Zaytinya Roasted Pepper & Walnut Spread

It may not look all that appetizing, but we’ve been there before.

Time: 1 Hour 23 minutes

Ingredient Availability: 3/5

Difficulty: 1/5

Since I was making Ciabatta this same week, I thought that this recipe might go well with it. I had never heard of Muhammara (Roasted Pepper & Walnut Spread) before, but it looked and sounded good in the Zaytina Cookbook. I think it is typically served with meat and vegetables, so I’ll give those a chance along with the bread.

Key Ingredients and Omissions:

This recipe had a couple ingredients that I had some trouble finding. I wasn’t able to find Aleppo pepper or Pomegranate molasses at either of the stores I visited. Instead of Aleppo pepper, I used paprika. I think that smoked paprika may have been a better substitute, as Aleppo pepper is apparently smoky. However, paprika doesn’t have much spice, so maybe a combination of smoked paprika and crushed red pepper or cayenne would be a better sub. As far as the pomegranate molasses substitute, I found pomegranate syrup, which I used instead. The syrup I used appears to use half pomegranates and half dates, but I don’t think it’ll make too big of an impact. Otherwise, the ingredients list is pretty familiar.

Tools:

• Food Processor

Cooking Review:

Prep: 9 minutes

The prep for this recipe included coring, seeding, and slicing the red bell peppers as well as juicing a lemon.

Roasting: 46 minutes

After arranging the bell peppers on a parchment lined baking sheet, I added the canola oil, salt, and sugar to them and tossed them to coat. I put them in the oven and let them roast for 23 minutes. I added the walnuts to the peppers and roasted them for an additional 7 minutes. Next, I added the cumin and paprika to the peppers and walnuts. I let them cook for 10 more minutes before removing from the oven and transferring everything to my food processor.

Processing: 30  minutes

Once everything was in the food processor, I added the lemon juice and pomegranate syrup. I accidentally an additional tablespoon of lemon juice, as I was reading how much olive oil I was going to add at the same time. I ended up processing the mixture for 20 minutes before streaming in the olive oil. The mixture wasn’t as smooth as the picture, but I didn’t want to keep processing. To finish, I seasoned the spread with salt to taste.

Analysis:

This spread has a good balance of sweetness and savoriness. The sweetness and flavor of the peppers definitely comes through, but there is no spice at all. That is to be expected, though, as neither bell peppers nor paprika have much spice. There is also a savoriness to this spread, which is almost cheesy, which I really liked. The only thing I didn’t really like was that the spread wasn’t as smooth as I would’ve liked. I’m not sure if my food processor would have been capable of getting it much smoother, but I’m also not sure if the extra time would’ve been worth it. The spread still tastes good despite some bits of walnut that didn’t get broken down all the way. On bread, it really just takes over the show, not leaving much room for the bread to contribute in any way besides texturally. However, when shrimp is added, the spread really shines. It’s hard to describe, but the spread just works really nicely with some sautéed shrimp. As for vegetables, I used carrots and the result was much like the bread. It really just overpowers the carrots. Overall, I really enjoyed this spread and I’m going to give it a 7/10. The ingredient availability and the chunkiness really hurt its score here, but I don’t think you’d regret making it if you can find the ingredients that I did. I just wonder what it would be like with all of the recommended ingredients and a smoother texture.