Harissa – easy to make your own

Making harissa

Back in the day, when you would give me a dish with some chili in it, I would start sweating immediately. Runny nose and everything. You know the drill.

But over the years that has changed a bit and I’m starting to like spicy food more and more. Not that I am any competition for the real chili eaters out there, but I am trying! And when you like spicy food, you need a spicy mixture to prepare that food.

Harissa is easy to find in supermarkets these days and that is not too bad really. But I had decided I wanted to make my own mixture at least once. And I was so surprised at how incredibly easy it was to make!!

Ofcourse it would be a given that you put chili in the dish but I did not expect the base of harissa to be so simple. It’s almost the same as making your own chutney. You think it’s complicated until you try!

Harissa is originally from Tunesia and is used a lot in the countries in Northern Africa. It’s used for making soups, sauces and merguez. I like to use harissa as a bit of marinade over meat. Great with chicken or beef skewers!

But having said that it is also great to add to a mayonaise or to use a spoonful of harissa into a dressing. You really can’t go wrong here. Now if you look at the recipes you can find for harissa that are out there, you will find that they vary wildly.

Spices or no spices

You can find various kinds with all sort of spices and you can find harissa without any spices. You can find it with rose water or some other exotic ingredients. I opted here to use the spices I like best, but if you want something else? Go for it.

As with anything I am not claiming that this recipe for harissa is the ultimate recipe. It’s a very versatile recipe that you can whip together in just under a few minutes

Grocery shopping

The other day I was accused by a lady reading a recipe here of not giving the right preparation time. She insisted I needed to add the time needed for dish washing and the time needed for grocery shopping.

To be honest I had to laugh when I read her serious comment. I mean… that would be hard to calculate right? Assuming you have nothing in stock or everything in stock?

Whatever the case, if you have all the ingredients and don’t count any cleaning needed to be done afterwards, this is really done in a few minutes.

Just throw all the ingredients into the food processor, blend and you’re done.

This harissa is also delicious with this recipe for beef kebabs.

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