Harissa - what is it and what to do with it?

Harissa is something that rarely comes up in recipes so it’s not surprising that many people have never heard of it. If you are a lover of spicy things, you should give this a try.

What is it?

It's a chili pepper paste, basically. The main ingredients of which are roasted red peppers, Baklouti pepper, serrano peppers or other hot chili peppers, spices and herbs such as garlic paste, coriander seed, saffron, rose or caraway, as well as some olive oil for preservation. It is most often associated with Tunisian, Libyan, Algerian, Moroccan and Syrian cuisine.

The paste, as you can imagine, since it contains peppers, can be searing hot or just a little tingly; made tangy with lemon or vinegar, or smoky; it can be loose like a salsa or a thick chunky paste.

In other words, as with most condiments, recipes vary, depending on the region from which they come.

You can make your own by roasting peppers and blending with spices and olive oil, or just buy a jar, trying various ones until you find the one you like best. If you end up with one that’s a tad too spicy, you can always add yogurt to tone it down.  The acid acts as a great neutralizer for things spicy. Keep that in mind next time your mouth is on fire!

These are quite good.

So, harissa is versatile as a condiment, kind of like ketchup and sriracha and, like both of those, it’s great with eggs. It’s also good with poached salmon, or grilled chicken, lamb or beef kebabs.

You can smear it on a burger, mix it with aioli and use it as a dip, add a spoonful to some mayo for sandwiches or add it to Ranch as a salad dressing. Add some to the ground meat in your next meatloaf to kick it up a notch.

You can mix it with labne (a Persian cheese/yogurt) or puree it with crumbled feta cheese, fresh herbs, lemon and olive oil as a dip or spread. Olives work well with harissa’s briny heat and so the  dip in this link combines them with carrots to make a rich spread for celery sticks or pita bread, or perhaps on a sandwich.

If you like food with a little heat and you haven’t heard of harissa, I would give it a try.