Our festive dukkah recipe gives a seasonal twist to the Middle Eastern spice and nut blend with Christmas spices, premium nuts such as cashews, macadamias and walnuts, poppy seeds, and the non-traditional addition of dried fruit such as cranberries and currants. This Christmas dukkah can be used for dipping, sprinkling, crusting and stuffing and makes a fantastic festive edible gift over the Christmas-New Year period.
If you’re bored with the bowls of mixed nuts that have traditionally been a feature of your Christmas-New Year snacking spreads, then try our festive dukkah recipe for a seasonal twist on the classic Egyptian spice and nut blend. I toast and pound premium nuts such as cashews, macadamias and walnuts to a round grind, then blend the nuts with Christmas spices, poppy seeds, and cranberries and currants.
This Christmas dukkah recipe is versatile and you can substitute nuts, spices and seeds to use whatever you have on hand. Use the festive dukkah as you would a classic dukkah, and serve as a snack with extra virgin olive oil and crusty sourdough bread, sprinkle it over our baked camembert or a pudding and custard, or use as a crust or stuffing if you’re still cooking up a storm.
Quick and easy to come together, my festive dukkah recipe makes the easiest homemade edible gift if you’re looking for last-minute presents to give friends and family you’re visiting or who unexpectedly drop by over the Christmas-New Year period. I quickly prepared half a dozen small jars of dukkah in less than thirty minutes yesterday for neighbours who surprised us with a knock at the door.
And if you’re still entertaining over the Christmas-New Year period, do check out our ideas Christmas leftovers, recipes for dips for crackers and crudités and festive cocktail recipes, browse our recipe archives, which are brimming with many hundreds of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected from around the world, or take a look at our most popular recipes of November and recipes to cook in December.
And before you scroll down to our festive dukkah recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. Now let’s tell you about our seasonal dukkah recipe.
Festive Dukkah Recipe for Dipping and Gifting Over Christmas-New Year
Our festive dukkah recipe will make you our seasonal take on the versatile Middle Eastern nut, seed and spice blend that’s fantastic with Arabic flat breads or crusty sourdough bread and extra virgin olive oil. You can still use our Christmas dukkah the way you do a classic dukkah: dip the bread into the olive oil, then dip it into the dukkah, and enjoy.
You can still sprinkle our festive dukkah over hummus although I especially adore it showered over muhammarra, the Syrian red pepper dip. It’s wonderful sprinkled on soft-boiled eggs, but I really love this Christmassy dukkah with baked camembert or brie, and I’ll be sharing that recipe next.
Making dukkah is one of the best things to make with a mortar and pestle. And, of course, the beauty of making your own dukkah, like making any homemade condiments made from scratch, is that you can customise it to suit your taste, the cuisine you’re cooking or ingredients you have.
While I really think I’ve got the right mix of pounded Christmassy nuts such as cashews, macadamias, walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts; poppy seeds, cranberries and currants; and Christmas spices such as ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, by all means experiment, use what you’ve got to hand, and adjust to suit your own taste.
I only have a few tips to making our festive dukkah recipe as it’s quick and easy and comes together quickly.
Tips to Making this Festive Dukkah Recipe
Just a few tips to making this festive dukkah recipe as it’s super easy. If you’re only making enough dukkah for yourself, you could toast the whole nuts in a mini fry pan, doing one type of nut at a time so they evenly toast and colour. If you’re making a big batch of festive dukkah, and perhaps doubling or tripling our recipe, use a larger pan.
Make sure to regularly shake the pan so the nuts don’t burn. When they’re done, immediately transfer them to a cold dish to cool, such as a large ceramic baking dish.
I don’t toast poppy seeds, but if you’re adding, say, sesame seeds or cumin seeds to our festive recipe, you can use the same pan to toast the seeds, continually shaking the pan back and forth until they are fragrant and begin to colour, but watch them closely as they can quickly burn. You want golden sesame seeds, not brown.
I recommend using a mortar and pestle to pound the nuts and seeds. (We love this handcrafted KROK mortar and pestle.) For my festive dukkah recipe, I pound some nuts so that they are finely ground, others coarsely ground, and some to a medium grind, so that the dukkah has texture.
There’s no need to use a blender or mini food processor, as it’s quick and easy to pound the nuts and seeds in a mortar and pestle. You won’t get that variety of textures if you use a blender, food processor or grinder.
Lastly, you’ll add the ground spices,, dried fruit (in this case, cranberries and currents, but use what you have to hand), poppy seeds, and optional salt, and stir the lot together. I don’t use salt.
Use a spice funnel to transfer your festive dukkah to air-tight jars, such as mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars. If you’re going to be gifting the jars of dukkah, tie Christmas ribbons around the rims and decorate with gift toppers, bows, baubles, or mini ornaments from the tree; even better recycle some of that Christmas wrapping folded in the bottom drawer.
Write a brief note on a gift tag with tips for using and storing this festive dukkah. A jar of dukkah doesn’t last long in my kitchens, but if not using dukkah regularly, it should be stored in the jar in a cool dark cupboard or kept in the fridge, so it doesn’t go stale. A really lovely gift: box up a jar of festive dukkah with a round of French camembert and brie.
Festive Dukkah Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 50 g walnuts
- 50 g cashew nuts
- 25 g macadamias
- 25 g walnuts
- 25 g almonds
- 25 g hazelnuts
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp allspice
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 50 g dried cranberries
- 50 g currants
- 1 tsp poppy seeds
- ¼ tsp quality salt - optional
Instructions
- In a small dry pan over medium-high heat, toast the whole nuts in batches by type of nut, for 2-3 minutes, or until they colour. Occasionally shake the pan, watching the nuts closely so that they don’t burn. As soon as they start to colour a little, immediately transfer the nuts to a cold ceramic dish to cool.
- Using a mortar and pestle, grind the nuts so that some are coarsely ground, others finely ground, some of medium grind, and others in pieces so that you recognise the nuts, to give the dukkah texture and colour. Transfer the nuts to a bowl.
- To the same bowl, add the ground spices, dried fruit, poppy seeds, and optional salt, and stir thoroughly to combine.
- To taste, pour a little extra virgin olive oil into a dish, add a teaspoon of dukkah, dip some bread in to soak up the oil and scoop up the dukkah, and taste to make sure it’s to your liking, and adjust the spices and seasoning to suit your palate if needed
- Use a spice funnel to transfer the dukkah to airtight glass jars, and decorate with Christmas ribbons and wrapping if gifting. If not, store in a cool dark cupboard or in your fridge, and serve with extra virgin olive oil and bread or sprinkle over baked Camembert.
Notes
When toasting the nuts, make sure to continually shake the pan so they’re evenly coloured and don’t take your eyes off them as they can burn quickly.
We recommend using a mortar and pestle, but if using a spice grinder or coffee grinder, aim for different grinds to give the dukkah texture.
If using a mini food processor, do take care not to over-grind, as you’ll end up with a nutty paste.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make our festive dukkah recipe as we’d love to hear how it turns out for you.
