“Spread it on thick!”
I love sauces, dips, spreads, and salsas. I stumbled upon Harissa at a Moroccan restaurant called Cafe Gitane in NYC. They have this amazing avocado toast and served it with Harissa on the side. I was hooked. It's great to spread as a flavorful sauce on chicken or added on top of hummus for spicy snack. I even put it on my eggs for a punchy wake up call in the morning. I have made it a few times, trying different variations of recipes I found online, and have cobbled together the ingredients to my liking. What's great is you can play around dialing up some of the ingredients (more roasted pepper, less tomato) or adding notes of other spices (trying other dried peppers for instance) to find the best flavor profile for you. It has a lot of ingredients but the recipe itself is super simple. Here is what I typically do.
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
3 dried chilis de arbol (red chilis)
3 dried pasilla peppers (also called chili negro)
2 roasted red bell peppers (skins and seeds removed)
4 cloves of garlic
1 jalapeño (ribs and seeds removed)
1/2 cup chopped red onion (about half of medium sized onion)
Juice of 1 lemon
Half a bunch of cilantro (about a cup of loose leaves)
1 15-oz can of fire roasted tomatoes
2 1/2 Tablespoons of red chili flakes (you can put in less if that's too hot)
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of coriander
1 teaspoon of dried Mexican oregano (or regular oregano if you can't find it)
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teasopon of ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
DIRECTIONS:
Step 1 | Prep the Peppers
Roast the red peppers at 450 degrees for about 15-20 minutes (until skin starts to blacken). Simply place them on a backing sheet and cover with a bit of olive oil and throw them in the hot oven. Once they come out let them cool and then remove the skins, stem, and seeds. Meanwhile cover the dried peppers with boiling water in a heatproof bowl and allow them to sit for about 20 minutes to soften them up. Once they are ready remove any seeds and stems.
Step 2 | Chop, Chop, Chop
Roughly chop the garlic, jalapeño, red onion, softened peppers, and roasted peppers. Put it all into a food processor. Add the canned tomatoes and cilantro. Add the chili flakes, cumin, coriander, oregano, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil. Pulse it all together. I like it with a bit of texture so I am careful not to puree it completely.
Step 3 | Store & Eat
Place the Harissa mixture into a sealable container, I like to use a glass jar because it looks nice. You can eat it right away but it gets better as it all sits together. It will last a week in the fridge. It may last longer but I always finish it within a week so I am not really sure.