Muhammara Dip (Roasted Bell Pepper Dip)

Muhammara is a Middle Eastern roasted red pepper dip that is slightly smoky, savory, and packed with flavors. It has the right amount of acidity from the lemons, sweetness from the peppers, and the richness of walnuts and olive oil. It's perfect!

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This Red Pepper and Walnut dip muhammara is easy to make, and we love serving it as part of a mezze. It pairs well with Classic Lebanese hummus recipe, Pumpkin Hummus, pink beet hummus, Eggplant Babaganoush, homemade fried falafel, and fresh Tabbouleh Salad. All of these delicious Middle Eastern recipes are on our site.

Muhammara is a great tahini-free option to the most commonly known Roasted red pepper hummus, also on this site.

Don't forget to check out our simple Lebanese Seven Spices mix to make any stew taste like an authentic Lebanese dish!

It is a very versatile dip, so I even add some scoops to our Venezuelan Vegan Arepas, on top of a poke bowl or simply serve it as a snack along with pita bread, making it the perfect vegan party appetizer.

Jump to:

• 👨🏻‍🍳 Make it your own
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🍶 Substitutions and Variations
• 🥢 Muhammara uses
• 💡 Tips
• 🍽 Equipment
• 🥡 Storage
• ✅ Health benefits of red bell peppers
• 📚 More Middle-Eastern Favorites
• 🎥 Video
• 📋 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews and Comments

👨🏻‍🍳 Make it your own

Having moved so many times around the globe and taking all those beautiful flavors with us, we have learned that the lack of some ingredients shouldn't be a downer to keep us from enjoying those acquired tastes and comfort food dishes.

What would be the point then?

On the contrary, it should work as a door opener for invention, creativity, and exploration of the new flavors that the land opening its arms to you is now offering.

🧾 Ingredients

You may find some of the Muhammara recipe ingredients hard to find, but don't let that keep you from making the recipe.

I provide substitutions below for all of them. All true and tried before with excellent results.

You will also find how to adapt the recipe for Gluten-free, Oil-Free, and Whole Food plant-based diets.

• Red peppers
• Raw walnuts
• Pomegranate molasses (or a mix of pomegranate juice and maple syrup)
• Bread crumbs
• Cumin seeds
• Aleppo pepper flakes (or a mix of chili flakes and paprika)
• Garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Fresh lemon juice
• Salt

Optional: parsley leaves.

See the recipe card for quantities.

🔪 Instructions

The Muhammara dip recipe has three main steps: roasting, peeling, blending, and serving; that is easy! It requires minimal work and delivers tons of flavor.

Roast the peppers

Brush the peppers with olive oil, and place them in a preheated oven, turning them once halfway until they are cooked and the skin is blackened. 

Remove the blackened roasted red peppers from the oven.

Place the roasted peppers in a bowl with a lid or plastic wrap so the steam helps the skin to separate from the peppers' flesh.

Roast the walnuts

Place the walnuts and cumin seeds, on a medium flame for 2-4 minutes.

Optionally: if you prefer milder garlic flavors as we do. Roast the garlic cloves for 3-5 minutes on a pan on the stove; nothing else is required, see how below.

Blend

Place the roasted walnuts and cumin seeds in a food processor until powdered.

Peel the bell peppers

Once cool enough to handle, peel with your hands and discard the skin and seeds.

Reserve the peeled peppers.

Blend everything

Add the cleaned peppers to the food processor containing the walnuts and cumin seeds with the rest of the ingredients.

Serve

Transfer to a serving bowl. Using the back of a spoon, give it a wavy texture. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and serve at room temperature. Serve with warm pita bread or chips.

Garnish

Optionally, garnish with fresh parsley or extra walnuts.

Hint: although most people have no digestive issues after eating red bell peppers, some may get stomachaches or diarrhea. This is because they may have trouble breaking down the outer skin.

Muhammara is excellent because, for these people, roasting red peppers and then removing their skins may help to digest them more easily.

This step is inherent to the preparation of the Muhammara dip.

🍶 Substitutions and Variations

You could use jarred roasted peppers to make this red pepper dip faster. Make sure you use smoky ones so you hit the spot on flavor, as it is a distinctive characteristic of this dip.

If you can't find pomegranate molasses, you either substitute it with:

• Mix 3 tablespoons of pomegranate juice and 1 teaspoon of agave or maple syrup.
• Mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of agave or maple syrup.

Instead of cumin seeds, you could use:

• Ground cumin. In that case, you only need to add it to the blender instead of toasting it with the walnuts.
• Sumac. It is a Middle Eastern spice that works very well to replace cumin.

Gluten-free - You can exclude bread crumbs; the texture will only change slightly. You could also use gluten-free breadcrumbs.

Spicy - add more red pepper flakes to increase the heat. You could also use a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Sweetness and acidity - adjust with extra pomegranate molasses for sweetness and lemon juice for acidity.

Smokiness - you could add smoked paprika to adjust.

Whole Foods Plant-based and Oil-Free - you can exclude the olive oil altogether; you will only find it less creamy, and you can also exclude the breadcrumbs.

Some muhammara recipes call for tomato paste. It is fine to add a teaspoon, but you don't want the tomato flavor to overpower that of the roasted red peppers.

🥢 Muhammara uses

We like serving this Red Pepper Dip with fresh Pita bread and azim bread (made on the stovetop) as part of a Mezze brunch, along with Lebanese hummus recipe, homemade fried falafel, Tabbouleh, and Babaganoush (roasted eggplant spread).

Sometimes, we pair it with freshly made Pagnotta Bread (Italian bread loaf) or Focaccia. We love all kinds of dips!

The reality is that it goes well with everything you can scoop it with... even chips!

💡 Tips

Thickness

If you want to thicken the Muhammara dip, add extra bread crumbs. Just be sure to add bread crumbs little by little to keep the texture where it needs to be.

Intensity

If you prefer a milder and less intense garlic flavor, along with the walnuts and cumin seeds, roast one or two garlic cloves. Peel them and add them to the blender.

Removing its germ is another way to decrease raw garlic's flavor intensity. Just cut the raw garlic in half and pry it with the tip of a knife.

Muhammara sauce - what? Well, a little secret, that certainly isn't middle-eastern and Italian either. But you can use Muhammara dip, as a pasta sauce.

Stir some muhammara with some of your favorite pasta boiling water, to make it a little creamier and mix with the pasta. It will become a "pesto-like" pasta, with delicious Middle-Eastern flavors!.

🍽 Equipment

Mortar and Pestle. You can make this recipe using mortar and pestle for a more textured dip version. Ottolenghi has a tremendous textured Muhammara recipe.

Food Processor. We prefer the creamy version, and this is our food processor of choice for most of my preparations, as it works very well for small and large quantities.

Hint: the equipment you use makes a big difference in the results. So, if you are all about creaminess, use a high-speed, potent food processor. If your blender is more potent, go for it.

The texture will be silkier, and the ingredients will blend better, directly affecting the flavor.

🥡 Storage

This roasted bell pepper dip keeps well and can even improve after a day. As with most Middle Eastern platters, you can prepare it the day before a get-together to avoid some of the natural stress that arises from putting together all the dishes. Just don't serve it fridge-cold.

✅ Health benefits of red bell peppers

The Health Benefits of bell peppers are great! These are some of them!

• Immune System Support - as red bell peppers are high in Vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant that helps boosts immune system response to microbes and fight cell damage.
• Improve Eye and Skin Health - they are rich in carotenoids that can help increase blood circulation to your skin and prevent wrinkles, helping it look more youthful. Also, their beta-carotene and beta-carotene content offers support for our overall vision and eye health
• Anti-inflammatory - Bell peppers are anti-inflammatory, as they contain carotenoids. They are also high in vitamins C and A. Although these beautiful vegetables are technically considered fruits, they contain 6 grams of digestible carbs per serving.
• Anemia prevention - red bell peppers are a good source of iron, and they are also rich in vitamin C, an excellent antioxidant, which increases iron absorption from our gut. For us vegans... these are extra reasons to consume bell peppers!
• Nutritious and low carb - for those worrying about carb intake, one cup of chopped red bell peppers contains 9 grams of carbohydrates, 3 of which are fiber, which is great to keep things moving!

In short, capsicum benefits (as they are called in the Commonwealth countries) are great, and we should be eating our fair share. Remember, eat the rainbow!

Try to include as many colors as you can on your plate.

We love to have bell peppers even as a main dish like in these Vegan Stuffed Pepper recipe. If you love peppers, you should certainly have a look!

📚 More Middle-Eastern Favorites

• homemade fried falafel
• Lebanese hummus recipe
• Tabbouleh Salad
• Eggplant Babaganoush

Do you love vegan sauces?

Try these delicious vegan sauces and dips: Artichokes with Dipping Sauce, Basil Creamy Vegan Sauce, Green Goddess Dip, and our excellent compilation of the best Vegan Sauces to take your dishes to the next level.

⭐ If you try this recipe, let us know! 💬 Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag us @ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!

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