Smoky, sweet, and just a little spicy, this creamy roasted red pepper and walnut dip is guaranteed to steal the show at your next gathering. My homemade muhammara is easy to make and absolutely irresistible with pita, fresh veggies, or straight from the spoon. If you love hummus, you have to give this delicious Middle Eastern dip a try!
Hummus always gets all the love — and don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty of polishing off a whole batch by myself more than once. I’m a total sucker for any of my homemade hummus recipes, like roasted garlic hummus, pesto hummus, or dill pickle hummus. But sometimes I like to switch things up. And sometimes I end up with more fresh red bell peppers than I know what to do with. That’s where this muhammara comes in.
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If you love hummus, and in particular if you love my roasted red pepper hummus, you’re going to really love muhammara. Roasted red peppers are the star, giving it a delicious blend of sweet and smoky flavors. But you’ll also find walnuts, garlic, scallions, spices, and a touch of pomegranate molasses in this luscious dip. It’s such a deliciously unique blend!
My method for making muhammara involves roasting your own peppers, so it takes a little extra time. But anyone who’s growing red peppers will be glad to have a recipe like this. And if you don’t have fresh peppers on hand (or just want to save time), I’ve also included instructions for making it with jarred roasted red peppers. Either way, it’ll be thick, creamy, and intensely flavorful. You know you want to make it!
Ingredients You'll Need
Below you'll find a list of ingredients in this recipe, with notes and substitutions. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see the full recipe, including the amount of each ingredient.
- Red bell peppers. These are our star ingredient. Feel free to substitute jarred roasted red peppers if you're short on time.
- Olive oil.
- Walnuts.
- Scallions. Also known as green onions. You'll need about three of them to get the half cup needed for this recipe.
- Lemon juice. Freshly squeezed is best!
- Pomegranate molasses. Look for this in the international aisle of your grocery store, or in a Middle Eastern store. You only need a tiny bit for this recipe, but there are a ton of ways to use it, from whisking it into salad dressings, to drizzling it over veggies, to mixing it with sparkling water for drinking. I also love it on my herbed split pea soup with basmati rice.
- Garlic.
- Spices. You'll need ground cumin, paprika, and Aleppo pepper. Cayenne can be substituted for the Aleppo pepper, but you'll want to cut the amount in half.
- Salt.
- Panko breadcrumbs.
- Fresh parsley.
- Pita bread. This is for dipping in your muhammara. Veggies are also great!
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Steps 1 and 2: Roast the peppers. Cut them in half, remove the seeds, then rub them with olive oil and place them on a baking sheet. Pop it into the oven and roast the peppers until they're nice and blistered all over. Take them out and let them cool.
Step 3: Peel the peppers. Once they're cool you can peel the skins off. They should come off pretty easily, but don't worry about it if you come across a stubborn spot and need to leave a tiny bit of skin on!
Step 4: Blend. Place your peppers into a food processor bowl, along with olive oil, walnuts, scallions, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, garlic, cumin, paprika, and Aleppo pepper. Blend everything until the mixture is nice and smooth!
Step 5: Add the panko. The panko breadcrumbs are really just a thickener. This is why I like to add them last — so you can gauge how thick you want your dip. Start with ¾ cup, blend, and add from there. It can be smooth and creamy, or as thick as hummus. It's up to you!
Step 6: Finish. Your muhammara is basically done! Scoop it into a bowl. Drizzle it with some olive oil and give it a sprinkle with fresh parsley before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pomegranate molasses is simply concentrated pomegranate juice — despite the name, it isn’t molasses at all! It has a tangy, sweet flavor. You can usually find it in the international foods aisle of the supermarket. If you can’t find it or don’t want to buy it for just one recipe, you can make your own using this pomegranate molasses recipe. It’s super easy! In a pinch, you can substitute a balsamic reduction for a similar sweet-tangy flavor.
It can! Just use vegan gluten-free panko breadcrumbs.
Your muhammara will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for three to four days, or in the freezer for up to three months.
More Vegan Middle Eastern Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Muhammara (Roasted Red Pepper & Walnut Dip)
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ pounds fresh red bell peppers, about 3 to 4 peppers (Note 1)
- 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 cup shelled walnuts
- ½ cup chopped scallions (both white and green parts)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ¼ teaspoon ground Aleppo pepper, or to taste (⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper can be substituted)
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ¾ cup panko breadcrumbs, plus up to an additional ½ cup, if needed
For Serving
- Additional olive oil
- Chopped fresh parsley
- Pita bread
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the peppers in half and remove the stems and seeds. Lightly rub the peppers with about a tablespoon of olive oil and arrange them on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan.
- Roast the peppers until the skins begin to blister and brown, about 45 minutes. Remove the peppers from the oven and allow them to sit until they're cool enough to handle.
- When the peppers are cool, gently peel off the skins. Don't worry if you miss some small spots — just try to get most of the skin off.
- Place the peppers into the bowl of a food processor, along with ¼ cup of olive oil, the walnuts, scallions, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, garlic, cumin, paprika, and Aleppo pepper. Blend until smooth, then taste test, season with salt, and adjust any other seasonings to your liking.
- Add in the panko breadcrumbs and pulse the machine until the breadcrumbs are blended in. Stop the machine, check the mixture for thickness and texture, and add more breadcrumbs if you'd like your dip to be thicker. Blend again until smooth.
- Scoop the mixture into a bowl and drizzle it with olive oil. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley and serve with pita bread.
Notes
- Two cups of jarred roasted red peppers can be substituted if you don't feel like roasting them yourself. Drain and blot them to remove excess moisture before using.
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Nutrition
Why use panko in a dressing? For me it doesn’t make any sense…the rest of your recipe seam amazing! I will try it for sure ,minus the panko sand will used roasted pepper! Thanks for sharing!
Trish
Oh my gosh this was AMAZING!!! Mind blown. I was a little skeptical of how all the flavors would come together, particularly the uncooked walnuts and cumin powder, and relatively large amount of lemon juice - but oh my gosh, it was perfectly balanced and I’m in love. Your recipes never disappoint!
It did make a couple tweaks to keep it low fodmap and base on what I had:
-leek greens instead of scallion greens (they’re a bit more pungent/flavorful)
-sub 1 tbs garlic oil for evoo instead of the fresh garlic
-sub 1 tbs very good quality aged Italian balsamic instead of the Pom molasses—having tried both, it tastes quite similar and meant I didn’t need to take a trip to the store (for Pom juice or molasses)
-sub 1/2 the paprika for smoked paprika
-I was planning on making my own gf breadcrumbs to add, but after the first blend, it was so perfect that I decided not to add anything! I kept it a little course and really like the crunch of the walnuts!
-finally, the 3 fresh bell peppers I had weighed only 1 LB 2 oz (before deseeding) and I was worried it would be too little, but worked out perfectly with the same measurements for the rest of the ingredients
Thanks again for the inspiration for a recipe I’ll be making over and over again!!!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for sharing your modifications - they sound great!
Delicious! This was my first time making muhammara. I served it at a baby shower and it was a hit!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Just interested on the serving size the nutritional info is based on. Great recipe excited to give it a try
This looks delicious! Do you have any suggestions to substitute the pomegranate molasses, which I can’t find (and I also don’t want to buy to use just once)? Maybe balsamic? Thanks!
Have you ever tried making it yourself? It's really easy! Here's a recipe I've used and had luck with: https://healthynibblesandbits.com/pomegranate-molasses/ Othewise I think a balsamic reduction would be a nice substitute! You could buy one or make it yourself - this recipe tells you how to do that: https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/beet-burgers/
I've had this appetizer at a Moroccan friend's home- I've had to switch out the breadcrumbs for a gluten free choice but non the less it is delicious. I haven't roasted my own peppers, but I'll bet that really enhances the taste. Great post thanks
Thank you! I'm glad to hear that it works with gluten-free breadcrumbs!
This was our Sunday dinner appetizer, served with pita chips, baby carrots, cauliflower and cucumber. Everyone liked it and also ate more vegetables than they might have otherwise. It wasn't difficult to make, although the pomegranate molasses took some finding. Thanks for a good recipe!
Yay! I'm so glad to hear that! Thanks Vivian!
What a wonderful recipe. My peppers are no where near ripe yet, actually they haven't even bloomed so I've been using jarred peppers lately. Your recipe looks so much more delicious. I can't wait to try it. Please tell more about your evolution into blogging it is really interesting and frankly hopeful for some one who is just starting out and sometimes full of doubts at 3 am.
Thank you so much! And going to full time blogging was quite the journey! The best advice I can give is to stick with it. There have been so many ups and downs but keeping at it and continuously improving is what I think got me here. :)
Wow! This looks seriously good. Seems like a good alternative to hummus =)
Thank you!!
This was a timely inspiration. I'd just been thinking I hadn't made any muhammara in months (mostly because I can't find my preferred peppers - the European/Italian long red sweet ones. Try them as they are waaaay tastier!). I generally roast my peppers under the broiler (or you could grill I suppose) and then let them "steam" in a covered pot or bowl until they've cooled off enough to peel. There's so much oil in the peppers anyway I don't need to add any to roast them. I've seen recipes with couscous in place of bread, but I do prefer the bread texture. And, the first time I had this it was made by a Syrian family. Not sure if their recipe was the true authentic one but it imprinted the bread flavor and texture as being the only "right" way for me. ;)
Wow...you've given me some inspiration for some variations next time I try this. Couscous sounds really interesting and I definitely have to try grilling the peppers when I finally break out the barbecue grill this summer. Thank you!