Portions: 8 portions Calories: 73kcal |
Shug, Zhoug, or skhug, a lovely green spicy Middle Eastern sauce is a versatile topping or condiment. You can serve it on many dishes (and we have those suggestions too). Making homemade skhug is super easy, so you can have it any day.
By - Revised . Original 21 Mar 2015.
Shug, Zhoug, or Skhug Sauce 🌶 [Video+Recipe].
Why we ❤️ it
- Schug sauce, a green hot sauce from Yemen a bit similar to pesto or chimichurri, is a wonderful homemade condiment.
- Ready in a few minutes, it has some intense flavors that enhance many dishes, even a plate of humble scrambled eggs.
- You are going to love it with meat, sandwiches, soups, or find many new uses for this popular Middle Eastern condiment.
Shug, Zhoug, or Skhug Sauce 🌶 [Video+Recipe]
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Utensils and tools
Ingredients
Spices
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon caraway seeds
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom seeds, removed from the pods
- 2 teaspoons freshly-cracked black pepper
Sauce ingredients
- 6 jalapeños, seeded and chopped (see notes)
- 4 garlic cloves, or 6 small
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 ½ cups chopped cilantro, coriander leaves and stems
- 1 cup chopped parsley, leaves and stems
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Video
Preparation
1. Grind the spices
In a spice grinder or mortar, combine salt, cumin, caraway seeds, and black pepper, and grind to pulverize them.
2. Blend the hot sauce
- Pour the spice mixture into the food processor vase and add the jalapeño, garlic, lemon juice, cilantro and parsley.Pulse to turn into a coarse paste, it's important that it's not blended completely.
3. Mix in olive oil
- Add the olive oil and pulse once or twice to combine.
4. Store
- Pour into a mason jar and keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Top tips
- No food processor: If you don't have a food processor, you can make shkug with a mortar and pestle, which is how it was traditionally made.
- Garlic: I admit that I added more garlic than shug typically contains, but I love garlic. You may have to cut the amount of garlic by half if that's your preference.
- Red shug: There is a red shug too. To make it, just substitute spicy red chili peppers for the jalapeños.
- Spicier: If you want to make it extra spicy, don't remove the pepper seeds and incorporate them into the sauce.
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Learn more
What is skhug sauce made of?
Shkhug, zhoug, or shug is a Middle-Eastern sauce made of herbs (cilantro and parley), spices which vary from cook to cook, but typically include cumin, cardamom, caraway and others, garlic and chili peppers.
Zhoug has a very "green" taste (imagine pesto), but spicy and with a touch of with tangy lemon juice and garlic. It's also vaguely similar to chimichurri in texture.
What is the difference between harissa and schug? Harissa and schug are similar in that they both share a number of spices, and both contain spicy peppers, but the fiery red harissa is a smoother paste, while the green schug is similar in look and texture to chimichurri.
Is zhoug the same as chimichurri? Zhoug is not the same as chimichurri. Zhoug is a Middle Eastern spicy sauce, while chimichurri is a South American savory condiment. They have similar look but completely different flavor profiles.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutrition information.
Good stuff.
Thanks for the shug recipe. We loved it at home.
Thanks, Mary. I am glad you liked it.
Thank you so much for this recipe. It's very easy to make, and has just the right level of spiciness for my taste.
Thanks so much for your comment, I am very happy that you liked it.
Hi, thank you so much for sharing this recipe. Do you know if it can be made without cilantro?
Cilantro is traditionally part of it, but I know that some people dislike cilantro, if that's your case, yes, by any means, use just parsley.
It looks appetizing and easy to make. Thank you for sharing the recipe. Your photographs are amazing too.
Thank you for sharing this shug recipe; I had been looking for it for a while.
This sounds very good, like spicy chimichurri!
I think I will try this recipe. Thanks for sharing.