Five-minute harissa yogurt
Smoky, cooling and quick. The yogurt does the calming, the harissa does the talking.
At a Glance
Story
Harissa is the great chili paste of Tunisia, close to a national condiment, and it is more than heat, the roasted red chilies come layered with garlic and the warm spices caraway, coriander and cumin. That is why a spoonful reads as smoky and rounded rather than simply hot. Full-fat yogurt is the right foil because capsaicin is soothed by fat, not by water, so the richer the yogurt the softer the landing.
Ingredients
- 1 cup full-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 tbsp harissaplus more to taste, brands vary in heat
- 1 clove garlicgrated
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- salt
Method
The fastest way to make grilled anything look composed. One bowl, one spoon, five minutes, and you decide how loud it gets.
- Spoon the yogurt into a bowl and grate in the garlic. Add the lemon juice and a pinch of salt.
- Add the harissa and stir it through, or only half-stir it so it stays marbled, which looks the part when you set it out. Taste and add more harissa for more heat.
- Drizzle the olive oil over the top. Serve as a dip with warm bread or raw vegetables, or spoon it under or over grilled chicken, lamb, shrimp or roast carrots. It keeps two or three days, though the garlic gets bolder, so make it mild if you are making it ahead.
More to cook
A lasagna with a short fuse
The golden lasagna's wilder sister, all smoky sausage and charred poblano with a chipotle streak, cooled by a lime drizzle.
Golden lasagna
A carrot lasagna so light you could eat the lot and still fancy pudding.
Spatchcock chicken over leeks and greedy bread
One bird on a bed of leeks, and torn baguette underneath drinking up every drop.
The tomato pasta worth the airfare
Three kinds of tomato, a whisper of anchovy and enough lemon to keep it honest.
Bagna cauda for the anchovy-shy
The warm garlic and anchovy bath that quietly wins every party. Melting, not fishy, and gone before the coats are off.
Chunky chimichurri for steak night
Parsley, oregano, garlic and vinegar, chopped not blended. The steak's best friend.
One-pot Pugliese sausage and potatoes
Peasant food that minds itself in the oven, as happy on a Tuesday as it is at a three-hour lunch.
Salsa cruda for peak tomatoes
Grated ripe tomato, garlic and basil. The less you do to it, the better it is.
Salsa verde, anchovy and all
Sharp, briny and green. The Italian one, not the tomatillo one.
Grated tomato and Calabrian chili
Grated tomato with a Calabrian kick and a lemon lift. Sauce or dip, your call.
Za'atar yogurt with sumac
Herby, tangy and green-flecked. The cooling spoon for anything off the grill.
Zhoug with a proper temper
The Yemeni green sauce that bites back. The cardamom is the tell.
Lemon pesto spaghetti, all zest and no juice
The Amalfi trick: zest steeped into the pasta water and pounded into the pesto, toasted almonds underneath, not a drop of juice anywhere.
Shrimp in a fish sauce caramel
Sugar taken to the edge of burnt, then doused with fish sauce: Vietnam's sweet-and-savoury backbone, wrapped around shrimp over jasmine rice.
Sweet corn campanelle with miso butter
Corn three ways in one pot, then the fix the original never knew it needed: white miso in the butter and a lemon squeezed over the lot.