Why pomegranate is the most Middle Eastern fruit

I. What the fruit is

The pomegranate — Punica granatum — is encased in a thick, leathery rind that ranges from pale yellow to deep red. Inside is a white pithy membrane that divides the fruit into chambers, each containing arils — the edible portion, a seed surrounded by a translucent juice sac.

There are hundreds of pomegranate varieties, ranging from very sweet to very tart. Palestinian pomegranates — the varieties grown in the orchards of Ramallah, Nablus, and the villages of the northern West Bank — tend toward the tart end of the spectrum, with a complexity that sweet varieties lack.

The tartness is important because pomegranate in the kitchen functions as an acid source — and the more complex the original fruit's flavor, the more complex the molasses.

II. Pomegranate molasses

Dibs al-rumman — pomegranate molasses — is fresh pomegranate juice reduced by slow cooking to a thick, intensely flavored syrup. The reduction concentrates the sugars and the acids simultaneously, producing something that is both very sweet and very tart, with a depth that fresh juice does not have.

In Palestinian cooking: drizzled over hummus as an alternative to olive oil. Stirred into salad dressings to replace vinegar. Used as a braising liquid for meat or chicken, where it produces a glossy, complex sauce. Mixed with walnuts and pomegranate seeds to fill muhammarah.

Making it at home requires only fresh pomegranate juice, a heavy pot, and several hours of low heat. Four cups of fresh juice reduces to approximately one cup of molasses.

III. The shared tradition

The pomegranate appears in the cooking of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, and Azerbaijan in forms that are related but specific to each tradition.

Muhammarah of Syria and Lebanon uses pomegranate molasses as the primary souring agent. Fesenjan of Iran — a slow-braised duck or chicken with pomegranate and walnut — uses both molasses and fresh seeds. The pomegranate and walnut salad of Turkey uses the seeds as a textural element and the molasses in the dressing.

These are not the same dish. They are dishes that developed independently in different culinary traditions that share an ingredient and share the understanding that the pomegranate's combination of sweet, sour, and astringent is useful in cooking.

IV. The Palestinian kitchen

I am writing this from Ramallah in a specific moment in the history of this place, and I will not pretend that the context does not inform what I am writing. The Palestinian kitchen exists under conditions that are not normal, and the food that comes from it carries that knowledge.

The pomegranate orchards of the West Bank still produce fruit every October, as they have for generations. The families who tend them tend them the same way their parents tended them. The fruit goes from the orchards to the markets to the kitchens and comes out as something that has been made here, in this place, from this fruit, for longer than anyone living can remember.

The continuity of the kitchen — the recipe passed from grandmother to mother to daughter, the pomegranate pressed the same way it was pressed a hundred years ago — is itself a form of persistence. I do not have a more political statement to make than that.

Recipe — Muhammarah · Roasted Pepper and Walnut Dip

Fatima Saadeh · Ramallah · serves 6 · 35 minutes

• Serves 6
• 35 min total
• 15 min pepper rest
• 3 tbsp molasses

Ingredients

• 4 large red bell peppers, roasted and peeled (or 400 g jarred roasted peppers, drained)
• 150 g walnuts, lightly toasted
• 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp Aleppo pepper or mild chili flakes
• 1 slice stale bread, torn (optional thickener)
• Salt

The method

1. If roasting fresh peppers: char over an open flame or under a broiler until blackened. Place in a covered bowl 15 minutes. Peel, seed.
2. Blend walnuts and bread (if using) until coarsely ground.
3. Add peppers, pomegranate molasses, olive oil, cumin, and chili. Blend until the texture is between smooth and chunky — muhammarah should have some texture, not be a smooth paste. Season with salt.
4. Taste — add more pomegranate molasses for tartness, more olive oil for richness.
5. Serve with warm flat bread. Garnish with whole walnuts, pomegranate seeds, and a drizzle of olive oil and pomegranate molasses.

About the contributor

Fatima Saadeh

Fatima Saadeh writes about Palestinian cuisine and pomegranate in Middle Eastern cooking from Ramallah, Palestine. The pomegranate orchards of the West Bank still produce fruit every October, as they have for generations.

Editor’s notes — the longer view

A note on buying molasses. Read the ingredient list. The only thing in the bottle should be pomegranate juice. Some commercial molasses adds glucose syrup, citric acid, or both. Glucose-cut molasses tastes one-dimensionally sweet. The real thing is sour first, sweet second.

A note on the walnut. Toasted, not raw. Three minutes in a dry skillet, moving constantly, until you can smell them. Raw walnut tastes bitter in muhammarah. Toasted walnut tastes like itself.

A note on the pepper. Fresh roasted is best. Jarred is acceptable. Drain them well and pat dry — the jar liquid will make the muhammarah loose and bland.

A note on the origin. The walnut tree has been cultivated in the Fertile Crescent for at least eight thousand years. The pomegranate, four. When you eat muhammarah you are eating something very old and very specific to this part of the world.

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