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I always say that a good restaurant should not only leave you full and satisfied, but also inspired to recreate your meal at home.

Ingredients for my homemade muhammara

The Green Owl Café, one of Madison’s newest vegetarian restaurants, did just that.  I was introduced to the restaurant last weekend while visiting my alma mater and college roommate.  We decided to split the Middle-Eastern Platter, an assortment of pickled vegetables, whole wheat pita, and four dips: hummus, muhammara, tabouli, and baba ganoush.  While all were delightful, I could not get enough of the muhammara! It was red, creamy, slightly sweet, and had a familiar but unidentifiable taste.  I asked the waitress for more info and she said it consisted of roasted red peppers, walnuts, breadcrumbs, and pomegranate molasses.  Pomegranate molasses?!

I picked up a bottle of the mysterious ingredient from a local spice shop and headed home, eager to sample it solo and take a crack at the dip.  On its own, the syrup is shockingly tart and tangy!  I’m someone who can eat slice after slice of lemon without wincing, but just a little dab and my mouth instantly puckered up!  Something that tangy needs heat to counterbalance it–and with that I knew that hot pepper was a necessary addition to the dip.  The result:

Muhammara ala Elizabeth
2 roasted red peppers
2/3 cup of toasted walnuts
2/3 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut (in lieu of breadcrumbs)
3 tsp pomegranate molasses
1 tsp Aleppo Pepper (or Cayenne)
~ 1/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

1.    Combine first five ingredients into food processor
2.    Pulse while simultaneously adding EVOO until desired consistency is reached (1/4 cup is only a rough estimate)
3.    Refrigerate to let the flavors marinate

*To roast your own red peppers:  Place fresh peppers on a cookie sheet on top rack of oven.  Broil until completely charred.  Stick peppers into paper bag for 10 minutes.  Remove charred skin, stem, and seeds.  Voila!

Ok, so I must admit that my muhammara was nowhere near as mouthwateringly delicious, but it wasn’t too shabby either.  It had the sweet tanginess mixed with a bit of heat, but something was off; it was a lot fruitier than I remembered.  Was it the omission of garlic?  Were there too many walnuts?  Not enough pepper? Unclear.  I guess that’s all part of the adventure of cooking; trial and error with ingredients and amounts.

Regardless, I am super excited about the creation- not only as a spread but also as a crust for baking salmon… could be tasty, right?