How to Use Sumac (Sumaq) and Zaatar: Sour Middle Eastern Spices

Want the sourness of lemon or amchur without any liquid or any lumps? That’s exactly how to use sumac: a deep red, tangy powder you sprinkle over onions, eggs, salads and kebabs at the end. Zaatar is its famous partner, a blend of dried thyme-like herbs, sumac, toasted sesame and salt that goes on bread with olive oil. Here’s how to buy both, make zaatar at home by food amounts, and use them in a desi kitchen.

What is sumac, and what does it taste like?

Sumac is made from the dried, crushed berries of a shrub (Rhus coriaria) that grows around the Mediterranean, in Turkey and in Iran. The berries grow in tight, dark red clusters. Once dried and ground, they give a coarse, slightly moist, burgundy powder.

Taste a pinch. It’s tart and fruity, like lemon zest crossed with a dried cranberry, with none of lemon’s sharp bitterness, and many brands add a little salt during grinding, so it can taste mildly salty too. It isn’t hot at all. In Urdu and Arabic it’s called sumaq, and Iranian kebab houses keep it on the table the way a dhaba keeps chaat masala.

Sumac vs amchur, lemon and anardana

All four add sourness. They just do it differently.

• Lemon juice: sharp and wet. It can make salads soggy and crispy food soft.
• Amchur (dry mango powder): sourer and fruitier than sumac, pale, fine. Our amchur guide shows how to make it.
• Anardana (dried pomegranate seed): sweet-sour and sticky, strongest in chaat and chutneys. See the anardana guide.
• Sumac: milder, fruity, dry, and a beautiful red, so it looks good as a finishing dust.

Swapping? Use about three quarters as much amchur where a recipe wants sumac, or a little grated lemon zest with a pinch of salt. Going the other way, use a bit more sumac than the amchur the recipe asks for.

How to use sumac in everyday food

Sumac is a finisher. Heat dulls it, so most of the time it goes on at the end.

1. Sumac onions for kebabs: slice 1 large onion thin, rub with half a teaspoon of salt, rest 5 minutes, squeeze lightly, then toss with 1 teaspoon sumac and a handful of chopped parsley or hara dhania. Serve with seekh kebab, tikka or chapli kebab.
2. Kachumber or fattoush: 1 teaspoon sumac over a salad for 2, with olive or any oil, salt, and a squeeze of lemon if you like it sharper.
3. Eggs: a pinch over fried or boiled eggs instead of black pepper.
4. Hummus or dahi dip: swirl a spoon of oil on top and dust with sumac.
5. Grilled chicken or fish: add 1 tablespoon sumac to the marinade for 500 g, then dust a little more on when serving.
6. Fruit chaat: a pinch with chaat masala gives colour and tang without extra salt.

What is zaatar?

Zaatar (also spelt za’atar) means two things, which confuses people. It’s the Arabic name of a wild herb from the oregano and thyme family that grows across the Levant, and it’s also the name of the blend made from that herb with sumac, sesame and salt. Outside the Middle East you’ll almost always meet the blend. Across the Gulf, it’s on every breakfast table with olive oil and bread, and Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian and Jordanian families each make it their own way: redder with more sumac in one home, greener and more herby in another, and neither of them wrong.

So “zaatar and oregano, same thing?” Not quite. The herb is a kind of wild oregano, but the blend tastes nuttier and sourer than oregano alone.

Zaatar seasoning recipe at home

You can’t easily buy the wild zaatar herb in Pakistan or India, but dried thyme and oregano from any supermarket make a very good version.

1. Toast 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds in a dry pan on low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until light golden and fragrant. Cool fully.
2. Rub 3 tablespoons dried thyme (or 2 tablespoons thyme and 1 tablespoon oregano) between your palms into a bowl.
3. Add 2 tablespoons sumac and half a teaspoon of salt. Taste your sumac first; if it’s already salty, use less.
4. Stir in the cooled sesame. Don’t grind the sesame; whole seeds give the crunch.
5. Store in a dry, airtight jar. This makes about 7 tablespoons.

Our til guide has more on choosing and toasting sesame.

More ways to use zaatar

• On labneh: hang 500 g dahi in a muslin cloth in the fridge overnight, then top with olive oil and zaatar. Our homemade dahi guide helps with the dahi itself
• Over roast or fried aloo, straight out of the pan
• In an omelette, or on a fried egg
• Mixed into butter or ghee for garlic-bread-style paratha
• On popcorn with a little melted ghee

How to buy and store sumac and zaatar

Good sumac is deep brick red to purple and slightly clumpy from its own moisture; bright pink, very fine, or oddly uniform powder may have added colour or filler, so read the ingredients list, which should say sumac, or sumac and salt, and nothing else. For zaatar blends, check the order of ingredients: a pack that lists salt or wheat flour near the top is mostly filler. Buy small.

• Sumac: airtight jar, dark cupboard. Best within about 6 months to a year; it fades from red to brown as it ages.
• Zaatar: the toasted sesame can go rancid, so use within about 3 months. Smell it: a paint-like or bitter smell means the sesame has turned.
• No fridge needed. Keep both away from the stove’s steam.

Is it poisonous? Sumac, poison sumac and allergies

The sumac sold as a spice is safe. Poison sumac is a different plant in a different genus, found in wet, swampy ground in North America, and it has white or grey berries, not red ones. No spice company grinds it. The only reason to worry is if you forage: never pick “sumac” from the wild unless you know exactly what you’re looking at.

A real allergy point: culinary sumac belongs to the same plant family as cashew, pistachio and mango. And zaatar contains sesame, a common and sometimes serious allergen.

Myths and the honest benefits

Myth: sumac is a diabetes spice

You’ll see “sumac benefits for diabetes” everywhere. It comes from lab work and a few small trials using concentrated extracts, not a pinch over onions. Sumac adds flavour without sugar, and that’s the honest benefit. It won’t replace anything your doctor has prescribed.

Myth: zaatar is just thyme

It’s a blend. Thyme or oregano alone lacks the sour sumac and the nutty sesame that make zaatar taste like zaatar.

What sumac really does well is let you add bright, sour flavour without liquid, and often with less salt than a squeeze of lemon plus chaat masala. That’s useful, and it’s enough. For more spice-by-spice guides, visit Desi Remedies.

Sumac and zaatar questions people ask