Egyptian Feta Cheese Dip

Author Notes

The long established and thriving Greek community in Egypt at the turn of the last century introduced feta cheese. The Egyptians took that and added to the lexicon of the country’s recipes and this is one of them.

There is no real “recipe”. Some feta cheese blended with olive oil, a handful of finely chopped cherry tomatoes, add a half teaspoon or more of nigella seeds and you have an instant and exotic dip.

Called “blessed seeds” in Arabic (habet el baraka), nigella seeds are optional and the dish works equally well without them, but they do add a delicate and intriguing smokey onion flavor to the dip that makes it so irresistible.

If you can’t find nigella seeds, black caraway seeds often used in baking will also do. —Derek Farwagi