David Lebovitz’s Dukkah

Dukkah is one of those things I seem to use constantly. I’ve tasted lots of versions over the years, including the ones served and sold at Ottolenghi, but the recipe I fell in love with making at home is David Lebovitz’s from My Paris Kitchen.

What I particularly love about it is the hazelnuts and the fact that the nuts, seeds and spices are all toasted, giving the finished dukkah a wonderfully deep, nutty flavour.

I do change the final grinding method slightly. Rather than putting everything into the food processor together, I grind the toasted spices separately until fairly fine. I then pulse them with the hazelnuts and seeds only briefly, so the finished dukkah stays coarse and crunchy rather than becoming a powder.

Ingredients

½ cup / 70g hazelnuts

⅓ cup / 35g sesame seeds

¼ cup / 35g hulled pumpkin seeds

2 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1½ teaspoons black peppercorns

1 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Toast the hazelnuts for around 8–10 minutes until lightly browned. Rub away as much of the loosened skin as you can once cool enough to handle.

   
   

2. Toast the sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, coriander, cumin, fennel and peppercorns separately in a dry frying pan. They toast at different speeds, so keep a close eye on them.

   
   

3. My variation: grind the coriander, cumin, fennel and peppercorns together until fairly fine.

   
   

4. Put the hazelnuts, sesame and pumpkin seeds into a food processor. Add the ground spices and salt, then pulse briefly until the nuts are roughly chopped and the mixture is still coarse and crunchy.

Store in an airtight jar.

Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz, My Paris Kitchen.