When my friend Margaret asked me if I “had tried dukkah,” I was sure she was referring to some new yoga regimen, so I told her, “No.”

            She thought perhaps I might have because I had recently written an article about zahtar, a Middle Eastern dried spice mixture. Dukkah, she went on to tell me, was a lot like zahtar. Oops! I’d better look this one up.

            It took me some time to find information about dukkah. I won’t even tell you how I was trying to spell this word, which is pronounced “doo-kah.” I was reminded of the many times I had chided my sons for not being able to look up new words. Their protests that, “Mom, how can we look up the spelling when we can’t spell it?” would fall on deaf ears. Sorry, guys! 

Fortunately for me, when Margaret had us to dinner a few weeks later, not only did she serve dukkah as an appetizer, but she also surprised me with a gift of packaged dukkah to take home. Oh, dukkah! And then I had my first taste. We dipped chunks of fresh bread into olive oil, then into this aromatic mixture of ground nuts and spices. It was heavenly.

            Dukkah originated in Egypt. The primary ingredients are ground hazelnuts and toasted sesame seeds. It also contains coriander, cumin, salt, black pepper and a variety of other “secret” herbs and spices. Like zahtar, in the Middle East it is a common topping for freshly baked breads.

I used my dukkah at our next dinner party, and it was a hit. Because it was so well received, and I didn’t want to always have to depend on friends to re-supply me from overseas (Vancouver,) I thought, “I can make this!”

            Finding a recipe was easy. Deciding which one to use was harder.  The nut used can vary from pistachio and almonds to macadamia. Some recipes also use chickpeas, but the hazelnut is the most commonly used. There was also quite a variation in the secondary spices used, from fennel to thyme to paprika, so I used them all! I had everything on hand except the hazelnuts.

            Well, have you tried to find hazelnuts lately? In the nut section of several grocery stores I found walnuts, pine nuts, pecans, filberts, almonds and peanuts, but no hazelnuts. I was getting frustrated, when on closer inspection, I discovered that the packages of filberts looked suspiciously like hazelnuts. Sure enough, on the reverse of the package, “hazelnuts” were listed in brackets behind “filberts.”

            I decided to get to the bottom of this linguistic puzzle later. I had one more item to purchase before I could go home and make my own version of this nutty ambrosia; a food processor.

            Yep, that’s right. I, someone who has sworn on the grave of the millions of food processors abandoned in appliance graveyards (a.k.a. yard sales) all over the country, that I would never own one of these space-hogging monoliths, was actually going to buy one. With all the grinding required to make dukkah, I had finally accepted the fact that they served a real purpose. I could have used my coffee grinder, but the thought of thyme flavoured coffee the next morning didn’t appeal to me.

 I was surprised to find that over the past 25 years, the food processor has been refined, and I found a model that was small and understated. And it did only two things: grind and chop. Two buttons; that’s it.

            What a dandy little appliance. I had my dukkah ingredients ground in no time, but then I realized perhaps I had too much of a good thing. Hazelnuts are high in oils, and will go rancid if not kept in the fridge. Either Jordan and I were going to be eating a lot of bread and dukkah, a thought that seemed a bit unlikely in light of Jordan’s recent weight loss, or I would have to find other ways to use it.

            And I did. Dukkah can be sprinkled on soups and salads and pasta dishes, incorporated in tofu, bean and grain dishes or used as a coating for baked chicken or fish. It can also make a tasty topping sprinkled on vegetable casseroles or steamed fresh vegetables. Combined with feta cheese, it can be used as a spread or dip, and mixed with yoghurt it makes a sauce for kebabs. It would also make good filler for vegetarian burger patties and loaves. I can now think of dozens of ways to use this versatile mixture. 

            I am also finding ways to use my new appliance. I can now chop shallots without ending up in tears. And it is just so cute. I take back all of my disparaging words about food processors. Dukkah has definitely been a lesson in humility for me. (Twice!)