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This Zhoug recipe is going to have you NAIL the fiery, herbal condiment from Yemen, even if you suck at cooking. You want it to be easy, fast, and, of course, absolutely drop-dead delicious? Well, m’love, the fact that some of my recipe testers now permanently have this sauce on hand is a testament to how much you are about to love the living daylights out of it!
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Also sometimes spelled zhug, skhug and even s’rug (as my fave Falafel spot Taim calls it), Zhoug is a spicy sauce of blended fresh cilantro, green chilis, olive oil, and spices. You can sorta think of it as the Yemeni version of chimichurri.
It’s popular throughout the Middle East and is the perfect thing to swirl into your mutabal, or vegan labneh to scoop up with freshly baked whole wheat kuboos bread.
You might have tried Trader Joe’s Zhoug Sauce and fallen in love at first bite. But canola oil? No parsley at all? Come on, Trader Joeseph! WTF are you thinking?
Trust me when I tell you, making this at home with good quality extra virgin olive oil and a couple of little “secret ingredient” twists my recipe has, you’ll forever liberate yourself from store-bought zhoug and never ever look back.
Say bye bye forever to Trader Joe’s version of this traditional Middle Eastern sauce!
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🥰Why you'll adore this recipe
✊ Vegan AF & GF: Like all of my vegetarian Middle Eastern recipes, this recipe is not only made without harming a single adorable creature, but also just happens to be one of my gluten-free vegan recipes too! It's a win-win-win for your body, the planet and the animals!
🤘Quick and Easy: With minimal prep, cooking time, and cleanup, this Zhoug recipe is perfect for those busy weeknights when you need a flavorful meal in a hurry. It takes under ten minutes to make!
🌶️More Flavor from the Spices: Not only does my recipe contain some extra fun stuff like Aleppo chilies, coriander seeds and fennel seeds, but toasting them, which is something most recipes leave out, really makes the flavor of this sauce OUT OF THIS FRIGGIN’ WORLD. (no cap, as the kids say these days...)
🔪Sea Salt Maceration: You know what’s special about grinding the ingredients with a little salt? The salt crystals act like tiny abrasive particles that help tear up the herbs and garlic, making this recipe work well even if your decrepit food processor that you inherited from a 500 year old man doesn’t work that well.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all of my vegan recipes, this Zhoug has been rigorously tested by a team of recipe testers of varying skill levels from around the globe. It's been replicated successfully in kitchens everywhere, so you can trust that it's a recipe you can rely on.
🌿 Ingredients for Zhoug Sauce
Parsley
I can’t believe some folks don’t use at least SOME parsley in their Zhoug recipes! I prefer flat-leaf parsley for this recipe, but it also works fine with curly parsley. Having lots of herbs in my recipes gives this delicious sauce a vibrant green color, and mellows the heat just enough.
As long as you chop it fine enough, the stems are 100% ok to use in this sauce. The parsley flavor really helps the final sauce pair well with vegan Turkish recipes like ezogelin soup, lahanna sarma, or swirled into Turkish yogurt soup.
Jalapeños
These spicy peppers add heat and flavor to the Zhoug. Jalapeños are packed with vitamins A and C. For a way milder sauce, you can substitute with poblano peppers.
Cardamom
Ground cardamom adds a warm, floral flavor to the Zhoug. It is often used in Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines in recipes like veg biryani, Indonesian beverages like bandrek, and desserts such as my vegan baklava and vegan sweet potato muffins. Anyway, I 100% fell in love with this cloud forest cardamom, and it’s what I recommend using, but any ol’ cardamom is fine to use in this recipe.
Cumin Seeds
Cumin seeds have a warm, earthy flavor that enhances the overall taste of the Zhoug. If you've been following my blog for a while, you probably already know I love the wild mountain cumin seeds from Burlap and Barrel. These slender, more-fragrant-than-every-other-cumin-seeds go into a ton of stuff I make, from chana palak, and toor dal tadka to imli chutney, red curry paste, and bumbu Bali. But if you don't have these super-special cumin seeds, regular cumin seeds work just fine. You can also substitute the seeds with a half teaspoon of ground cumin instead.
Get my fave cumin seeds for free!
Using this link, add the wild mountain cumin to your cart, spend at least $15 on some of the other absurdly good spices from Burlap & Barrel (they all seriously slap) and the bottle of this bangin' wild mountain cumin becomes FREE, and you will love it so much.
Fennel Seeds
Fennel seeds have a sweet, licorice-like flavor that adds some complexity and depth to this Zhoug and balances the warming spices. I always include them in my vegan sausages, and vegan breakfast sausage for that classic sausage flavor. Not everyone uses fennel seeds in their zhoug, but I did a lot of tinkering and tweaking to my recipe and really love the subtle influence these have. If you don’t have any, you can use caraway seeds or anise seeds (I'm talking about the little tiny seeds you might use to make picarones) instead, or just simply leave them out.
Aleppo Pepper Flakes
I used Aleppo pepper flakes so much in Season 1 of my Galactic MegaStallion pop-ups, which focused on Middle Eastern-ispired dishes. They are the perfect flavorful heat to perk up things like Turkish saksuka, ezme, and taze fasulye tarifi (Turkish-style runner beans).
If you want a little less spice, you can leave them out. If you can’t get your hands on any, a great substitute is gochugaru, the Korean chili flakes you would use to make recipes like vegan kimchi, Korean tofu soup, and spicy oi muchim. Crushed red pepper flakes can also work, but they are a bit hotter and less flavorful.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Traditional Yemeni Zhug
For a more authentic taste that complements traditional Yemeni cuisine, add a small number of fresh mint leaves to the recipe, and leave out the fennel seeds which are something I have in here just because I love the flavor they contribute, even though they aren’t traditional. This more classic tweak goes incredibly spread onto some freshly baked bolani!
Israeli Skhug
In Israel, spicy Zhoug sauce is everywhere! It's considered to be almost like Middle Eastern pesto! Israeli skhug is often made with a generous amount of fresh parsley and mint and sometimes a little bit of preserved lemon instead of regular salt. This adds a refreshing and cooling element to the sauce, perfect for balancing out the heat from the jalapeños, making it a slightly milder sauce, nowhere near the fiery heat of sauces like shatta (a fermented hot sauce that's a popular Middle Eastern condiment) for use on falafel and hummus.
📖 How to make Zhoug sauce
Have the best, most dependable zhoug you ever laid eyes on in just a few minutes, by following these step-by-step photos with helpful tips. Or scroll down to the bottom of this page for the easy-to-print recipe card.
Step One
More Flavor from the Spices:
Put the cumin, coriander, fennel, Aleppo pepper flakes (if using), cardamom, and black pepper in a dry skillet. Toast over medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes until they release their aroma.
Step Two
Prep the Flavor Bombs:
Add the toasted spices, hot peppers, and garlic cloves to a food processor and process for about 60 seconds until finely chopped.
Step Three
Blend the Green Goodness:
Add cilantro, parsley, and salt to the food processor. Pulse until herbs are finely chopped and everything is well mixed.
Step Four
For Drizzle My Nizzle:
With the processor running, slowly add olive oil and lemon juice. Blend until the mixture is a slightly chunky sauce.
Step Five
Taste and Adjust:
Sample the zhoug and add more salt or lemon juice if needed.
Step Six
Serve and Enjoy:
Transfer your glorious smelling green zhoug to a bowl and swirl it into plant-based yogurt, hummus, or labneh to scoop up with pita bread. Use immediately or store in the fridge for up to one week.
💡Serving Ideas
This spicy cilantro sauce is the magic bullet that brings a spread of Middle Eastern delights to the upper echelons of crave-ability.
Swirl some into a warm bowl of Moroccan harira, a hearty tomato soup with chickpeas and lentils, to warm your soul.
It’s a silly-hit-yourself-over-the-head-with-a-frying-pan way to bring simple dishes like loubia, and Kereviz Yemeği (Turkish braised celery root), mezze dishes like soslu patlican, and barbunya pilaki to the next level.
I can’t stop drizzling it onto dishes like my baharat roasted oyster mushroom vegan shawarma and vegan kofta, which really keeps their heat up and balance the creaminess of the Arabic tarator.
Finally, if you are a bulgur freak like I am, you are going to love this stuff as a sauce for everything from simple tabouleh, and bulgur pilavi, to bulgur koftas like mercimek kofte, and cif koftesi.
👉Top tips
- Balance the Heat: Adjust the amount of jalapeños to suit your spice tolerance. They vary from pepper to pepper in their heat content. Remember, it's much easier to add more heat later than to tone it down if it's too spicy.
- Perfies Texture: Pulse the ingredients in the food processor just enough to achieve a slightly chunky sauce. This texture adds depth and interest to the Zhoug, so avoid over-processing.
- Don’t Eat a Pile of Sand: Cilantro and parsley should be washed and dried thoroughly before using to avoid a watery Zhoug or one that has gross grit hidden within it!
- Storage Tips: Store your Zhoug in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week. The flavors will continue to develop over time, so it may be even yummier and spicier the next day!
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Zhoug can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Yes, Zhoug can be frozen for up to three months. Make sure you label the container with the name of the sauce and the date, so you know what the heck it is and you can accurately know if it’s still good. Thaw in the refrigerator before using.
The spiciness of this Zhoug sauce recipe can vary depending on the amount of jalapeños used, and the amount of capsaicin present in each pepper, which varies quite a lot. Adjust to taste for your preferred level of heat. If you make it a bit too spicy, add some more herbs to chill it out.
This dipping sauce really needs to be made with fresh herbs. Do you know what dried parsley and cilantro taste like? Confetti, that’s what! Don’t even think about it for this sauce. The one thing you can add if you like is a little dried mint though, which is what I mess with for Middle Eastern flavor in my yaprak sarma and fellah koftesi.
✌️My faves to serve with Zhoug sauce:
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Learn the secrets to perfect falafel in this fun cooking class with Chef Adam Sobel!
Zhoug (Yemeni Spicy Herb Sauce)
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon coriander seeds
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- ½ teaspoon Aleppo pepper or gochugaru, crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 jalapeños stem removed, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 ½ packed cups cilantro washed and chopped (stems are ok)
- 1 packed cup parsley washed and chopped (stems are ok)
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice or lime juice
Instructions
- Place the cumin, coriander, fennel, Aleppo pepper flakes (if you are using them), cardamom, and black pepper into a dry skillet and toast them over medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes until fragrant.
- Place toasted spices, jalapeños, and garlic in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.
- Add the cilantro, parsley, and salt. Pulse until the herbs are finely chopped, and the spices are well mixed.
- With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and lemon juice, blending until the mixture is mostly broken down into the consistency of a slightly chunky sauce. Little bits of peppers and herbs are nice to have in there, so don’t go overboard with trying to get it 100% smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
- Transfer the zhoug to a serving bowl, swirl it into plant-based yogurt, hummus, mutabal or labneh.
- Use immediately or store this versatile condiment in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Notes
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Meg says
I used jalapeno peppers from my garden….and omg this is so good. Perfect, as you suggest. The mutabal. I upped the game with some Kofka and tzatziki. Oh, and some Afghani bolani. Fabulous meal. Thank you!
jaimie says
i love making different variations on plain, ol' hummous, so this weekend i made this sauce & mixed it into a new batch of to share with friends--who "ooohed" & "ahhhed" over it, as did i. love this! it's pure magic! thank you, adam, for your generosity & culinary curiosity!!!
Adam Sobel says
So psyched to hear you folks loved it!
Kimberly W says
This is my favorite hot sauce so when I discovered I could make this at home I had to try it right away. I will never buy it again, it’s so flavorful and really easy to make. Tonight I drizzled it over a bowl of brown rice, hummus, veggies, and tofu. I’m going to put it on everything!
Adam Sobel says
Yay! Glad you loved the recipe Kimberly ❤️