Muhammara & Raw Veggie Sticks

📝 Ingredients

• 1 jar roasted peppers (200 g drained)
• 60 g walnut halves
• 20 g breadcrumbs
• 1 garlic clove
• ½ lemon (for the juice)
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp ground cumin + ½ tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 carrots (about 120 g each)
• 1 cucumber (about 300 g)
• 2 pitta breads (about 65 g each)
• Salt

🍴 Utensils

• Blender
• Frying pan
• Colander
• Spatula
• Toaster
• Peeler

📖 Steps

1. Dry-toast the walnut halves in the frying pan over a medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until fragrant and slightly darker. Tip them onto a plate and leave to cool: still warm, they would make an oily paste.
2. Drain the peppers in the colander, then pat them dry with kitchen paper. This step matters: too much liquid would make the muhammara runny. Peel the garlic clove and squeeze the lemon half.
3. Put the peppers, walnuts (keep 3 or 4 back for garnish), breadcrumbs, garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, lemon juice, honey, olive oil and ½ tsp salt in the blender. Blend for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides with the spatula, then blend for another 20 seconds.
4. Taste and adjust: a little lemon for acidity, honey for sweetness, salt to lift the flavour. The texture should be like a thick hummus, smooth but still slightly grainy. Too thick: add 1 tbsp water; too runny: 1 tbsp breadcrumbs.
5. Spoon the muhammara into a bowl, cover and put it in the fridge while you prepare the raw veg: the breadcrumbs swell, the texture firms up and the flavours meld.
6. Peel the carrots and cut them into sticks about 8 cm long and 1 cm thick. Halve the cucumber lengthways, scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon (they release water), then cut into sticks of the same size.
7. Toast the pitta breads in the toaster for 2 minutes until warm and slightly crisp, then cut each into 8 triangles with a knife or kitchen scissors.
8. Serve the muhammara scattered with the reserved walnuts, crumbled between your fingers, surrounded by the carrot and cucumber sticks and pitta triangles for dipping.