Several years ago my other half was knocked off his bike and fractured his skull. Thankfully he’s now fully recovered, but one of the long term consequences of the accident was that he lost his sense of smell (bilateral anosmia for those of you who like to get technical). Much of what we taste actually comes via the olfactory nerve, which in Tim’s case is damaged and doesn’t do what its suppose to do and as a result his food can taste rather bland and insipid (nothing to do with my cooking!). To make his food taste of something, he likes to add lots of salt (well he would if he didn’t live with a nutritionist) so I’m always looking for ways to enhance the flavour of food without adding too much salt. Dukkah does the job perfectly. Dukkah is an Egyptian spice mix made from a blend of nuts and seeds. The word is derived from the Arabic for ‘to pound’ since the mixture of spices and nuts are pounded together after being dry roasted. It’s delicious scattered over salads, hummus, vegetables, fish or chicken, in fact, we sprinkle it over pretty much everything we eat at the moment. You can experiment with different nuts and spice blends. I’ve replaced almonds with hazelnuts and pistachio nuts and both work well. Adding a touch of smoked paprika adds a delicious smokiness or sumac gives a subtle hint of lemon. I add a small amount of salt which seems to bring out the flavours of the other spices but it’s only a small amount and you can leave it out if you want to.

Ingredients:

75g almonds
4 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
½ tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ teaspoon salt, optional

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Place the almonds on a non-stick baking the tray and bake for 10 mins. Allow to cool.
2. Heat a small non-stick frying pan, once the pan is hot add the cumin, coriander and sesame seeds and dry roast for 30seconds.
3. Place all the ingredient is a smaller blender and process to a coarse powder.
4. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 month.