Recipe: Zhug - glorious hot 'n' herby sauce

Experiencing food in Israel is something else; there's a wonderfully eclectic mix of different foods & flavours from the immigrants who came to live there. The Jewish from Yemen brought zhug; a simple, flavoursome and spicy condiment. In Israel you'll often find it served with a pastry called jachnun and a hardboiled egg. Get it if you can!

Easy to whizz up and will keep for weeks in the fridge it's a staple in our house. We use it for mezze platters, on sandwiches, stir in to soups or rice or as is done in Israel serve with a savoury pastry (traditionally jachnun but cheese filled puff pastry will do e.g burekas).

Zhug Recipe

Ingredients:

90g fresh coriander (including stalks)

5 cloves of garlic

3 red chillis, chopped with seeds

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp sea salt

3 tbsp oil (we use extra virgin rapeseed oil)

Method:

Throw everything into a blender, whizz to a paste, taste to see if spicy/salty enough and serve.

Homemade bagels with labneh & zhug.