Aleppo Za'atar Seasoning
A dry Syrian blend of seeds, herbs, sumac, and spices, eaten with oil or sprinkled over bread and savory foods.
A dry Syrian seasoning blend made from seeds, herbs, tangy sumac, and spices, used for dipping or sprinkling over breads and savory foods.
Like za'atar seasoning, but with a more specific Aleppo-style ingredient mix.
Mix the ingredients evenly so no one flavor dominates. Serve it as a condiment rather than cooking it as a dish.
Ingredients
- 200 g salted watermelon seeds
- 200 g shelled pumpkin seeds
- 100 g dried coriander
- 100 g fennel
- 100 g anise
- 25 g oregano
- 25 g coarsely ground cumin
- 200 g sumac
- 1½ tablespoons citric acid
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- optional Aleppo pistachios
- optional coconut
- to taste toasted sesame seeds
- 750 g toasted sesame seeds
- 725 g ground ingredient mixture before adding sumac and sesame seeds
Instructions
- Place the dried coriander, fennel, anise, and coarsely ground cumin together in a frying pan over very low heat, toasting and stirring them constantly.
- Leave the dried coriander, fennel, anise, and coarsely ground cumin mixture in the frying pan over very low heat for about 7 to 10 minutes, until the moisture evaporates and a toasted color appears.
- Remove any visible impurities from the frying pan while toasting the dried coriander, fennel, anise, and coarsely ground cumin mixture, if any appear.
- Transfer the dried coriander, fennel, anise, and coarsely ground cumin mixture from the frying pan to a tray and spread it out to cool.
- Place the salted watermelon seeds and shelled pumpkin seeds in a frying pan over very low heat, stirring to draw out their moisture.
- Leave the salted watermelon seeds and shelled pumpkin seeds in the frying pan over very low heat for about 5 minutes.
- Transfer the salted watermelon seeds and shelled pumpkin seeds from the frying pan to the tray over the previous ingredients, and leave everything to cool completely.
- Add the oregano to the cooled ingredients in a bowl or on the tray, and mix it in before grinding.
- Place part of the mixture in a home grinder and grind it.
- Sift the ground mixture into a large bowl to obtain a fine texture.
- Regrind the coarse pieces left in the sieve in the home grinder, then sift them again into the large bowl, until almost nothing coarse remains.
- Add the sumac to the large bowl containing the ground and sifted mixture.
- Add the toasted sesame seeds to the large bowl.
- Add the sugar, salt, and citric acid to the large bowl.
- Add the Aleppo pistachios to the large bowl if desired.
- Add the coconut to the large bowl if desired.
- Mix all the ingredients well in the large bowl until evenly combined.
- Serve Aleppo za'atar cold with olive oil, or use it for sprinkling or dipping.