Shatta Sauce (Middle Eastern Chilli Sauce)

My Authentic Levantine Shatta Sauce is an amazing Middle Eastern chilli sauce/paste. This lightly fermented mixture has an abundance of flavour and spice and the best condiment to serve with labneh, eggs, grilled or roasted meats and wraps.

Middle eastern food is an amazingly varied cuisine. hat I love about it is that a lot of the dishes are interchangeable and compliment each other so well. There are an abundance of condiments and sauces that sit alongside to enhance and bring life to many dishes. This homemade shatta sauce, a type of Middle Eastern hot sauce, is the perfect accompaniment!

Spicy, fresh and zingy, it has a tonne of personality and breathes a little fire onto whatever it’s drizzled over. I particularly love this hot sauce, which comes in either red or green varieties, over char-grilled meats or vegetables or simply spooned over crisp fried eggs. It adds just the right amound of chilli heat and sweet pepper flavour to perk up the tastebuds. Any Middle Eastern feast deserves a small bowl of shatta sauce to turn up the flavour.

What’s Ahead?

Red or green Shatta?

Whichever you choose is up to you, and both can be as mild or fiery hot as you like. Just choose the ratio of sweet and spicy chillies that suits you best. I err on the side of spicy as I like to drizzle over the tiniest amount over my food to spice things up, but for those less impressed with spice a combination of sweet bell-peppers and mild chilli peppers works well too. Always try a little sample of your chilli peppers before you start to gage how spicy they are.

• Hot chillies: Habanero, Cayenne, Scotch Bonnet, Arbol, Fresno, Jalapeno, Thai/Birdseye, Indian peppers, Serrano,
• Mild chillies: Anaheim, Poblano, Red or green bell-pepper (capsicum), Banana peppers, Sweet Italian, Hatch

Why it works?

It’s a versatile flavour injection – If I’m creating a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean spread, I’ll invariably add a small bowl of shatta sauce. It lifts all the other dishes up and guests who like a little spice approve of this optional extra. It’s great in wraps too!

Stuff you’ll need

Making your own shatta sauce at home is super-easy. Here’s what you’ll need to make it happen.

• Chilli peppers – red or green. Make one or the other or both, just don’t mix red and green as you’ll get an unpleasant colour of a sauce. Select and combine different varieties to reach a spice level your happy with. You can also use sweet red bell peppers for a milder sauce.
• Sea salt – This helps create the brine which starts off the fermentation process.
• Olive oil – Mixed into the sauce at the end it lends a fragrant note.
• Cider vinegar – adds a little sour, sweetness to the shatta.

Step by Step

Making the shatta sauce is super easy, just ensure you leave enough time to develop the flavour with the three-day fermentation step. This can be skipped, but the results are definitely better when it’s been fermented.

1. Step 1 – Chop the chillies into slices (keep the seeds in too).
2. Step 2 – Add to a bowl along with the salt, which should be 3% of the weight of the chillies. Using your hands (wear gloves if you prefer), combine the chilli and salt.
3. Step 3 – Place the chillies and any juices to a clean glass jar and seal with the lid. Place on a countertop, somewhere cool and out of the way. Leave for 3 days to ferment. Each day, open and then reseal the jar to let out any excess gas.
4. Step 4 – After 3 days, drain off some of the liquid leaving about half and then tip the chillies into a jug or food processor. Pulse blend the chillies to form a rough, rustic paste.
5. Step 5 – Stir in the olive oil and vinegar until well combined. Return back the jar and refrigerate until needed.
6. Step 6 – Serve in small bowls alongside ther dishes, such as charred meats, kebabs or vegetables or over labneh or hummus. It also works well as salad dressings, or in sandwiches and wraps.

A light fermentation

Shatta sauce is traditionally lightly fermented. The peppers are chopped and salted and placed in jars, then left for three days in the resulting brine to start the lacto-fermentation process. This helps preserve the sauce and gives it a fuller flavour.

• Salt ratio – Typically for the brine, I will work to a 3% salt to chilli ratio. So using 200g of chilli x 0.03 = 6g salt. You can adjust this depending on how much chilli you use.

Storage Suggestions & Tips

Once the final sauce has been blended, it should be kept in a jar in the fridge. It’ll be fine for 3-4 weeks. You can also pour in olive oil to coat the surface and you’ll get another couple of weeks out of it. You must refrigerate once fermented as the sauce will quickly deteriorate outside of the fridge.

• Use glass jars – metal and platic may react with the sauce and affect the flavour.
• Adjust the spice – by mixing the chilli varieties you use. YYou can also held reduce spice by removing the seeds.
• Wear gloves – when handling chillies, especially if the varieties are spicy.
• Use as a marinade – if your shatta is coming to the end of its shelf life, use it as a marinade for meats to enhance the flavour when cooked.

Ready to get cooking?

Shatta sauce is a staple condiment across the levantine and Middle Eastern world. A versatile and addictively delicious sauce that lifts everything it comes into contact with. I love the stuff and especially when it’s drizzled over crisp fried eggs or on a cooling labneh or haydari yoghurt meze. The two work in perfect harmony. Be sure to give this recipe a try and you’ll soon be a convert like me. Enjoy!

More Middle Eastern recipes

If you’re loving Shatta Sauce, I’m sure you’ll love some more of my favourite Middle Eastern recipes.

• Eggs with Shatta Sauce
• Cacik (Turkish Yoghurt & Cucumber)
• Zhoug (Spicy Cilantro Sauce)
• Haydari (Turkish Yoghurt Meze)
• Pilpelchuma with Sweet Potatoes
• Toum (Lebanese Garlic Sauce)
• Hawaij Spice (Spice mix from Yemen)
• Roasted Carrots with Tahini Sauce
• Borani Kadoo (Afghani Squash Salad) | براني كدو
• Turkish Garlic & Yoghurt Sauce
• Middle Eastern Lamb Kebabs (Kabobs)
• Muhammara (Red Pepper & Walnut Dip)

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