Cooking With Za’atar: Bread and Oil, Eggs, Meat and a Homemade Blend

The classic way to use za’atar is also the simplest: brush flatbread with olive oil and cover it in za’atar. That’s man’ouché, the flatbread UNESCO calls the quintessential Lebanese breakfast.¹ The blend itself is dried wild thyme, oregano or marjoram with sumac and toasted sesame seeds, usually salted, so you get warm, lemony and nutty all at once. From the bread it moves easily to eggs, hummus, roasted vegetables, chicken, fish and kebabs. Below: making and storing your own, and the mix-up over the herb that shares its name.

Quick guide

What’s in it

There’s no single recipe. Three named versions show the range:

Crowley’s is the most sour, Belsinger’s the nuttiest, and ATK’s sits in between, with only ¼ teaspoon of salt. Each part has its own job. The herbs bring a warm, resinous note. Tart, sour sumac brings the lemony one. Toasted sesame brings the nutty one. If you’re cooking with a store-bought blend, taste it first. The balance and the salt vary as much as these recipes do.

On bread with olive oil

Learn this one first. Belsinger brushes rolls, flatbread, pitas or pizza dough with olive oil, sprinkles on za’atar, and also works it into bread or cracker dough.² UNESCO describes Lebanon’s man’ouché as a flatbread made at home and in specialized bakeries, topped with a mix of thyme, sumac, toasted sesame seeds, salt and olive oil, and sometimes finished with labne (soft cheese), tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and mint.¹ Palestinians have their own take on the same morning habit: bread dipped in olive oil and za’atar.⁵

Za’atar mixed with oil makes a dip, too. Belsinger mixes the blend with an equal amount of olive oil and keeps it in the fridge for up to a week.²

At breakfast and beyond

• Eggs. Za’atar is good on eggs. Sprinkle it on fried or scrambled eggs at the end; see spices for scrambled eggs.
• Labneh and yogurt. Labne is one of the man’ouché toppings. A spoonful of labneh or thick yogurt with olive oil and za’atar on top is a popular breakfast plate.
• Chickpeas, hummus and vegetables. Try it on chickpeas and hummus, and vegetables like cauliflower, cucumber and eggplant. See hummus spices.
• Meat and fish. It’s good on kebabs, chicken and fish. Mix it with oil and you’ve got a rub.
• Grains, legumes, salads and soups. Sprinkle it over any of these.

Za’atar also works as a table condiment, the way salt and pepper do. In a hot oven or on a grill, keep an eye on it, since the sesame and dried herbs can scorch.

Making your own

You can buy it dried as a ready mix in almost any Arab market. Making it at home lets you set the sumac and salt yourself.

• Toast the sesame. Belsinger toasts the seeds until they just turn pale gold, cools them, and grinds them lightly with some of the salt before stirring in the herbs and sumac.² Katzer notes that some of sesame’s aroma compounds form only during toasting.⁶
• Grind the herbs. ATK processes the thyme and oregano in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle before stirring in the sumac, sesame and salt.⁴
• Store it. ATK says its blend keeps at room temperature in an airtight container for up to a year.⁴ A dark cupboard away from heat is the usual advice for dried herbs, though we found no test specific to za’atar.

For swaps when you’re missing an ingredient, see za’atar substitutes and sumac.

The herb and the blend

Za’atar is also the Arabic name for certain herbs, which can get confusing when you shop. Katzer writes that Arabic zatar or satar covers several native herbs, including oregano, marjoram, thyme and savory, and that in Jordan zahtar usually means a spice mix containing them.⁷ One species gets singled out: ODU and Belsinger both name Origanum syriacum, sometimes called Syrian oregano, as known in Arabic as za’atar.⁵ If you can’t get that herb, Belsinger suggests equal parts thyme and marjoram, oregano or both.²

For the herb sold in Western nurseries and spice shops as hyssop, see hyssop.

You’ll often read that Jordanian, Lebanese and Palestinian za’atar are distinct styles. Katzer’s note on Jordan is the only regional detail we could source, so we’re not describing national styles.⁷

Safety

Za’atar usually contains sesame, which became the ninth major food allergen in the U.S. when the FASTER Act took effect on 1 January 2023, and must be declared on labels.⁸ Check the label on store-bought blends for sesame and for salt.

What isn’t known

• No published comparison of regional za’atar styles.
• No shelf-life test for za’atar beyond ATK’s recipe note.
• No measurement of the sumac, salt or sesame share in store-bought blends.

Related

• Za’atar, the full profile, za’atar uses and za’atar substitutes
• Sumac and cooking with sumac
• Thyme, oregano and marjoram
• Sesame seeds and dukkah, another seasoning eaten with bread and olive oil