If you’ve ever gotten a salad at a Lebanese, Turkish, or Israeli restaurant that has a citrusy, tart flavor that you just can’t put your finger on, it’s probably sumac.
With a deep red hue and bold, acidic flavor, sumac is an essential ingredient in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking that elevates any dish! Kind of like salt, sumac enhances the flavors of the foods it’s cooked with. The fragrant spice is traditionally used in spice blends, dry rubs for meat, or as a garnish to add a pop of color and flavor to a dish before serving.
Sumac has a rich culinary history, with health benefits which have been documented for thousands of years—even dating back to ancient Greek medicinal texts. A wild bush with flowering berries, sumac grows in high plateau areas of the Mediterranean like Sicily and Turkey, which means that it’s abundant in a range of different cuisines across many different cultures.
I cannot believe it took me so many years to discover sumac, but now that I’ve found it, I can’t stop putting it on everything. Here are a few ways that I’ve been spicing up my cooking lately:
Sprinkled on top of hummus or blended into baba ganoush. It’s almost impossible for me to make hummus without it now—sumac just adds that extra special something, like MSG or asafoetida in Asian and South Asian cuisines.
Mixed with feta cheese and olive oil. I’ll serve this with crusty bread at room temperature, or if I want to impress dinner guests, this recipe for baked feta with sumac and grapes is mind-blowing.
As a dry rub for grilled meat or fish. This is my go-to spice blend for meats like lamb, but when I want the flavor of the sumac to sing, I’ll just sprinkle it on hearty roasted vegetables like eggplant or cauliflower with a big glug of olive oil and some salt.
In a traditional fattoush salad, with tons of fresh veggies, crispy pita, and zingy dressing.
With bread and olive oil, either by itself or as part of a za-atar spice blend. I could eat an entire loaf of bread with olive oil and za’atar.
Three words: marinated sumac onions.
Blended with lemon juice and olive oil as a quick and flavorful salad dressing. Garlic, oregano, thyme, and even a little bit of dijon are also terrific additions, but I’ve never been disappointed by a simple blend of lemon juice, olive oil, and sumac.
In this quick, flavor-packed chickpea salad. My secret to making even the simplest dishes taste complex and delicious is unique spices, and sumac is the perfect complement to the earthy chickpeas in this dish.
And lastly…
Tossed with popcorn and salt. Trust me—it’s like salt and vinegar popcorn, but way more nuanced. Movie night just got an upgrade!
