Oh, how I love this spice, recently discovered during my visit to Turkey. On one hand, I felt sad that I never met this spice before… so many years of cooking and never had it’s pleasure. On the other hand, isn’t it wonderful that there is always something new to discover in food and in life? My motto: Stay connected to earthly treasures, keep your heart opened and you shall seek new wonders.
So what is sumac? A sumac is a shrub or a small tree, which produces a berry-like fruit. The spice is made by drying the berry and then grinding it into a powder. The flavor of sumac is like nothing else you’ve ever tasted. It’s refreshing, like a swig of sweet vinegar, citrus and salt. This makes it a fantastic spice for those who need to give up the salt shaker. Sumac is commonly used in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a lemony taste to salads, meats, hummus, rice and kebobs. It’s been used for culinary and medicinal purposes by natives for thousands of years. It’s also used as a natural dye.
Poison sumac is related to edible sumac, but edible sumac is another plant entirely, and looks very different than the poisonous plant. Edible sumac has reddish, brownish, or purplish berries which are edible. Poison sumac’s berries are white.
Edible sumac grows in North America, Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and the Middle East, and possibly other areas.
I recently marinaded tofu using sumac mixed with ponzu sauce, fresh ginger and Vermont maple syrup. I pan-fried the tofu in a small amount of olive oil. It was delicious!