Oil-free Harissa Paste

Recently, I was binge-watching Chef’s Table on Netflix, and was absolutely blown away with the piece on Jamie Oliver! So, like I do, I decided to give him a quick follow on Facebook, and sure enough, straight away, the most delicious, simple recipe for falafels came up!

Of course I knew that Jamie would be using ingredients that I don’t eat (i.e. wheat flour, harissa paste & olive oil, which Jamie just loves to drizzle on everything), but I wanted to see if I could give these tasty little falafels a go - Katie style! Often, packaged and processed pastes/sauces have preservatives, and hidden oils in them… so usually I just avoid them. But this harissa paste recipe is amazing! It’s definitely worth the extra moment to make it! Plus, once you’ve made it- you have it there in the fridge for a few weeks to use on everything!

I did a quick search online, and modified a recipe I found to make this low-sodium, delicious, SPICY harissa paste! I also used home-made “Semi-dried” tomatoes in this recipe, so be sure to check the recipe for that one too! If you use store bought, I suggest checking out this recipe anyway because I’ve included some tips on how best to prepare store bought semi/sun-dried tomatoes.

I hope you enjoy this recipe with all sorts of dishes to give you that extra savoury spicy kick you’re looking for! Of course, adjust quantities of the chillies if you’d prefer a milder or spicier option!