Ajvar substitute

Best substitute

Homemade Roasted Pepper and Eggplant Spread

Use the same amount one batch makes about 1 ½ cups as the ajvar you are replacing

Best for serving with cevapi, pljeskavica and grilled meat

Close match

The best substitute and not difficult. Char four red bell peppers and one small eggplant directly over a flame or under a hot broiler until blackened all over, seal them in a covered bowl for ten minutes, then peel and seed them. Chop or briefly pulse them coarse, then cook them down in three or four tablespoons of oil over medium-low heat for 20 to 30 minutes with a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of red wine vinegar and a pinch of sugar, stirring until it is thick and glossy. It tastes remarkably close: sweet, smoky, mellow and spoonable. Bell peppers are slightly less sweet than the long Balkan paprika peppers traditionally used, which the pinch of sugar covers.

Other ajvar substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Jarred Roasted Red Peppers, Blitzed With Oil
Different texture
1 cup drained peppers to 2 tablespoons olive oil, then use 1:1
The fast fix and a decent one.
What changes
Drain the peppers well, pulse them coarse rather than smooth, and stir in the oil with a pinch of salt and half a teaspoon of vinegar. Straight from the jar it comes out thinner, wetter and brighter than ajvar, with a sharper acidity from the packing brine and none of the deep, cooked-down sweetness, and it will run on a plate rather than sitting in a mound. Ten minutes of simmering in the oil fixes most of that, driving off water and concentrating the sugars, and it is worth the ten minutes.
Best for
quick sandwich spreads, stirring into stews and rice, dips and mezze plates, weeknight substitutions
Peppers packed in water or oil are better here than those in vinegar brine, which need rinsing or the result tastes pickled.
3Muhammara
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
The nearest ready-made relative and a very good substitute if you accept the nuts.
What changes
This Syrian and Turkish spread starts from the same place, roasted red peppers, then adds walnuts, breadcrumbs, pomegranate molasses and often a little chilli. The result is coarser and grainier from the walnuts, distinctly tangier and fruitier from the pomegranate, and a little more savoury-complex. On bread with cheese it is arguably as good as ajvar; alongside grilled cevapi the walnut texture and the sour-sweet edge are noticeable but not at all unwelcome. It usually carries mild warmth rather than real heat.
Best for
bread and mezze plates, serving with grilled meat and kebabs, sandwich spreads, dips
Contains walnuts, so it is out for anyone with a nut allergy. It is also usually saltier than ajvar, so taste before seasoning a dish you have stirred it into.
4Romesco Sauce
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Same red pepper foundation, different destination.
What changes
Romesco adds almonds or hazelnuts, bread, garlic, sherry vinegar and often smoked paprika, so it is nuttier, considerably more acidic and looser in texture, and it tastes recognisably Spanish. As a spread on bread or a sauce for grilled meat and vegetables it works well and the roasted pepper backbone carries through. Where it falls short is in the mellow sweetness that makes ajvar such an easy foil for salty grilled sausage: romesco is sharper and busier, and it competes with the meat rather than sitting under it.
Best for
grilled meat and vegetables, bread and toast, fish, dips
Contains nuts. If you want it closer to ajvar, thin it with a couple of tablespoons of pureed roasted pepper and skip the extra vinegar.
5Turkish Red Pepper Paste (Biber Salcasi), Thinned
Different taste
1 part paste to 1 part roasted pepper puree or water plus oil
A useful shortcut and a strong one, so dilute it.
What changes
Biber salcasi is roasted red peppers reduced to a dense, salty, concentrated paste, several times more intense than ajvar, so used spoon for spoon it tastes aggressively salty and overwhelming. Cut with an equal volume of roasted pepper puree, or with water and a tablespoon of oil, it becomes a very serviceable ajvar, deeper and more concentrated in flavour with a slightly jammy character and less freshness. Check the grade, because the hot version is genuinely spicy and only the sweet grade approximates ajvar.
Best for
stirring into stews, soups and rice, marinades for grilled meat, quick pepper spreads, boosting a bland roasted-pepper puree
It is very salty, so remove salt elsewhere in the recipe. Buy the sweet grade rather than the hot one unless you want heat.
6Harissa, Used Only as a Booster
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 tablespoon harissa plus 3 tablespoons roasted pepper puree for every ¼ cup ajvar
This is the substitution most search results suggest and the one that most often disappoints, so it is worth being blunt.
What changes
Harissa is chilli-forward and properly hot, spiced with cumin, caraway and coriander, so a sandwich or a burek made with it tastes North African and burns where ajvar was meant to be sweet and mellow. It is not a swap. What it is good for is adding a small amount to a roasted pepper puree to give depth and a little warmth, in which case a tablespoon in a quarter cup of puree is plenty. Anything more and the dish becomes about the chilli.
Best for
adding warmth to a homemade pepper puree, cooks who want a hot ajvar, in the style of ljuti ajvar, marinades and stews rather than table condiments
If heat is what you actually want, look for a jar labelled ljuti ajvar, the hot Balkan version, rather than trying to build it out of harissa.

What is Ajvar?

Ajvar is Ajvar, sometimes written aivar and described on English labels as red pepper relish or Serbian pepper spread, is a Balkan condiment of roasted red peppers, often with roasted eggplant, cooked down slowly with oil, salt and a little vinegar into a thick, smoky, faintly sweet spread.

Cooking tips

Read the label for heat before you buy or substitute. Blago or mild is the default and what almost every recipe assumes, while ljuti means hot and carries real chilli. Most disappointment with ajvar substitutes comes from replacing a mild spread with a hot paste.
Ajvar is a table condiment, not a cooking sauce. In the Balkans it is served at room temperature alongside cevapi, pljeskavica, grilled peppers, bread and kajmak, and heating it dulls the fruitiness that makes it good. If a recipe cooks it into a stew, use a concentrated pepper paste instead and save the real thing for the plate.
If your substitute tastes thin or watery, cook it down in oil rather than reaching for a thickener. Ajvar's dense, spoonable body comes entirely from long slow reduction, and ten to twenty minutes in a wide pan transforms a loose pepper puree.
A pinch of sugar and half a teaspoon of red wine vinegar are what make a roasted pepper puree taste like ajvar rather than like roasted peppers. The sweetness and the small acid lift are as important as the peppers themselves, and both are easy to leave out by accident.
Char the peppers directly over a gas flame, on a grill or under a broiler until the skins are properly blackened and blistered, then trap them in a covered bowl for ten minutes so the steam loosens the skins. They will then peel with your fingers, and the smoke you built is the flavour you were missing.
Do not invent a shelf-stable canning recipe for homemade ajvar. Peppers and eggplant are low-acid vegetables, so a water-bath jar of ajvar is not safe unless you are following a tested, properly acidified recipe exactly, and reducing the vinegar in such a recipe is never acceptable. Keep homemade ajvar in the refrigerator under a film of oil and eat it within a week or two, or freeze it. For shelf-stable preserving, follow guidance from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Frequently asked questions

Is ajvar spicy?

Usually not. Standard ajvar is made from sweet paprika peppers and tastes smoky, sweet and mellow with no real heat, which is why it can be eaten by the spoonful with bread. There is a hot version, labelled ljuti, which does carry chilli, but it is the exception. This is the most common misunderstanding about ajvar and the reason chilli pastes make poor substitutes for it.

Can I use harissa instead of ajvar?

Not as a straight swap. Harissa is a hot chilli paste spiced with cumin and caraway, so it changes both the heat level and the cuisine of whatever you put it in. If harissa is all you have, use one tablespoon of it blended into three tablespoons of pureed roasted red pepper to approximate a quarter cup of ajvar. That gives you the pepper sweetness with a little warmth rather than a mouthful of chilli.

Can I just leave the ajvar out?

If it is on the table as a condiment, yes, though the plate loses the sweet-smoky foil that balances salty grilled meat, and a bowl of good roasted peppers with olive oil covers most of it. If a recipe cooks it into a stew or a filling, replace it with roasted pepper puree plus half a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a pinch of sugar per quarter cup, because it was providing sweetness, body and colour that the dish will otherwise miss.

Is ajvar the same as pindjur or ljutenica?

They are close cousins from the same region and often sold side by side. Ajvar is essentially peppers, sometimes with eggplant, cooked down in oil. Pindjur and ljutenica typically add tomato, and ljutenica is usually hotter and looser in texture, sometimes with carrot. Any of them will substitute for ajvar on a plate of bread and cheese, with the tomato versions tasting tangier and less purely sweet.

How long does an open jar of ajvar keep?

In the refrigerator, roughly two weeks to a month for a commercial jar and about two weeks for homemade. Smoothing the surface and pouring a thin film of oil over the top slows oxidation and keeps the colour bright. Homemade ajvar also freezes well in small containers, which is the usual way Balkan households handle an autumn batch.

Related substitutes

More sauces & condiments substitutes

Ajvar substitute

Other ajvar substitutes

2Jarred Roasted Red Peppers, Blitzed With Oil

3Muhammara

4Romesco Sauce

5Turkish Red Pepper Paste (Biber Salcasi), Thinned

6Harissa, Used Only as a Booster