhammara can be eaten both as an appetizer and as a snack for breakfast. If you like building a spread of small plates, it sits well alongside other Turkish mezes, and it is one of many dishes worth tracking down across the city in our Istanbul food guide.

Muhammara recipe

Ingredients

• 6 slices of stale bread
• 1.5 cups walnuts (coarsely ground)
• 5 tablespoons of hot pepper paste
• 5 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons of water
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 2 teaspoons of red chili peppers
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander

Method

*In order to make the muhammara more delicious, you can shrink the walnuts by pouring them in a mortar instead of a food processor, and use the resulting oil to make the sauce. You can also use breadcrumbs instead of stale bread.

1. Put the stale bread into a container without using the edges. If possible, crumble into small pieces. After soaking the bread with lemon juice and water, rub gently.
2. Pull the walnuts inside the food processor to remain in large pieces. Beat the garlic in the mortar with the addition of salt.
3. Stale bread, which you soak with lemon juice and water; Mix it with walnuts, chilli paste, tomato paste, salt-crushed garlic, olive oil, red pepper, cumin and coriander.
4. Serve with the paste-like breakfast sauce on slices of toast. Share the sauce you keep in a refrigerator in a closed jar with your loved ones.

If you want to taste mezes like this without cooking, our Taste of Two Continents tour walks you from a Spice Market breakfast across the ferry to Kadıköy. We have run food tours since 2013 for more than 50,000 guests, with a 4.95/5 rating from over 7,800 reviews and a maximum of 10 guests per group. For more cooking, browse our Turkish recipes.