Dukkah (or duqqa or do’ah) is an Egyptian spice and nut mix that is served similarly to za’atar.
Dukkah usually includes hazelnuts, with the addition of almonds, pistachio and / or peanuts, sesame and a combination of coriander seed, cumin seed and salt. But the combinations are endless.
It’s great to serve with bread and olive oil, to sprinkle on cheese, like labneh or feta, or sprinkle on roasted veggies, like cauliflower. But I find it so tasty that I sometimes just eat it with a spoon.
The main trick here is toasting the nuts and spices so that their flavor is deepened. It makes all the difference. Instructions on how to do that are below.
Egyptian nut and spice mix (dukkah)
Course: Dips, pickles and relishesCuisine: Egyptian, Middle Eastern, ArabDifficulty: Easy½
cup20
minutesDukkah (or duqqa or do’ah) is an Egyptian spice and nut mix that is served similarly to za’atar.
It usually includes a mix of nuts, among them hazelnuts, but I find that using hazelnuts only yields the best results. However, feel free to experiment with your favorite nut combination.
It is key to toast the nuts until they’re nicely dark-golden in color. Some stores sell pre-roasted hazelnuts, but those are usually not toasted enough (Trader Joe’s hazelnuts are a good example) so just toast them again in your oven until you get the preferred color.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup hazelnuts
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon dried chili flakes
½ teaspoon kosher salt
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Put hazelnuts on a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 15 minutes, shaking the baking sheet after 8 minutes, until nicely dark-gold in color. Transfer to a cooling rack until hazelnuts are completely cold.
- If the hazelnuts have their skin on, put the cold nuts on a kitchen towel, cover with the towel and rub with your hands. This will remove the skins off. Discard the skin and keep the hazelnuts.
- Put sesame seed, fennel, coriander and cumin seeds in a pan over medium heat and toast for 4-5 minutes until you can clearly smell the aroma of the spices. Stay near the pan and shake it frequently to prevent from the spices to burn. Transfer to a bowl and add chili flakes and salt. Let spice mix cool down.
- Use a mortar and pestle or (so much simpler!) a blender and pulse the hazelnuts and spices into a coarse mixture. Do not over-process! you don’t want a very find mixture and you want to prevent from the hazelnuts to become a nut butter.
- Transfer to a sealed container and keep at room temperature up to a month.
