This is an Arabic tomato dip that your pita needs asap. Did you know that the word ‘matbucha’ literally means ‘cooked salad’ in Arabic?
This recipe teaches you two tricks for peeling tomatoes and peppers. Useful for matbucha and other salads.
Matbucha Recipe
Servings
6 Servings
Ingredients
- 8 tomatoes
- 2 red bell peppers
- 1-2 hot green peppers depending on spiciness level
- 4 cloves garlic sliced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- Place your peppers on a stovetop and burn until skin is blackened. Then place the peppers in a container while they are still hot. Seal the container. You can also put them on a plate with plastic wrap over it. Allow the pepper to steam for 3-5 minutes. Then peel the skin off and rinse to remove burnt pieces. Cut the peppers to remove the stem and the seeds (keep the seeds for a spicier dish). Cut into strips and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut an X shape on the bottom of the tomatoes. See below.
- Place the tomatoes in the boiling water for 30 seconds. If you leave them longer, they will get mushy and hard to peel. Remove tomatoes and place in a large bowl filled with ice water to stop the cooking. The skin will easily peel off.
- In a medium pan, add the tomatoes, garlic and sugar. Cook on low heat for 10 minutes.
- Add the olive oil, sliced peppers, paprika and salt. Let the matbucha cook on medium-low heat for 90 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. It’s ready when it reaches a paste-like consistency. Allow to cool before serving.
What do you do with the red bell peppers? You only wrote about the hot peppers.
All the peppers are treated the same, charred, peeled, and sliced before adding to the pan.
This sounds great…..but I’m a big fan of the Sheet Pan Matbucha on this website: Such great results from so little work! Last night, as soon as my vegetable order got all put away, I popped a double recipe into the oven and just left it to keep getting better and better for nearly an hour on 220º C. After it had cooled, it took just a quick whirl in the food processor, with exactly one small square box of Israeli tomato paste, and we’re good to go for awhile. Thanks for all the great recipes.
Thanks so much for sharing, so glad that recipe works well for you
Uncovered so it gets nice and thick
Do you cook it for 90 minutes covered or uncovered?