Pronounce it: soo-mak

This wine-coloured ground spice is one of the most useful but least known and most underappreciated. Made from dried berries, it has an appealing lemon-lime tartness that can be widely used. In Iran, they use it as a condiment, putting it onto the table with salt and pepper. You can try this yourself and it will complement most dishes.

Using sumac instead of lemon juice or zest immediately enhances dishes, giving a fascinating and exotic twist. Fish, poultry and vegetable dishes all spring to life in a new way.

Availability

Increasingly available in groecery shops and online.

Choose the best

Buy only in sealed containers and in small quantities.

Store it

Keep cool, sealed and and in a dark place.

Cook it

The flavour of sumac is so universally appealing that it’s hard to go wrong. Add it to salad dressings or the salads themselves, in fact, add it wherever you would use lemon or lime. It’s great on the chips; rice dishes; and Middle Eastern fare such as houmous, bean or chick pea salads. It’s a great lifter of sandwich fillings. Sumac is not usually cooked with but can be and its reduced flavour brought to life by serving the dish with more sumac to sprinkle.