5 Easy Weeknight Dinners Using One New Ingredient: Sumac

There’s a spice sitting in the international aisle of your local supermarket that’s been quietly transforming dishes across Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking for centuries — and most UK home cooks walk straight past it. Sumac is tangy, lemony, and deeply savoury, and it’s exactly the kind of ingredient that makes your weeknight cooking feel genuinely exciting without requiring any extra skill or effort.

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This is the latest post in our “one new ingredient, five weeknight dinners” series — following on from miso and gochujang — and sumac is probably the most accessible of the lot. It doesn’t ask you to master a new technique or hunt down obscure ingredients. You just sprinkle it where you’d normally reach for lemon, and something clicks into place.

What Is Sumac, and What Does It Taste Like?

Sumac is a ground spice made from the dried, crushed berries of the Rhus coriaria shrub, a plant native to the Middle East and parts of the Mediterranean. It has a long history in Turkish, Lebanese, Persian, and Syrian cooking, where it’s used to season everything from rice and grilled meat to salad dressings and dips. In the UK it’s most commonly sold as a deep burgundy-red powder with a faintly earthy, slightly fruity aroma.

The flavour is tart, bright, and citrusy — a lot like lemon juice or vinegar, but in dry form, with a subtle berry-like depth underneath. The easiest way to think about it: use sumac anywhere you’d normally squeeze lemon over something savoury. The difference is that sumac won’t add liquid, so it’s brilliant in spice rubs, dry seasonings, and anywhere you want acidity without watering down a dish.

One thing worth saying upfront — especially if you’re new to it — is that sumac is not spicy. It adds zero heat. It’s a flavour booster, not a chilli substitute. If gochujang felt like a bit of a commitment, sumac is genuinely approachable for everyone.

Where to Buy Sumac in the UK

You’ll find sumac in most large Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, and Ocado stores, usually in the herbs and spices aisle or the world food section. It’s also stocked by most Middle Eastern grocery shops and online spice retailers. A small jar goes a long way — one or two teaspoons is typically enough to season a whole traybake — so a single purchase should see you through several weeks of cooking.

The Formula: How to Use Sumac

Before we get into the five dinners, it helps to understand how sumac behaves in the kitchen, because once you know that, you’ll start seeing it in everything.

The simplest use is as a finishing sprinkle: shake it over hummus, roasted vegetables, grilled fish, or a fresh salad just before serving. It adds a pop of colour and a bright, tangy hit that brings a dish to life. Think of it the way you’d use a final squeeze of lemon — it’s that kind of role.

For deeper flavour, work it into a rub or marinade. Mix sumac with olive oil, garlic, and a little salt, and you have an instant coating for chicken thighs, lamb chops, or salmon fillets before they go in the oven. The spice mellows slightly in heat, developing a rounder, more savoury character while keeping that lemony brightness.

It also works beautifully in dressings. Whisk a teaspoon into olive oil, lemon juice, and a touch of garlic for a dressing that works over grain bowls, warm vegetable salads, or anything halloumi-adjacent. This is the technique behind two of the five dinners below.

5 Easy Sumac Weeknight Dinners

Dinner 1: One-Pan Sumac Chicken Traybake with New Potatoes

This is the dinner that converts people to sumac. Bone-in chicken thighs are rubbed with a paste of sumac, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and dried thyme, then roasted on a tray with halved new potatoes and sliced onions until everything is golden and sticky at the edges. It takes about ten minutes of prep and forty minutes in the oven — and the result tastes like something you’d order at a restaurant.

What you need:

• 4–6 bone-in chicken thighs
• 500g baby new potatoes, halved
• 2 red onions, sliced into wedges
• 2 tbsp sumac
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• Salt and pepper

Mix the sumac, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and thyme into a paste. Toss the potatoes and onions with a little of it, then rub the rest over the chicken. Roast everything together at 200°C (180°C fan) for 35–40 minutes until the chicken skin is crisp and the potatoes have caught at the edges. Scatter fresh parsley over the top if you have it — though honestly, it doesn’t need it.

The sumac does two things here: it acts as part of the marinade, giving the chicken a slightly tangy, savoury crust, and it tints the tray a beautiful deep red that makes the whole thing look very impressive for very little effort. This one also works well with spring onions instead of red onions, if you want to lean into the spring produce angle.

Dinner 2: Spring Veg and Halloumi Salad with Sumac Dressing

This is the vegetarian option in the series, and it’s genuinely filling — not a side dish with delusions of grandeur, but a proper main that happens to come together in under twenty-five minutes. The sumac does double duty here, going into both the roasting tray and the dressing.

What you need:

• 250g tenderstem broccoli or asparagus (or a mix)
• 200g ready-to-eat Puy lentils
• 150g frozen peas, defrosted
• 225g halloumi, sliced
• 2 tsp sumac (1 for roasting, 1 for dressing)
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Salt and pepper

Toss the broccoli or asparagus with olive oil, one teaspoon of sumac, salt, and pepper, and roast at 200°C for 12–15 minutes. While that’s going, whisk together the remaining sumac, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and oregano for the dressing. Grill or pan-fry the halloumi slices until golden on both sides. Toss the lentils and peas with the dressing, pile the warm vegetables on top, and finish with the halloumi.

The sumac dressing is the kind of thing you’ll want to keep a jar of in the fridge — it works on grain bowls, over roasted carrots, or as a dip for flatbread. If you want to lean into the Middle Eastern flavours more, a handful of pomegranate seeds scattered over the top at the end is genuinely worth the extra step.

Dinner 3: Sheet-Pan Sumac Salmon with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes

Salmon is one of the best vehicles for sumac. The spice’s acidity cuts through the richness of the fish beautifully, and the whole thing comes together in about twenty minutes — quick enough for a Tuesday night when you’re tired and don’t want to cook but also don’t want a bowl of cereal.

What you need:

• 2–4 salmon fillets
• 1 bunch asparagus, woody ends snapped off
• 200g cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1.5 tsp sumac
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Zest and juice of half a lemon
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• Salt and pepper

Mix the sumac, olive oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, and garlic together. Toss the asparagus and tomatoes with half of it on a lined baking tray, then coat the salmon fillets with the rest and nestle them on top. Roast at 200°C for 12–15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. The tomatoes will blister and soften into a kind of loose, tart sauce that pools around the salmon — don’t skip them.

This formula works just as well with cod loins or sea bass if you’d rather not use salmon. The cooking time stays about the same. If you’ve already made the grilled Dijon citrus salmon from earlier in the spring, think of this as the same relaxed approach but with a completely different flavour direction.

Dinner 4: Sumac Roasted New Potatoes with Garlic Yoghurt

This one is more of a template than a rigid recipe — the kind of flexible weeknight dinner where the potatoes are the star and the protein is whatever you’ve got in the fridge. The potatoes come out of the oven with a crispy, tangy crust that’s somewhere between salt and vinegar crisps and roasted lemon. They’re excellent.

What you need:

• 600g baby new potatoes, halved
• 2 tsp sumac
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Salt

For the garlic yoghurt:

• 200g thick Greek yoghurt
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Small handful fresh dill, parsley, or mint (or a mix)
• Salt

Toss the potatoes with the sumac, olive oil, and salt. Spread on a baking tray and roast at 220°C (200°C fan) for 25–30 minutes, turning once halfway through, until golden and catching at the edges. While they cook, stir together the yoghurt, garlic, olive oil, and herbs.

Serve the potatoes on top of or alongside the yoghurt, and pair with whatever protein you have to hand — a shop-bought rotisserie chicken, grilled sausages, or fried eggs all work brilliantly. This also makes a great side dish for a bigger spread, and it pairs naturally with anything in the Middle Eastern-inspired direction, including the baba ganoush and mezze-style dishes on the site.

Dinner 5: 10-Minute Sumac Tomato Salad with Flatbreads and Dips

Some evenings you don’t want to cook at all — you want to assemble. This last dinner is built around a simple chopped salad that’s elevated by sumac, served with warmed flatbreads and whatever dips you have in the fridge. It’s a proper no-cook weeknight meal that feels more like a relaxed spread than a lazy fallback.

What you need:

• 3–4 large tomatoes or a punnet of cherry tomatoes
• Half a cucumber, diced
• Half a red onion, finely sliced
• Large handful fresh parsley and/or mint
• 1.5 tsp sumac
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• Salt

Combine all the vegetables and herbs in a bowl. Whisk together the sumac, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt, then toss through the salad. Let it sit for five minutes if you can — the dressing softens the onion slightly and the whole thing comes together. Serve with warmed flatbreads, hummus, and baba ganoush for a relaxed dinner that takes almost no effort but feels genuinely special.

Pomegranate seeds work wonderfully scattered over the top here if you want something more substantial. This also doubles as a starter or side dish for pretty much anything — try it alongside the roasted lemon chicken and vegetables for a full Middle Eastern-inspired spread.

A Few Tips for Cooking With Sumac

Once you’ve worked your way through a couple of these dinners, you’ll start reaching for sumac instinctively. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you get more comfortable with it.

Start with a light hand. Sumac has a fairly concentrated flavour, and a little goes a long way — especially if you’re new to it. A teaspoon or two is usually enough to season a whole traybake. Taste as you go, and you’ll get a feel for how much you like fairly quickly.

It works as a garnish, not just a seasoning. Don’t overlook the “sprinkle at the end” technique. A pinch of sumac over hummus, a bowl of soup, or even scrambled eggs adds both colour and a pop of acidity that makes the dish feel finished in a way that nothing else quite replicates.

Store it somewhere cool and dark. Like all ground spices, sumac loses its brightness if it sits in the light for too long. A kitchen cupboard away from the hob is ideal. A fresh jar should stay vibrant for at least six months.

It pairs brilliantly with: chicken, lamb, salmon, cod, halloumi, chickpeas, lentils, roasted vegetables of pretty much any kind, yoghurt, olive oil, garlic, and fresh herbs — especially parsley, dill, and mint. You’ll start seeing those combinations appearing everywhere once you know what to look for.

What to Try Next

Once you’ve got a jar of sumac in the cupboard, a whole load of other Middle Eastern-inspired cooking opens up. Try adding it to a simple Mediterranean roasted vegetables tray alongside the usual herbs and olive oil — it works beautifully with aubergine, courgette, and peppers. Or stir a teaspoon into the dressing for a chopped salad served alongside the spicy feta shakshuka for a full weekend brunch spread.

If you’re enjoying experimenting with global pantry ingredients, there’s a lot more of this in the series — from the fermented depth of miso to the slow-burn heat of gochujang. Each one is designed to give you five genuinely practical weeknight dinners without requiring you to change how you shop or how much time you spend in the kitchen.

The idea is always the same: one ingredient that’s new to you, five dinners that make it worth buying.

FAQs About Cooking With Sumac

What does sumac taste like? Sumac tastes tangy, bright, and lemony — similar to lemon juice or vinegar but in dry, powdered form. It also has a subtle earthy, berry-like note underneath the acidity. It’s not spicy and adds no heat.

Is sumac easy to find in UK supermarkets? Yes — sumac is now widely available in most large Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, and Ocado stores, usually in the herbs and spices aisle or the world food section. It’s also straightforward to find online or in any Middle Eastern grocery shop.

Can I substitute sumac with lemon juice? In a pinch, yes. A squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar can replicate the acidity, but neither will give you exactly the same depth or dry, fruity character. If you’re using it in a rub or dry seasoning, lemon zest gets closer than lemon juice.

How much sumac should I use? A typical recipe uses between one and two teaspoons to season a whole traybake or salad. As a finishing garnish, a light pinch is usually all you need. It’s worth tasting as you go — it has a concentrated flavour and a little goes a long way.

Does sumac work with fish as well as chicken? Absolutely. Sumac pairs beautifully with salmon, cod, sea bass, and most white fish. It’s particularly good in a simple rub with olive oil, garlic, and lemon zest, roasted until just cooked through.