Make a batch of this traditional Egyptian spice and nut blend and use it to liven up so many dishes. It’s great sprinkled on vegetables, soups, salads or pasta. Try coating fish, chicken or lamb with it before grilling.
Fill small canning jars with Dukkah and give it to your friends this holiday season. They’ll love it!
Dukkah (pronounced doo-kah) is often used as a crust for fish, chicken or lamb. Sprinkle it on top of Greek yogurt and olive oil and serve it with pita bread. Put out a bowl of good olive oil and a bowl of Dukkah with crusty bread. Dip the bread in the olive oil and then in the Dukkah. Mmmm.
One of the great things about making Dukkah is that you can experiment with the nut and spice blends. Most traditional Dukkah recipes include coriander seeds, cumin seeds and sesame seeds. You can try different spices or nuts and different ratios of spice to nut. Further in this post, I suggest other ingredients you can try.
This recipe makes a couple of cups.
Tips
- The directions call for toasting the spices and nuts. Both burn easily, so keep an eye on them and when they finish cooking, transfer them from the hot pans into another pan or glass bowl, so that they do not continue to cook.
- I toasted the spices in a pan on the stove. You can toast them in the oven.
- Use a food processor to blend the spices and nuts. Don’t process them too much or you’ll have a paste. If you don’t have a food processor, use the traditional method of crushing the ingredients with a mortar and pestle (a labor of love, if you take this approach).
Ingredients
I give a suggested amount of salt and pepper, which you should adjust according to your preferences.
- 1 cup roasted hazelnuts
- 1/2 cup almonds
- 1/2 cup shelled pistachios
- 3 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 3 tablespoons cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
- 2 teaspoons sea salt (not a fine fleur de sel, use a coarser version)
- 1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
Directions
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Add the hazelnuts and almonds to two separate pans large enough for them to be spread out in one layer. Roast each for about 7 minutes, being careful that they don’t burn. I shake the pans a couple of times while they are cooking. Remove them from the oven and put them into another container.
Add the pistachios to a pan and roast them in the oven for about 5 minutes. Transfer them into another container.
Add the sesame seeds to a small skillet (dry, no oil) and cook them over a flame for a few minutes, shaking them in the pan and lightly tossing them with a spoon or fork. Watch them carefully. Transfer them from the pan when done.
Repeat the same process with the coriander seeds and then with the cumin seeds.
Let everything cool.
Add all of the ingredients to a food processor and pulse them until you have a coarse blend. Don’t over process.
You can optionally spread the blend out on a baking sheet and toast for a few minutes in a 325 degree oven. I did this to dry the blend a little more. Be sure that it doesn’t burn on the edges!
When cool, add the mixture to containers.
Other Ingredient Options
Some Dukkahs are made with one type of nut and two or three spices, others are a complex mixture of many ingredients. Here are other ingredients that you might want to try.
- Cashews, walnuts, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, black sesame seeds
- Dried thyme, marjoram, mint, paprika
- Dried red pepper flakes (small pinch), peppercorns (green or black), baie rose (often called pink peppercorn)
Related Posts
Try sprinkling Dukkah on one of these dishes: