Charmoula (a.k.a. chermoula) is an all-purpose North African herb paste used as a marinade, a sauce for meat, couscous or pasta, relish, dip, or as a spread on pita bread. There are many different ways to prepare charmoula. Some are raw, some cooked, some coarsely chopped, some pureed.
There are five components to charmoula: olive oil, greens (usually cilantro or flat leaf parsley), acid (lemon juice or vinegar), aromatics (garlic, onions, shallots, leeks), and spices (such as ras el hanout).
Spotlight on our favorite products
Grilla Proves That Good Things Come In Small Packages
The small 31.5″ x 29.5″ footprint of the Grilla Pellet Smoker makes it ideal for use where BBQ space is limited, including on a condo patio. Click here for our review on this unique smoker.
– THIS IS NOT AN AD –
As background for this recipe, read these articles, The Zen of Herbs & Spices, The Zen of Chiles, the Zen of Garlic, and The Zen of Salt.
Charmoula Herb Paste Recipe
Makes:
Takes:
Ingredients
- 2 large lemons
- ¾ cup olive oil
- 1 cup cilantro leaves and flat leaf parsley, de-veined and lightly packed
- 6 cloves crushed garlic
- 1 teaspoon ras el hanout
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page
Method
- Scrape off the zest of one of the lemons, just the thin yellow exterior, trying to not get the white pith, and add it to a bowl.
- Cut the zested lemon and the intact lemon in half and squeeze out the juice into a separate bowl. Then strain it into the bowl with the zest.
- Chop the greens finely and add to the bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and stir. If you wish, you can add the whole thing to a food processor and puree it until smooth.
High quality websites are expensive to run. If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and a lot of freebies!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for high quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 2,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club. But please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get MANY great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators