That Funny Green Powder

One of the miracles of Israeli life is zaatar. It’s an herb blend with some sesame seeds thrown in – everything in Israel has sesame seeds thrown in – but the main ingredient is hyssop.

My first experience of it was when I learning Hebrew and working on Kibbutz Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem. Our teacher took our class on a nighttime tour of the city, buying us beigelei – rings of bread that have nothing in common with bagels – and encouraging us to put the zaatar on them. We looked at each other and at the funny green powder with doubt and suspicion. Then one brave soul (not me) tried it and pronounced it really good. We all munched happily.

But the real initiation came a few years later when my husband and I lunched at a restaurant in a small village and were served humus topped with olive oil and zaatar. It was a revelation. I had never liked olive oil before but when mixed with zaatar it was heavenly and I was hooked.

The odd thing is that zaatar doesn’t really work on vegetables. Put it on your average green salad and the result is a big so what. But on bread with a drizzle of olive oil it is fabulous. A note to potential exporters: I think zaatar could be a hit in America, but you’d have to give it a new, pronounceable name.