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Harissa is a spicy, smoky, peppery red chilli paste. If you've ever enjoyed hummus, kofta, or fattoush, then harissa should be familiar to you. The name harissa comes from the Arabic verb harasa, meaning ‘break into pieces’. The simplest version of this spicy Middle Eastern sauce is just the bare bones: chillies, salt and olive oil.
What is harissa?
Harissa is a North African red chilli paste or sauce made of simple ingredients: dry red chillies, garlic, citrus, extra virgin olive, and a few warm spices, including cumin, coriander and caraway seeds. This spicy, smoky, peppery red chilli paste originally hails from Tunisia and is common in North African and Middle Eastern cooking. Whether it's eggs, dips, noodles, marinades, or braises, harissa adds a spicy kick to nearly everything.
Harissa has a strong garlicky and smoky flavour that's brightened up with a kick of citrus. This peppery sauce can range in levels of heat, depending on which peppers and chillies make up the sauce. The heat levels of store-bought harissa pastes vary, so you might want to experiment with a few brands before deciding which degree of heat works best for you. Harissa comes in smooth and chunky varieties, although the consistency is similar to sriracha.
It’s possible to make harissa at home – just pulse a couple of times dried chillies with roasted peppers, warm spices, garlic, citrus, and oil in a food processor. One of the advantages of homemade harissa is that you have complete control over the spice level.
Harissa paste or harissa powder?
You may have come across harissa powder in your search for harissa paste. Harissa powder is the dried version of the spices and peppers. The main difference is that the paste contains moisture, whether it’s oil or water. If you decide to cook with the powder, you can use it as you would any dried spice blend, or you can create a harissa paste by mixing the powder with oil and water.
How to use harissa
Harissa can be used in so many delicious ways. Whether it's a marinade, a braise, a dip, or a dressing, the possibilities are endless. You can fold some into fluffy scrambled eggs or drizzle it over your avocado toast. Want to jazz up some fried eggplants? Put some harissa on them. Want to spice up your grilled chicken or steak? A drizzle of this peppery wonder would be perfect. Add a couple of tablespoons of harissa to a red lentil soup, Moroccan vegetable stew, or lamb stew. Stir a spoonful into your next shakshuka for an extra kick, or add it to your hummus for a flavour boost. A great alternative to tzatziki, harissa can be used as a topping to your chicken kofta or lamb burger. Keep your kitchen stocked with a jar of harissa, and you'll never have a bland meal.
What to use instead of harissa
Harissa is a popular ingredient in spicy recipes, but not everyone has it in their pantry or local store. Suppose we need harissa to make a recipe, but we don’t have any: how can we get the closest to the actual flavour? Let's explore our options.
Hot sauce
If a recipe calls for harissa, you usually just want it to be spicy. For this purpose, whatever hot sauce you have on hand will do the trick. Tabasco, sriracha, sambal oleck, chilli bean paste or Korean gochujang provide the right amount of heat and offer a similar consistency to harissa. Their main weakness as an alternative to harissa lies in the exact flavour. Harissa has layers of cumin, coriander, and caraway seeds, whereas other hot sauces can have a different flavour profile.
For example, gochujang has a sweet fermented taste similar to miso - very different from harissa's taste. Therefore, we recommend a chilli paste with the simplest ingredient list. Sambal oelek makes a great substitute since it contains only chillies, vinegar, water, and salt. Compared to harissa, it's very neutral, so your recipe may not have the same spicy nuance, but if you explore your spice rack, it's possible to add a hint of harissa to your recipe. Add cumin, coriander and caraway to sambal oelek (start with 1/2 teaspoon per cup) until you reach your desired flavour profile.
Though sriracha has a different consistency, it's a great harissa substitute. Garlic undertones in sriracha go well with harissa, and if you want to layer in extra flavour, mix in cumin, coriander, and caraway. A bonus of adding extra spices is that it thickens up the comparatively thin sriracha sauce, making it more paste-like and closer to harissa in consistency. If you want to thicken it further without adding more of the three spices above, you can add hot paprika.
Fresh chopped red chilli with caraway seeds
Harissa can be substituted with finely chopped fresh red chillies, a pinch of caraway seeds, and enough olive oil to make a pesto-like sauce. You can use ground coriander if you don’t have caraway seeds.
Chilli oil
Plenty of great chilli-flavoured oils on the market will give a similar kick to harissa.
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