Easy entertaining – gluten-free macadamia dukkah recipe

For us, it was love at first bite when we discovered dukkah. We were fly to the whole dipping bread on olive oil and salt thing, but this was a different matter altogether!

One of my favourite parts of a meal is the pre-dinner nibble plate. You know, the cheese, the chips, the dips. Sometimes I go a little over the top and have no room for the meal.

I’ve learnt over time to control my pig-out urges a little, but it’s hard. My hand has a mind of its own and shoots out unbidden to grab another fistful of cut meat or to hack off another chunk of brie. I have to be very careful.

The only time I have no way of controlling myself is if there’s dukkah at the table. A bit of bread, dip it in oil, dip that in the dukkah…. Swoon!

Dukkah – or dukka, or duqqa, or even dakka – is from Egypt originally. It’s a delicious mix of herbs, nuts, seeds and spices combined into a kind of crumb consistency. The simplest of dukkah is just mint, salt and pepper pounded up into this mix.

Our recipe – of course – is more elaborate with an Australian twist. Did you know macadamia nuts are, in fact, Australian?!

Gluten-free macadamia dukkah

Here’s what you need:

• ½ cup raw macadamia nuts from Australian Macadamias
• ¼ cup raw sesame seeds
• ¼ cup raw pine nuts
• 2 tbsp coriander seeds
• 2tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tps sea salt – Maldon sea salt is the best

Here’s what you do:

1. Toast the macadamia nuts and pine nuts in a pan until the pine nuts start to brown very slightly (about 2 mins). Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Toast the sesame, coriander, cumin and caraway seeds in the pan until the sesame seeds start to brown and the others start to become fragrant (about 1-2 mins).
3. Briefly chop the nuts in a food processor until the macadamias are about half the size of a whole pine nut. Don’t over chop – you don’t want nut dust!
4. Grind the toasted seeds in a pestle and mortar (or mortar and pestle!) until the coriander seeds are all broken up and well and truly crushed.
5. Mix everything together including the salt and pepper.

• Remember this is hawker-style rustic street food; it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Keep the dukkah in an airtight container. I made ours as part of another recipe and made way too much. It lasted perfectly well for months until we’d used it all up.

Serve your dukkah with bread and oil, or add it to other dishes for a bit of Middle-Eastern flavour.

For a completely gluten-free experience, dukkah goes really well sprinkled on top of humus or beetroot dips and served with veggie sticks for dipping. Adding it to sweet curries works well too.

The recipe I originally made this dukkah for was for this slow-cooked lamb and quinoa salad. I used the dukkah for a crust on the lamb! SO GOOD!

What do you serve before the main meal at dinner parties? Do you have a nibble vice that you just can’t resist? Tell us your secrets in the comments!

Images by Mrs Romance.