One of my favourite Christmas gifts was the bag of Middle Eastern spices my friend Mary brought me from Bahrain. The zahatar is particularly wonderful, and I’ve been having fun adding to all sorts of things ever since, such as this feta cheese and almond dip.
Feta cheese makes a great base for a dip, and combines really well with nuts. I also make this with walnuts, but I happened to have a couple of bags of smoked almonds hanging about. I liked the smokiness so much, the next time I make it with regular almonds I’ll try adding smoked paprika.
Almond-feta dip with zahatar
(makes about one cup)
- 1 cup (150g) smoked almonds
- half a pack of feta, crumbled
- 2 Tb fresh parsley, chopped
- juice of half a lemon
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp zahatar
- salt and pepper
- olive oil for drizzling
- Chop the almonds in a food processor.
- Add the feta, parsley, lemon juice and paprika and blend until well combined.
- If the dip seems too thick, add a bit of water to bring it to the consistency desired.
- Stir in the zahatar. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Transfer into a serving bowl, sprinkle with additional zahatar, and drizzle with olive oil.
- Serve with crackers.
Ten More Bites 
I love this!
Thank you!
One of my favorite new spices. “Jerusalem” is having an influence; even Clothilde is using it with her pita crisps recipe.
Middle Eastern food certainly seems to be having a moment…
Reblogged this on THE TRUE BEAUTY OF AFRICA and commented:
WOW! AM DYING TO TASTE IT!
Hope you enjoy it — and thanks for the reblog!
your always welcome!