Ingredient

Ground cumin Recipes

35 recipes with ground cumin for weeknights, meal prep, and quick ingredient searches. Choose by time, cuisine, and what is in your kitchen.

35 recipes

🇱🇧LebanonMedium

Meat Dishes

Kabob / Skewers (Kofta & Shish Kebab)

Kebab (from Arabic كَبَاب, also spelled kabob or kabab) is one of the oldest cooked meat preparations in the world, found in some form across the entire stretch from Morocco to Central Asia. This recipe covers the two foundational types: kofta kebab (ground meat mixed with onion, parsley, and spices, moulded onto flat metal skewers) and shish kebab (cubes of marinated whole meat threaded onto skewers). Both are grilled over direct high heat — ideally charcoal, which contributes a smoky dimension that gas cannot fully replicate. The key technical difference between good and mediocre kofta is the handling of the meat mixture: it must be kneaded until it becomes cohesive and almost paste-like, and the onion must be squeezed completely dry — wet onion releases steam during grilling and causes the meat to fall off the skewer. The 7-spice blend (baharat) is the foundation of the flavor.

60 min380 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free💪High protein

Sheet-Pan Harissa Chicken with Garlic Yogurt

🌊MediterraneanMedium

Meat Dishes

Sheet-Pan Harissa Chicken with Garlic Yogurt

One pan, one hour, a lot of flavor. Bone-in chicken thighs marinated in harissa, cumin, and olive oil roast at high heat alongside waxy potatoes and leeks, developing a spiced crust that stays crisp while the interior stays juicy. The garlic yogurt comes together in two minutes while the chicken is in the oven — cold, garlicky, slightly sharp, the exact counterpoint to the hot, smoky chicken. A handful of peppery rocket and fresh dill over the top before serving keeps the whole thing from being heavy. This is mid-week food that tastes like you planned it.

60 min520 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free💪High protein🌶️Spicy

🇲🇦MoroccoMedium

Sauces and Dips

Chermoula

Chermoula is Morocco's answer to chimichurri — a herb sauce built on cilantro and parsley, sharpened with lemon, warmed by cumin and paprika, cut through with raw garlic. It's used three ways in Moroccan cooking: as a marinade before cooking, a sauce spooned over at the end, and a condiment on the side. The fish version, where whole fish are stuffed and grilled with chermoula, is the most famous application. But it works equally well on chicken thighs, roasted cauliflower, fried eggs, grilled bread, or anything else that could use a hit of brightness. Make it in a food processor for speed, or by hand with a knife if you want more texture.

10 min140 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free

🇱🇧LebanonMedium

Sauces and Dips

Muhammara

Muhammara comes from Aleppo, Syria, and the name is Arabic for 'reddened'. It's a roasted red pepper and walnut dip with a flavor unlike anything else in the mezze world: sweet from the peppers, tangy from pomegranate molasses, earthy from toasted walnuts, with a slow heat from Aleppo pepper. Breadcrumbs give it body and a slightly grainy texture that holds up on pita. The dip improves overnight — the flavors round out and the texture firms slightly. Unlike hummus, which can be polarising, muhammara tends to win over everyone who tries it.

20 min195 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan⚡Quick

🇲🇦MoroccoMedium

Salads

Zaalouk

Zaalouk is a Moroccan cooked salad — eggplant and tomatoes slow-cooked together with garlic, cumin, paprika, and plenty of olive oil until they collapse into a thick, jammy paste. Not quite a dip, not quite a side dish. The Moroccan kitchen serves it alongside tagines, spooned onto bread, or as part of a mezze spread of small salads that open a meal. Charring the eggplant before cooking it is optional but does add a smoky note that the straight-cooked version lacks. It tastes better the next day, and keeps for four days in the fridge.

50 min145 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free

🇲🇦MoroccoAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Chicken Tagine with Chermoula

Chermoula is a Moroccan marinade — raw herbs, garlic, cumin, lemon, oil — and it does more work here than the tagine itself. The chicken sits in it overnight if you have time, or two hours if you don't. Either way, something changes in the meat. Then it goes into the pot with preserved lemon, olives, and onion, and cooks low and slow until it falls off the bone. No tagine pot required. A wide, heavy pan with a lid does the same job.

90 min455 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free💪High protein🌶️Spicy

Empanadas Mendocinas (Argentine Baked Beef Empanadas)

🇦🇷ArgentinaAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Empanadas Mendocinas (Argentine Baked Beef Empanadas)

Mendocinas are Mendoza's version of the empanada — baked, never fried, and distinguished by a milk dough that bakes softer than the standard. The filling is spiced ground beef with smoked paprika, cumin, green olives, and hard-boiled egg. No raisins. The paprika turns the filling and crust an orange-red that identifies these across Argentina. Made in batches, best eaten warm, and freezable before baking.

100 min310 kcal6 serves

💪High protein🌶️Spicy

Birria Tacos with Consommé (Mexican Quesabirria with Beef and Chile Broth)

🇲🇽MexicoAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Birria Tacos with Consommé (Mexican Quesabirria with Beef and Chile Broth)

Birria tacos with consommé are crispy red corn tortillas filled with shredded chile-braised beef and melted cheese, served with a small bowl of the rich red braising broth for dipping. The dish originated in the Mexican state of Jalisco as a goat stew (birria de chivo); the modern beef quesabirria taco version exploded from food trucks in Tijuana around 2018 and became the most viral Mexican street food of the early 2020s. Three dried chiles do the heavy lifting: guajillo for fruity tang and red colour, ancho for raisiny earthiness, and a couple of chiles de árbol for heat. Active work is 30 minutes, the braise handles 3 hours of transformation. Serves 6 with 16 tacos and consommé to dip.

210 min750 kcal6 serves

💪High protein🌶️Spicy

Esquites (Mexican Street Corn Salad with Cotija, Lime, and Chili)

🇲🇽MexicoMedium

Salads

Esquites (Mexican Street Corn Salad with Cotija, Lime, and Chili)

Esquites is a Mexican street food salad of charred corn kernels mixed with mayo, Mexican crema, lime juice, jalapeño, red onion, cilantro, and crumbled cotija cheese, all dusted with chili powder or Tajín. It is the off-the-cob version of elote — same flavours, easier to eat with a spoon. Street vendors across Mexico City and Oaxaca sell it in small clear cups for snacking on the go. The technique rests on one move: properly charring the corn until 50 percent of the kernels show black spots — the Maillard reaction is what turns this from boiled corn with mayonnaise into the smoky, layered street-food classic. Ready in 20 minutes, serves 6 as a snack or 4 as a side dish for grilled meats and tacos.

20 min220 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

🇺🇸USAMedium

Soups

White Chicken Chili

White chicken chili is the pale, creamy answer to the red beef kind — shredded chicken and white beans in a broth built on green chiles, cumin, and oregano, thickened by pureeing part of the beans rather than by flour. Cream cheese stirred in at the end makes it velvety without turning it into soup-with-cream. It's mild enough for a weeknight, and the bowl gets finished at the table with lime, coriander, and a handful of grated cheese.

55 min480 kcal6 serves

💪High protein🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

🇵🇪PeruMedium

Meat Dishes

Anticuchos de Corazón

Anticuchos are skewers of beef heart marinated in ají panca, garlic, cumin and vinegar, then grilled over charcoal. They belong to the street corners of Lima, where the anticucheras set up braziers in the evening and serve them with a boiled potato, a piece of corn and a chilli sauce. The dish traces back to colonial Peru, when enslaved workers were given the offcuts that the Spanish kitchens discarded and applied a spiced-and-skewered technique to the heart, the cut closest in texture to muscle meat. Heart is dense, lean and mild rather than strong-tasting, and the entire difficulty lies in trimming it properly and taking it off the fire early. Marinating time comes on top of the stated time.

45 min420 kcal4 serves

💪High protein🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Ingredients

Goes well with

Other ingredients that appear most often alongside ground cumin across the archive. Pick one to drill deeper.

garlic onion cumin paprika tomato chickpeas lemon cilantro parsley chicken lime yogurt