Greetings food adventurers! Today’s recipe is a sauce or condiment called Harissa or Harissa Paste. This is an African condiment – which, yes, I’m breaking tradition and going with a real place this time. I have not visited Africa but I love the huge variety of foods I have tried from the many countries there. Several things I make include this lovely red pepper based paste. Every recipe for it is a little different. You can buy it premade in jars too of course, but homemade is always extra special. Plus, if you happen to have a bunch of beautiful red bell peppers, this helps preserve them to last a bit longer.

This is best as a summer recipe when the peppers are at the peak of their season. I like making it in winter even with the grocery store peppers – winter foods can feel a bit blah sometimes and this beautiful taste of summer helps to perk everything up.

Harissa works with a variety of special dietary restrictions – it’s vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, and nut-free, and most of the ingredients are flexible. The recipe includes Thai chili peppers which are quite spicy, but the red peppers tone them down completely – the harissa is not spicy at all. This is especially amazing on chicken, carrots, eggplant, and roasted potatoes. I will be including this as an ingredient in future recipe posts, and now you know what it is and how to make it!

Harissa Paste

Sweet and flavorful African red pepper paste to use as a condiment or sauce on meats and roasted veggies.

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Cuisine African

Servings 1 jar

Equipment

• Food processor

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 4 Red Bell peppers deseeded and finely chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic roughly chopped
• 1 Tbsp ground Coriander
• 1 ½ tsp whole Cumin seeds
• 1 ½ tsp ground cumin
• 5 or 6 Dried Red Thai Chilis stems removed and broken into large pieces (seeds optional)
• ¼ cup Sun Dried Tomatoes soaked in olive oil (drain before adding)
• ¼ cup avocado oil or olive oil
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar

Instructions

 

Cook bell peppers:

• Heat a teaspoon of oil in a wok or large frying pan to between medium and medium-high.
• Add the garlic, the chopped bell peppers, and a pinch of salt to the hot pan.
• Cook for about 45 minutes until well roasted and softened, stirring occasionally.
• Remove from heat and let cool.

Toast dry spices:

• Heat a small pan on medium heat.
• Add the coriander, ground cumin, and cumin seeds and dry red chilis.
• Roast on medium heat until you smell the aromas coming through. This will take less than 2 minutes.

Blend together:

• Put the cooled peppers, roasted spices, sun-dried tomatoes, and oil into the food processor.
• Process all the ingredients to make a smooth paste.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!