Vegan Muhammara Toastie

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Sweet, savory, spicy and even a hint of sour: this Muhammara toastie HAS IT ALL! And the best of it all, IT’S VEGAN and super easy to make! Transport yourself to a magical moment with this delight of a toasted sandwich!

Muhammara 

Muhammara basically has every flavor in the world, although specifically all the flavors from Syria 🙂

It is made with grilled peppers, walnuts and pomegranate as main ingredients. And a special spicy pepper that comes from Aleppo: Aleppo chili flakes. 

Additionally, muhammara has a dash of lemon juice and olive oil, and a whole variety of herbs and spices that can be added to it. While you can vary the different spices that you can add, most common are cumin and (smoked) paprika powder. 

You can also add sumak for an extra sour kick. Or some more sugar if you like to cancel out the spiciness. Garlic can also be added or a whiff of cinnamon! 

The bottom line is that there is no set-in-stone recipe for muhammara and you can basically vary exactly how you like it! 

Muhammara on a Toastie

Muhammara is a Libanese dip that is superduper yummy and versatile! And so, of course, it needed to be put on a toastie 🙂

I love muhammara with pita bread or naan bread to dip, or just on a sandwich or cracker to work. I also LOVE to eat muhammara! 

One of Jack and my favorite recipes is a Muhammara Bowl with Quinoa. I basically take all the ingredients of muhammara (pomegranate seeds, grilled pepper, walnuts, chili flakes) and throw them in a bowl and add quinoa and cherry tomatoes. Sometimes I add some feta cheese for a creamy component, but that no longer makes it vegan. However I make it, it turns out DELICIOUS and super easy! 

We’ll try a similar approach for this toastie. 

Grilled Pepper

One of the main ingredients of muhammara is grilled pepper. There are two simple ways to go about this: either you buy a jar of grilled peppers, or you grill them yourself. 

It really depends on your preference and time commitment. I personally love freshly grilled pepper as it is a little bit more crispy and has more bite than the pepper from a jar. Nevertheless, grilled pepper from a jar is one of those guilty pleasures that feels “healthy” and therefore totally acceptable for some reason. And it’s soooo easy 🙂

If you’re going to grill your own peppers, you have several ways of doing so: 

• On a sandwich grill 
• In the oven 

Both ways work perfectly fine, and you can decide for either how “grilled” you’d like your peppers to be. 🙂

If you want to use peppers that have been grilled for you, you can easily use peppers from a jar. Just make sure to dry them off a bit before you use them, because they can be quite liquidy. 

When you opt for a bit more sophisticated brand of grilled peppers they might actually come in a delicious, herby oil with more flavors and spices! In this case, I recommend leaving some of the oil on the peppers, which will blend in perfectly with the bread and the rest of the toastie! 

If the peppers are a little watery, I do recommend drying them off a bit with some kitchen towel. 

Aleppo Chili Flakes

The chili flakes are one of the main ingredients of muhammara, but I can imagine you don’t have aleppo chili flakes readily available. I know you can order them on Amazon, but it might just be sooo much easier to use regular chili flakes, instead. 

I personally use regular chili flakes for all my muhammara adventures, so while the connaisseurs might not acknowledge this recipe as an original muhammara, you have the ToastieLab seal of approval! 

Walnuts

Walnuts are delicious and healthy and another key ingredient of muhammara. They give this toastie a crunchy bite and totally add to the texture of muhammara. 

In a regular muhammara dip recipe, you’d probably blend the walnuts with the rest of the ingredients, but on the toasted sandwich I like to keep them a little bigger, so I just chop ‘m with a knife so that they’re still nice and chunky. 

Pomegranate

I think pomegranate is my favorite fruit in the whole world. They’re just such a pain to clean. I don’t know about you, but I always end up with the juice all over everything except for in the seeds, hahaha. 

I used to use the frozen pomegranate seeds or fresh, store-bought-ready-to-eat-ones, but they aren’t always as juicy and flavorful as fresh ones. 

And then a miracle happened: 

I discovered pomegranate syrup! HURRAY! 

Problem solved: it’s sweet, plentiful, concentrated and delicious. SO delicious! And you don’t end up with the seeds between your teeth 🙂

The official name for the syrup is molasses and you can basically make it yourself from pomegranate juice with some extra sugar. This is the easy way! 

You can add as much or as little as you want to any recipe, I love to add a decent dash to this grilled sandwich recipe, because it is the sweet and sour flavor that really makes this recipe so delicious.

You can also use the syrup for dressings and for this toastie, you definitely have to try it mixed in with some ketchup to really finish this toastie! 

Grilled Cheese Version

Like I said earlier, I sometimes add some feta cheese to the muhammara quinoa bowl that I make, and that is definitely a recommended add-on if you’d like to turn this vegan toastie into a real grilled cheese. 

You can either sprinkle some feta cheese onto the bread or mix it in with the paste. If you have feta that has softened up enough, you can spread it straight onto the bread. 

Feta and muhammara are delicious together!

Tomato Paste

Tomato is not a key ingredient for muhammara, but you’ll often find recipes that use it. It gives the muhammara dip a bit more depth and color. So opt for a concentrated tomato paste. 

For this recipe specifically, tomato paste helps to make a substance that combines all the ingredients. Since this isn’t a ready-to-go-dip, it needs a way to combine the flavors, and tomato paste is just perfect for that!

Tools + YouTube

If you’re curious to see which toastie machine WE use, check out our recommended tools. We love the grill for this specific toastie, but you can use the sandwich press, too! 

And if you want to see us in real, live action, making those toasties better, faster and stronger than you can ever imagine, check out our YouTube Channel!