Shatta sauce is the spicy Middle Eastern hot sauce that everyone needs in their life. It's quick, easy and made with only five ingredients which are chilies, garlic, lemon, extra virgin olive oil and salt.
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🌶️What is Shatta?
Shatta sauce is a Middle Eastern hot sauce that is especially popular in the Levant region - i.e., Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, and the like.
It also goes by the name of duggah or dah'ah, which translates from Arabic to English as pounded or knocked.
It is made with fresh chilies, garlic cloves, lemon, salt, and extra virgin olive oil that have been crushed and combined together, originally using a mortar and pestle, nowadays a food processor can be used.
😋Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Satisfyingly hot and spicy, can be used for breakfast, lunch or dinner to add flavor
- Ready in minutes no need for fermenting
- 100% all-natural using fresh ingredients that can be adjusted to suit your liking
- Dietary friendly - vegan, gluten-free, corn-free, soy-free and nut free
✔️Ingredients You’ll Need
Notes on some of the ingredients, the full list of ingredients and their measurements can be found in the recipe card below.
Fresh chilies of any type will do, however, I prefer to use the long green chilies.
Use a variety according to the spice level you can handle. A true shatta however is very spicy.
Chop up the whole chili with seeds, just cut away the stems. You will need about a heaping cupful of chopped chilies.
Fresh garlic cloves are a key flavoring in this sauce.
Fresh lemon will be juiced and added for its sourness.
Extra virgin olive oil combines all the ingredients together and adds a silkiness to this sauce. If you are on an oil-free diet, just leave it out.
Salt can be used to taste, but also helps with grit if using a mortar and pestle to crush the garlic and chili.
🌶️How To Make Shatta Sauce
Step 1 - Crush chili with salt in the mortar and pestle, until semi-chunky.
Step 2 - Add garlic and crush into a semi-chunky paste. Transfer to a bowl and mix through lemon juice and olive oil. Serve immediately or store in the fridge in an air-tight container.
⭐ Pro Tips
Wear gloves when handling chili to avoid the heat transferring to your hands and potentially rubbing your eyes!
Shatta sauce will keep in the fridge for between 3-5 days in an airtight container. Give it a stir before each use.
Feel free to adjust the ingredients to suit your liking.
If using a food processor (affiliate link), the sauce will be less chunky.
🌶️Variations
Either green or red chilies can be used.
While this shatta recipe is just how we like it, additional ingredients can be added, such as;
Finely chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, coriander (cilantro), basil
Any type of crushed nuts either raw or toasted.
Spices such as sumac or my favorite herb blend, this zaatar recipe.
🥄Serving Suggestions
Shatta can be used as a garnish, dip, sauce, or dressing.
If used as a garnish, try it on top of vegan labne (thick yogurt) baba ghanouj, or hummus.
Try shatta as a dip, I personally love it with air fryer fries or oven fried potatoes, the pairing of this sauce with potatoes is unreal! Or dipping roasted artichoke into it.
It’s great as a sauce with any type of grilling or BBQing, try it with my delicious shish tawook tofu skewers and my air fryer corn ribs. Or try it with your favorite vegan roasts.
Or put it on top of some falafel.
🍲Related Recipes
Another recipe using long chilies is this 5 minute vegan bean dip. Or try this guajillo sauce for some mild heat.
Did you enjoy making this vegan recipe? I would love to hear from you, leave me a comment below and give me a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating. This will help me sustain Plant Based Folk.
Alternatively, did you happen to take a photo? Tag me @plantbasedfolk on Instagram to be featured via stories.
📖 Recipe
Shatta Middle Eastern Hot Sauce
Ingredients
Instructions
- Add chilies and salt to the mortar and pestle. Pound until a chunky paste is achieved. Add garlic cloves and pound until a chunky paste is achieved.4 large Green chilies, 3-4 medium Garlic cloves, ½ teaspoon Salt
- Transfer to a bowl and add lemon juice and olive oil. Blend together. Serve as desired.1 medium Lemon, 2 tablespoons Olive oil
Video
Notes
Equipment
Nutrition
N.B., nutrition info is an estimate based on an online nutrition calculator. This will vary based on the specific ingredients you use.
Mishy
Can I mix different types of chillies to make this shatta?
Janelle Hama
Yes, you should be able to
Pete
It’s easy and I used it on everything. Rated!!
Kat
I am a garlic and chili lover! I found my new favorite hot sauce, thanks Janelle, I always look forward to getting your emails.
Janelle Hama
It's just so damn tasty!
Thank you for your kind words Kat 🙂