
Charmoula
Arabic in origin, Charmoula is a wonderful and flavorful condiment for meat or vegetables. It’s slightly similar to Chimichurri, in that it combines garlic with parsley and cilantro. But that’s where the similarity ends.
I’ve never seen charmoula in a jar, but I’m sure it doesn’t taste as good as home-made in any case. This recipe takes minutes to make, so there’s really no excuse to try the real stuff.
There are probably many different recipes for charmoula, but this is the one I’ve seen the most, with cumin, garlic, cilantro and parsley as the major players.
I’ve used charmoula with my home-made Italian sausages, pictured above, with beef and with chicken; I’ve yet to try it with lamb, but I’m sure it would be equally delicious. Maybe next time.
Charmoula
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, I used black cumin seeds
1-2 cloves garlic cloves, peeled, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne, or to taste
1 cup chopped cilantro, fairly well packed
1/2 cup chopped parsley, fairly well packed
2/3 cup olive oil
Toast the cumin seeds in a skillet. Or use your handy dandy seed toaster.
To prevent losing the seeds when they begin popping as they toast, use a platter screen over your skillet.
Place the toasted seeds in a small mortar and grind them up a little.
Then add the garlic and grind until you’ve formed a paste.
Place this paste in a medium-sized bowl. Add the lemon juice, paprika, salt, and cayenne. Then add the chopped cilantro and parsley.
Stir well, then add the olive oil. If you prefer a thicker paste, don’t add as much olive oil; you can always add more later.
To use the charmoula, I decided to take advantage of some Italian sausages I’d just made.
I cooked the sausages first and then poured the cumin-flavored freshness over the top.
Now that I think of it, charmoula would also be good over grilled haloumi and vegetables!!! Something else to try!
What a smell you provide here …. those Italian sausages, looks so delicious. And I love cilantro, one of my favorite herbs.
I really do feel sorry for those who dislike cilantro…
Your chermoula looks divine. So fragrant! It is also really good on white-flesh grilled fish. I have never tried it with vegetables, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work!
I’ve been craving it on Haloumi ever since I thought of it. But fish I completely forgot about! Sounds like a perfect combination!
Wonderful! Delicious and so versatile.
Thank you!
looks delicious!
Thanks!
You really are amazing with your herb and spice “compotes”!!! Mimi, I will definitely make this. It’s sort of like a chimichurri meets Indian spice blend. Oh, your sausages are so crisp and plum that I thought they were potatoes. Looks delicious.
That’s because my sausages came out quite squatty!
Hehe. They looked scrum-didily-umptious!
Shanna took all words out of my mouth, exactly what I was going to say about your posts…
I don’t think I ever tried charmoula, sounds like something pretty nice to make and pump up many types of dishes
You described it perfectly!!!
I love charmoula. It’s one of my favorite African recipes. We’ve used it with fish and veggies and have always gotten great results. One of these days I’m going to post a fish tagine using charmoula. I probably need to try it with pork and chicken as I’m sure it would be wonderful on them, as well.
Love the photo of the plump little sausage with the charmoula on top. :)
I totally forgot to mention fish in the post. Any shrimp would be fabulous with charmoula as well!!! Thanks!
never had chamoula, but Im very familiar with chimichurri and I would love to give this recipe a try! Is that a bed of lentils? they look so delicious… I am having canned lentil soup for lunch… don’t judge, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do :)
I understand. No judging here!
Sounds like a great seasoning.
It’s fresh and flavorful!
I’ve had charmoula but never made it, it really is delicious. I’ll have to try making it.
It’s both fresh, from the parsley-cilantro combo, and flavorful from the spices!
I too, love spice blends, but I haven’t yet tried charmoula, I look forward to giving this a whirl!
It’s very good! And quite versatile!
This just looks so amazing! Kudos!
I have to say, it’s pretty good stuff!
I can almost smell the toasted cumin…I’ve only made a food processor version of charmoula, but your version looks perfect for that sausage dish ;-)
I don’t think this is any different – I could see using a blender to make this as well. It depends if you want to see the leaves or not, I think!
YUM! I think this would be very versatile to use on almost anything.
I think it is too. I need to start “experimenting!”
This sounds wonderful. How is it I’ve never made charmoula before? Time to remedy the situation.
Anvs you made your own sausages? Respect!
Thanks! (I’d never made charmoula before, either!)