Muhammara is a light dish associated with Aleppo in Syria
Updated 29 March 2024
Arab News
Muhammara is a brown-red thick spicy dip made of roasted walnut and red bell peppers, served cold or at room temperature as an appetizer, or as a main breakfast dish.
It is popular across the Arab world, served next to grilled fish and beef dishes in most Levant and Turkish restaurants.
Muhammara is a light dish associated with Aleppo in Syria. People usually enjoy eating it as one of a mezze platter selection on the table during Ramadan, especially in Turkey, Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon.
It is believed that the dip arrived in Saudi Arabia through the Shami people, who came to perform Hajj or Umrah or to trade.
With the rise of veganism, some people depend on the side dish as their go-to main snack. Our recipe, however, is designed to allow everyone to enjoy the dip worry-free.
To make Muhammara, you need two red bell peppers, one red onion, four garlic cloves, one red chilli, pomegranate molasses, fresh lemon juice, two tablespoons of olive oil, 50 grams of toasted walnuts, salt and pepper.
First, preheat the oven to 220 C to toast the walnuts for 20 minutes, to get a delicious roasted flavor. Then roast the red bell peppers on an open burner until the flesh is softened and roasted through, so you can peel off the skin easily and get a smoky taste.
Toss all the ingredients into a food processor, season it with salt and pepper, add the walnuts and blitz until you get a smooth, homogeneous mixture.
Spread the muhammara on a plate, and keep in in the fridge.
Once it is iftar time, drizzle it with olive oil, garnish with any greens, and serve it with a bread of your choice.
ALKHOBAR: Sourdough has started to shift from a niche interest into a mainstream feature of home kitchens, cafes and specialty bakeries across the Kingdom.
The rise of sourdough is part of a wider shift in Saudi Arabia’s food landscape, where artisanal production and slower preparation methods are gaining traction.
Specialty coffee seems to have set the early template for this transition, normalizing premium pricing, craftsmanship and an interest in process.
The rise of sourdough is part of a wider shift in Saudi Arabia’s food landscape, where artisanal production and slower preparation methods are gaining traction. (Supplied/creativecommons)
Bread is now undergoing a similar shift, with fermentation replacing extraction and roasting as the central point of differentiation.
In both cases, the appeal is rooted in the product’s perceived authenticity, reduced additives, and a clearer link between raw ingredients and final consumption.
Home bakers in Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province have adapted natural yeast cultures to the Saudi environment, adjusting feeding schedules, hydration ratios, and fermentation times to accommodate higher temperatures and lower humidity in the summer months.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Home bakers in Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province have adapted natural yeast cultures to the Saudi environment.
• They adjust feeding schedules, hydration ratios, and fermentation times to accommodate higher temperatures and lower humidity in the summer months.
Cafes and specialty bakeries have responded by adding sourdough loaves, baguettes and focaccia to their menus, often positioned as premium alternatives to conventional commercial bread.
For younger home bakers, the appeal lies in the craft and the learning curve rather than nostalgia. “It feels more real and more intentional,” home baker Sarah Al-Almaei told Arab News. She began experimenting with natural yeast at home after watching starter tutorials online.
The technical aspect — hydration percentages, fermentation control and starter maintenance — has become content in its own right, with TikTok and Instagram compressing trial-and-error learning into short videos and recipe cards.
But the practice of maintaining a natural yeast culture is not new in Saudi Arabia. Long before sourdough became a global trend, Saudi households kept what was commonly referred to as the “mother dough,” a natural yeast starter fed and used daily.
“We used to maintain it every day and bake with it,” said Hessa Al-Otaibi, 56, a Saudi home baker with more than four decades’ experience. “People today call it sourdough. For us, it was simply bread.”
Her comment highlights a cultural continuity that has remained largely unrecognized, partly because the practice was not framed as artisanal or health-oriented, but as a routine household function.
The modern sourdough trend differs in its market positioning. While the older model was practical and domestic, the current model is commercial, aesthetic and often health-coded. Bakeries justify higher pricing through longer fermentation times, higher ingredient costs and smaller batch production.
Consumers justify their purchases through digestibility, perceived health benefits, flavor and product integrity.
“Once you get used to it, it’s hard to go back,” said Amina Al-Zahrani, a regular buyer of sourdough from specialty bakeries in Alkhobar.
Digestibility and texture are often cited as reasons for substitution, especially among buyers who report discomfort from standard commercial bread.
Another consumer, Majda Al-Ansari, says sourdough has become part of her weekly routine, noting that availability and quality have improved significantly in the past year.
The social media component has played an outsized role in accelerating adoption. Home bakers document starter feeding cycles, cold proofing and first bakes, turning a once-private domestic process into visible public content.
This has also created micro-markets of home-based sellers, where individual bakers offer loaves to local buyers, often fulfilling orders through direct messaging.
What remains to be seen is how far the trend will scale. If specialty bakeries continue to expand and consumers maintain willingness to pay premium prices, sourdough could establish a long-term place in Saudi food culture.
If not, it may revert to a smaller niche of committed home bakers and specialty cafes. For now, however, sourdough occupies an unusual position: both a newly fashionable trend and a quiet continuation of an older Saudi baking practice.
