The Exotic Blends of Mediterranean Spices

Harissa is a chile pepper paste that comes from North Africa, around Tunisia. At about the same time that Columbus was making his way to America and bringing chiles home, the Spaniards won their independence from the Moors, and there was an exodus of people from Spain to Tunisia, bringing with them the newly discovered chiles. Harissa contains garlic, lemon, and caraway.

Tabil (meaning “spice”) is also from Tunisia. This mixture contains turmeric, giving it a yellow color, and numerous other exotic spices that are ordinarily found in curry powder. In fact, you could probably use curry powder as a substitute for tabil.

In both Morocco and Tunisia, we find a vinaigrette known as charmoula. This all-purpose marinade and dressing contains parsley, cilantro, paprika, and cumin. It’s often used to marinate fish or lamb, and it’s used in vegetable salads. One recipe for a tiered salad calls for raw and cooked vegetables dressed with charmoula and then stacked on top of each other: cucumber, tomatoes, onions, beets, potatoes, peppers, and so on.

The Egyptian spice mixture called dukkah is made with cumin, pepper, hazelnuts, and sesame seeds, while za’atar, a mixture used for similar purposes as dukkah, is made with wild thyme, sesame, and sumac.

Finally, baharat is a Turkish mixture containing 8 to 10 spices; it’s often used on lamb, either roasted on a spit or grilled as kebabs.

Learn more about Mediterranean Spices—Exotic Blends

Some Notes About Egyptian Spices

• In a country that has religious prohibitions against the consumption of alcohol, you won’t find vinegar because alcohol is a precursor to vinegar. Finding ways to make food spicy and sour is, thus, a challenge.
• Egyptian and eastern Mediterranean cooks use the spice sumac to make foods sour in the absence of vinegar and in the absence of lemon juice, because lemons are a seasonal crop.
• In Egypt, people dip pieces of bread first into olive oil and then into either dukkah or za’atar as part of a meal.

Try Hosting a Mediterranean Spice Themed Dinner!

One way to create a fun party is to make various types of lamb kebabs using Mediterranean spices and have your guests sample the variations.

Try Spanish lamb kebabs spiced with saffron, garlic, Spanish paprika, and cayenne. These kebabs are a throwback to the time when the Moors occupied Spain and brought their appreciation of exotic spices with them.

You might also make Italian kebabs, skewered on rosemary and seasoned with black pepper and garlic. Greek kebabs could be seasoned with dill, garlic, lemon, and black pepper and anointed with olive oil.

Finally, a Turkish variation would, of course, be seasoned with baharat, which contains cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin, and the type of ingredients we find in pickling spice: bay leaf, allspice, cloves, coriander seeds, and mustard seeds.

The meal is complete, serve mint tea as it’s made in Tunisia: heavily steeped and sweetened, with a few toasted pine nuts floating on top.

A note about chopping mint: If you chop mint too aggressively, it will turn black. Try to gather the leaves together and cut through the stack just one time. Slice the mint into ribbons (a chiffonade) to ensure that it holds its green color.

Learn more about India—Heart of the Spice World

Make Your Own Mediterranean Spice Blends With These Easy Recipes