Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Soup (Muhammara-Style)
A warming bowl built on a Levantine dip
Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Soup (Muhammara-Style)
Ingredients
- 4 large red peppers
- 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp Aleppo pepper (or 1/2 tsp chilli flakes)
- 100g walnuts, plus a few extra to garnish
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 700ml vegetable stock
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses, plus extra to drizzle
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 50g fresh breadcrumbs
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- Pomegranate seeds and chopped parsley, to serve
Method
- Roast the whole red peppers under a hot grill or over a gas flame, turning, until blackened and blistered all over.
- Pop them into a bowl, cover, and leave to steam for 10 minutes, then peel away the skins and discard the seeds and stalks.
- Toast the walnuts in a dry pan for a few minutes until fragrant, then set a few aside for garnish.
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan and soften the onion for 8 minutes, then add the garlic, cumin, Aleppo pepper and smoked paprika and cook for 1 minute.
- Stir in the tomato purée and cook for another minute, then add the peeled peppers, toasted walnuts, breadcrumbs and stock.
- Simmer gently for 15 minutes, then stir in the pomegranate molasses.
- Blend the soup until smooth and velvety using a stick blender or upright blender.
- Return to a gentle heat, season well with salt and pepper, and loosen with a little water if it is too thick.
- Ladle into bowls and finish with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, a swirl of olive oil, chopped walnuts, pomegranate seeds and parsley.
Some of the best soups are really just a beloved dip that learned to swim. This one began life in my kitchen as muhammara, the smoky red pepper and walnut dip I cannot stop making, until one cold evening I had a little too much of it and a craving for something warm and spoonable. A splash of stock later and a new favourite was born. It has everything muhammara does — roasted peppers, toasty walnuts, the sweet-sour tang of pomegranate molasses, a whisper of chilli — but in a velvety, nourishing bowl that feels like a hug. It is vegetarian, it is gorgeously coloured, and it tastes far more sophisticated than the effort suggests.
1 From dip to bowl
Muhammara hails from Aleppo, the great Syrian city whose name is stamped all over the dish in the form of its signature chilli. Traditionally it is a thick, textured dip of roasted red peppers, ground walnuts, breadcrumbs, pomegranate molasses and Aleppo pepper, scooped up with warm flatbread as part of a mezze spread across Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. The combination is a small masterpiece of balance: the sweetness of roasted peppers, the richness of walnuts, the bright sourness of pomegranate.
Pomegranate molasses is the ingredient that makes it sing — a thick, tangy syrup made by boiling down pomegranate juice, ancient and ubiquitous across the Levant. Turning the dip into a soup is not remotely traditional, but it honours the flavours faithfully and gives a way to enjoy them on a grey day. The walnuts and breadcrumbs that thicken the original dip do the same gentle thickening here, giving the soup body without any need for cream.
2 How to make it
The one job worth doing properly is charring the peppers until they are genuinely blackened. That blistered skin steams off easily under a covered bowl and leaves behind soft, smoky flesh that is the heart of the whole soup. You can use a hot grill or, if you have a gas hob, char them straight over the flame turning with tongs.
While the peppers steam, toast the walnuts to wake up their flavour, then build a simple aromatic base of onion, garlic and warm spices. Everything goes into the pot together — peppers, walnuts, breadcrumbs, stock — for a short simmer before the pomegranate molasses is stirred through and the lot is blended smooth. The breadcrumbs melt away into a lovely velvety texture. Season generously, because peppers and walnuts both want a confident hand with the salt, and finish each bowl with a flourish of molasses, oil and jewelled pomegranate seeds.
Take your time with the blending if you want that signature silky finish; a full minute in an upright blender gives a smoother, more luxurious result than a quick whizz with a stick blender, though both work. If the soup looks a touch grainy from the walnuts, a splash more stock and another blast usually sorts it. Add the pomegranate molasses gradually and taste as you go — you are chasing that sweet-sour balance where the soup tastes bright but not sharp, rounded but not flat.
3 Tips and variations
Jarred roasted peppers are a perfectly respectable shortcut on a busy night — use about 400g, drained — though you lose a little of the smokiness, so bump up the smoked paprika to compensate. Toasting the walnuts really is worth the two minutes; raw, they taste flat and slightly bitter.
If you cannot get pomegranate molasses, a tablespoon of lemon juice plus a teaspoon of honey gives a rough approximation of the sweet-sour balance, but do seek out the real thing — a bottle lasts ages and transforms dressings and marinades. For a heartier meal, swirl in a spoonful of thick yoghurt or tahini, or serve with warm flatbread for dunking, which feels like a nice nod to the dip it came from. It keeps well for three days in the fridge and freezes happily, ready to be reheated whenever the weather turns.
If you would rather keep the original dip alive too, hold back a few ladles before adding all the stock and let them cook down thicker — you essentially have muhammara again, ready to spread on toast. That flexibility is the joy of this recipe: one set of ingredients, one bit of charring, and you can land anywhere from a velvety soup to a thick, scoopable mezze depending on how much liquid you let it keep.
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