Love bold Mediterranean flavors but don’t love spending hours in the kitchen? This Easy Matbucha Recipe brings rich, traditional taste with minimal effort.
Matbucha is a North African cooked salad—or spicy tomato condiment—with a thick, saucy texture. It’s made primarily from fresh tomatoes, along with a small amount of chili peppers, garlic, and olive oil. It’s a staple in many Israeli kitchens as well, often served as part of mezze or alongside bread and grilled dishes.
It can be enjoyed warm or cold, as a dip, side, or spread.
Easy Matbucha Recipe – A Faster, Easier Matbucha
This Easy Matbucha Recipe skips the long simmer times of traditional versions. While many recipes call for cooking chopped tomatoes for several hours, this one is ready in just 40 minutes.
It only takes 2 minutes of actual prep, making it a perfect solution when you want something homemade and flavorful without the time commitment.
No Peeling or Chopping Necessary
In typical matbucha recipes, tomatoes are chopped with skins on, or blanched to remove the skins first. Here, there’s no need for either step.
Just rinse and dry whole tomatoes, drop them straight into a pot with olive oil, and let them cook down. The skins loosen on their own and peel off easily once cooled.
Easy Matbucha Recipe – Shortcut, Same Great Taste
I’m always looking for ways to simplify traditional recipes without losing what makes them special. This version of matbucha delivers just that.
It still brings the deep, jammy texture and rich, slow-cooked flavor you expect—only with much less time and effort in the kitchen.
Mild or Spicy—You Choose
If you enjoy trying exotic dishes but shy away from heat, this version is perfect. Matbucha can be made as mild or as spicy as you like.
The amount of chili you use is flexible, so you can customize it to your taste. It works beautifully as a chunky tomato condiment or a savory sauce.
Pure Tomatoes, Optional Add-Ins
Matbucha is always made with 100% fresh tomatoes and just a small amount of chili peppers. No spices are required to achieve its signature flavor.
That said, I’ve included a few optional spices in the recipe below if you want a little extra depth. You can also add coarsely chopped red bell peppers if you like—the recipe doesn’t need adjusting.
The Final Texture
What you get in the end is an all-natural, slow-cooked tomato salad that’s reduced to a thick, rich consistency.
It becomes chunky—almost paste-like—and is packed with flavor. It’s perfect as a dip, sandwich spread, or as a bold addition to any meal.
What is on this page:
Kitchen Utensils
- 1 cutting board
- 1 knife
- 1 non-stick pot (just large enough to hold the tomatoes beside each other)
- 1 mixing spoon
- hand masher – Food processing/blending in a blender is not advisable. The color will turn orangish.. It doesn’t look very appealing, nor authentic.
Ingredients
- Fresh tomatoes
- 1 or 2 chili peppers or chili pepper spice
- Seasoning: garlic, turmeric, natural date syrup or sugar
- Neutral or Olive oil
Easy Prep
- Fry tomatoes whole for a few minutes.
- Remove skins.
- Add spices.
- Cook on low heat for around 30 minutes until there is hardly any more liquid.
So, here’s how it’s done:
Matbucha is usually scooped up with a chunk of bread and devoured by a hungry, well-trained spice lover. Another popular way is to smear some bread into a shared dish of hummus (and just a heads-up to Brits—this is not exactly “polite” dining!). Then, you dip that bread into the matbucha on your plate.
For those who prefer a gentler approach, you can lift a bit of hummus with a fork, dip it into the matbucha, and pop it in your mouth.
Honestly, I’m just kidding. Well, not entirely—because people who love matbucha do tend to enjoy spreading it thick on bread.
Substitutions and Variations
- Texture Options: Spicy Matbucha can be served in a chunky form; or, add some more oil, and keep reducing liquid, and mash a bit more, until the Matbucha is more smooth, as in the featured image of this Spicy Matbucha recipe. Another option is having it more pasty, which calls for even more oil, but not a lot .
- Chili Peppers – Choose Jalapeno Peppers for milder spiciness. Choose Serrano peppers for a much hotter condiment.
- Turmeric – Not all Matbucha recipes contain turmeric, but usually always a tad.
- Cumin Powder – Some Westerners aren’t used to the bitter tinge of cumin powder. I know it took me several years to get used to. But it definitely adds to the feeling of eating a Middle Eastern dish. You can choose to leave it out.
- Natural Date syrup – Substitute with 1 teaspoon of granulated sugar. Natural date syrup/honey is a great way to reduce the acidic flavor of the tomatoes, staying away from processed sugar. I’d advise against using bee’s honey.
- Fresh Tomatoes – I don’t advise adding canned crushed tomatoes, though many do add them. Canned goods have a different after taste that ruins the flavors of true, original spicy matbucha.
Fridge and Freezer
- Fridge – You can keep it in the fridge for up to 4 days (preferably in a tightly sealed glass container as it provides more freshness and keeps out humidity).
- Freezer – You can freeze for a few weeks, or a bit longer in an air tight sealed non-glass container. Glass might crack.
Do I have to remove tomato skins? What about the Chili pepper skins?
Tomato Skins: No, you have to remove them, though you can, if you like.
Pepper Skins: No, you don’t have to remove the skin.
Matbucha Dip
Easy Homemade Israeli North African Tomatoes-Chili Pepper recipe from all-natural ingredients. Remove chili peppers for non-spicy matbucha.
Ingredients
- 8 medium tomatoes (preferably red and juicy)
- 2 red or green chili peppers
- 1 whole garlic head unpeeled
- 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt (*1 gram) (Add towards end of cooking.)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin cold press Olive oil , or neutral vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste (sugar-free or with sugar in it)
- 1/2 teaspoon natural date syrup if the tomato paste is sugar free. If the tomato paste contains sugar, don't add date syrup.
Instructions
In the Oven
Roll up and seal the following ingredients separately in parchment paper or tin foil and place in a large oven pan next to each other:
- 1 to 2 chili peppers
- 1 unpeeled garlic head (around 10 cloves)
- All tomatoes - sliced into halves, remove the calyx)
- 1 to 2 whole red bell peppers - place with tomatoes. Don't slice it/them or remove the stem yet.
Cover it all well in parch paper. The all go in the same pan.
Baking
- Bake in preheated oven set to 390° F. (200° C.) for 50 minutes.
Remove from Oven
- Pull off the tomato skins and discard of them.
- Chop the chili peppers and save the seeds. Discard of the stem.
- Remove the stem of the red bell pepper but leave its skin on. Slice the bell pepper open and scoop out the seeds and discard them.
- Save the juice in the pan.
In a small pot
- Transfer the juice, the tomatoes, chili peppers, and red bell pepper to a small non-stick pot. Turn the heat to medium-high. Add the spices and the oil.
- Squeeze the smooth baked garlic cloves out of their skins and onto the contents in the pot.
- If you forgot to add garlic cloves to the oven, mince 5 large garlic cloves and add to the pot.
- Add the tomato paste and natural date syrup if the tomato paste is sugar free.
- Simmer and reduce: Stir occasionally until the liquid is mostly evaporated but the mixture remains moist and saucy.
- Press down with a fork a bit, do not mash. You want it to be a bit chunky, For a creamy matbucha as that one in the feature image, mash the with a hand masher.
Notes
For non-spicy matbucha (which is how I eat it):
Don't add any chili peppers. Everything else is the same.
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 131Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 10gSodium 102mgCarbohydrates 9gFiber 2gSugar 6gProtein 2g
Nutrition values are estimated.