It's a pretty common plant. You've probably seen it before by the road side. The berries form a cone of tiny berries. In the fall they turn reddish brown..and start to dry out.
They have a lemmony flavor and sometimes it's brewed in a tea called Indian Lemonade.
It's very high in Vitamin C and used as a folk remedy with honey for a cold.
A tablespoon or so mixed into some full fat, greek yogurt with a squeeze of lemon juice is a fantastic dipping sauce for lamb, turkey or beef. A lamb burger, topped with it and some Arugula will highlight the sumac. Its a key ingredient throughout the now popular(rightfully so) Ottolenghi cookbooks.
The flavor of sumac is amazing. Like Susan W wrote, it's almost citrusy in taste, with a bit of salt and a certain something special. It's delicious on all kinds of foods, not just Middle Eastern food. I really like it on roast chicken.
It's actually the berries ground up. I've occasionally seen them sold whole as well, but only once or twice. It's a pretty red color with a spicy almost lemony flavor.
Sumac is one of 30+ species of flowering plants that grow mostly in North America and Africa. The spice, which I'd guess you are asking about, is the flowers ground up. It's used in a lot of Middle Eastern cooking and can be sprinkled on hummus, put on kebab, and added to rice. It's often added to the za'atar spice blend (za'atar is a plant itself, but generally when you hear people talk about it they are referring to the blend).
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They have a lemmony flavor and sometimes it's brewed in a tea called Indian Lemonade.
It's very high in Vitamin C and used as a folk remedy with honey for a cold.
You can use dried lemmon zest to substitute.