Sumac Uses: Onions, Musakhan, Rice, Kebabs, Salads and Hummus

Think of sumac as a squeeze of lemon without the liquid. It’s tart and sour with slightly astringent overtones, and it’s a very popular condiment in Turkey and Iran, which is the best guide to using it as a finishing sour: over raw onions, rice, kebabs, salads and hummus. It can carry a main dish, too. Palestinian musakhan is built on it, with 3 tablespoons in a chicken dinner for four.

For technique, storage and cautions, see cooking with sumac.

Where sumac goes

Onions

The simplest sumac dish is raw onion. Sumac mixed with freshly cut onions is often eaten as an appetizer. Sliced onions tossed with sumac and salt are a familiar side with kebabs and grilled meat.

Musakhan and roast chicken

Musakhan is a main dish built on sumac, and chef Sami Tamimi calls it the hugely popular national dish of Palestine. It’s layered with taboon or pita bread. The recipe for four uses 3 tablespoons of sumac in all: 2 tablespoons cooked into 500 grams of thinly sliced red onions, and 1 1/2 teaspoons sprinkled over the finished dish.²

Ottolenghi and Tamimi also give a simpler oven version: a quartered chicken marinated with 1 tablespoon of sumac and 2 tablespoons of za’atar, then roasted.³

Rice, kebabs and grilled meat

• Rice. The ground fruits are liberally sprinkled over rice.
• Kebabs and minced meat. Döner kebab is sometimes flavored with sumac powder, and a 2021 review notes that sumac is served with minced meat to add a lemony taste.⁴
• Meat, chicken and fish. A 2022 review describes sumac rubbed on meat, chicken or fish.⁵ Fattier cuts and lamb are a good match for its sourness, though we found no source singling out particular meats.

You’ll often read that sumac tenderizes meat. We found no source for that.

Salads

In fattoush, a salad of toasted flatbread and vegetables, sumac goes into the dressing. Angela Nahas’s recipe for SBS whisks 2 teaspoons of sumac with lemon juice, olive oil and a little water for a salad that serves six.⁶ Sumac on tabbouleh, leafy green salads or tomatoes is a familiar move, but we didn’t find a named recipe for those in this review.

Hummus, dips and cheese

Eden Grinshpan finishes hummus with a little olive oil and a juicy pinch of sumac.⁷ See hummus spices. The same red sprinkle works on labneh, yogurt, feta and grilled halloumi, though we couldn’t source any of those as a tradition.

Za’atar and other blends

Ground sumac is often part of za’atar, and the zahtar Katzer describes mostly seasons fried and barbecued meat. America’s Test Kitchen’s za’atar uses 1 1/2 tablespoons of sumac with 2 tablespoons of dried thyme.⁸ For ways to use the blend, see za’atar uses.

A sour cooking liquid

In Lebanon, Syria and Egypt, the fruits are cooked with water into a thick, very sour essence that goes into meat and vegetable dishes. It’s a way to use sumac inside a cooked dish, not just on top.

Popcorn, sweets and other ideas

Sumac with butter or oil on popcorn, or over fruit and in baking, are modern ideas, not traditional uses. They follow from its tart flavor, but no source we found tests or describes them, so think of them as things to try.

How much, by dish

Amounts from named recipes (Attributed):

Before you buy or forage

Sumac belongs to the cashew family, and its fruits are red drupes.⁹ Katzer notes that ground sumac is often mixed with salt, so check the label before you salt the dish.¹ Poison sumac is a different plant with pale fruit; see cooking with sumac for allergy and foraging cautions.

Related

• Sumac and cooking with sumac
• Sumac substitutes
• Za’atar, cooking with za’atar and za’atar uses
• Spices for lamb