Recipe: muhammara chickpeas by Amelia Christie-Miller
A flavour-packed dip with walnuts, red peppers and plenty of spices

Move over hummus, said Amelia Christie-Miller. This classic Levantine dip of walnuts, roasted red peppers, spices and pomegranate molasses is sweet, earthy and nutty: you'll want to eat it with or on everything. In this version, it's stirred through chickpeas, but you could also try serving it in a pitta bread with lettuce and tomatoes. It will keep in the fridge for up to five days.
Ingredients: serves four
- 700g jar chickpeas, or 2 × 400g cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
For the muhammara
- 50g walnut pieces (or almonds or hazelnuts), plus extra to serve
- 1 slice of crusty white bread or bread of your choice, roughly chopped into chunks
- 3 red peppers (either from a jar for a speedy version, or fresh if you’re grilling yourself)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp cayenne pepper, dried chilli flakes or hot chilli powder
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- juice of ½ a lemon
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
- To serve: pomegranate seeds, handful of freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley or coriander, feta (optional)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C.
- Tip the walnuts and bread chunks onto a baking tray and bake for 6-8 minutes until slightly golden. Keep checking to make sure they don't burn. This step is optional, but roasting the nuts brings out their earthy, nutty flavour.
- If you're using jarred peppers, skip to the next step. If using fresh red peppers, put them on a baking tray and slide under a grill. Once they start to blacken, turn them over until they're charred on all sides. (You can also do this on a barbecue or over a gas stove: char them straight on the flame, turning with tongs.) Once charred, place into a bowl and cover with cling film. Steaming them like this makes them easy to peel. Once they're cool enough to handle, peel and discard the charred skins from the peppers.
- Transfer the peppers to a blender or food processor, along with the bread, walnuts, spices, purée, molasses, garlic, lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Blitz until smooth. Add a few spoonfuls of water to loosen, if necessary.
- Tip the chickpeas into a bowl. Add the muhammara and stir to combine, making sure the chickpeas are well coated in the sauce.
- To serve, sprinkle over the pomegranate seeds and the fresh parsley or coriander. Add a sprinkle of feta here, if you like, and some extra toasted walnuts for crunch. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and serve. This is great alongside a fresh, crunchy salad dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.
Taken from "Bold Beans: Recipes to get your pulse racing" by Amelia Christie-Miller, published by Kyle Books at £22. Photography by Joe Woodhouse. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £17.99, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for The Week's Food & Drink newsletter for recipes, reviews and recommendations.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
ABC shelves ‘Kimmel Live’ after Trump FCC threat
Speed Read ‘A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the president doesn’t like what they say’
-
September 18 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Thursday's political cartoons include a man who would be king, an inconsistent court, and social media in the trash
-
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues – laughs are sadly ‘thin on the ground’
Talking Point Disappointing sequel to the classic rock’n’roll spoof
-
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues – laughs are sadly ‘thin on the ground’
Talking Point Disappointing sequel to the classic rock’n’roll spoof
-
Tosca: thrilling new Puccini staging has ‘tremendous emotional force’
The Week Recommends Controversial Russian soprano Anna Netrebko returns to the stage with ‘white-hot passion’ in starring role
-
The Girlfriend: irresistibly twisty drama starring Robin Wright
The Week Recommends ‘Deliciously unhinged’ show pits a son’s mother against his ‘cagey’ new girlfriend
-
Islands: gripping thriller ‘shimmers, convinces and thoroughly absorbs’
The Week Recommends Sam Riley stars in Jan-Ole Gerster’s mystery about a washed-out tennis coach at a Fuerteventura resort who falls under the spell of a married guest
-
What We Can Know: Ian McEwan’s ‘most entertaining and enjoyable novel for years’
The Week Recommends The acclaimed writer’s ambitious new book sets out a ‘richly imagined’ vision of post-apocalyptic Britain
-
Fannie Flagg’s 6 favorite books that sparked her imagination
Feature The author recommends works by Johanna Spyri, John Steinbeck, and more
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacy
Feature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
-
A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful north
The Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts