Contents
Both a plant and a blend, which is the source of most confusion about it. Za'atar is the Arabic name for wild hyssop, Origanum syriacum — a relative of oregano and marjoram — and also for the spice mixture built around it.
The blend is, at minimum: dried za'atar or oregano, sesame seeds, sumac and salt. Regional versions add cumin, coriander seed, dried thyme, or ground caraway. Lebanese blends lean heavily on sumac and are reddish; Palestinian ones lean on the herb and are greener; Jordanian ones are often the most sesame-heavy.
Buying
- Judge it by colour and smell. Good za'atar is olive-green flecked with red and white, and smells strongly herbal. Dull brown-grey is stale.
- Read the ingredient list. Cheap blends are mostly dried thyme, salt and wheat rusk, with sumac and sesame as an afterthought.
- Buy it where it turns over — a Middle Eastern grocer rather than a supermarket spice rack.
Using it
- With oil, always. Za'atar is a dry blend of which the sesame and herb are fat-soluble, and it barely registers without it. The default preparation is simply za'atar stirred into olive oil to a loose paste, for dipping bread.
- Over dips and yogurt — the finishing dust on hummus, labneh and greek yogurt, along with sumac.
- Manakish — flatbread spread with za'atar oil and baked. The everyday breakfast form.
- On hard-boiled eggs, roast vegetables, feta, chicken, and anything on a mezze plate.
The page name
Spelled zaatar deliberately: the site strips apostrophes when it
builds the URL slug, so the punctuated form would serve at a mangled address. The
correct spelling lives in the frontmatter title and the heading.
Keeping
Six months in a sealed jar. The sesame in it goes rancid before the herbs fade, so smell it rather than trusting the date.
Elsewhere on the site
Used in: mezze plate
Related: sumac · sesame seeds · olive oil · Dry Seasoning Blends · pita and hummus