Makdous substitute

Best substitute

Muhammara

Use Serve 2 to 3 tbsp for every person in place of a couple of stuffed eggplants

Best for mezze plates and breakfast spreads

Different texture

Nothing replaces cured makdous, but there are two good moves. For the same flavour in a different form, use muhammara - it is built on the same red pepper, walnut, garlic and olive oil combination and does the same rich, nutty, garlicky job on a mezze plate. For the same shape and eating experience, make a fresh version: roast small eggplants until collapsing, stuff or top them with crushed walnuts, plenty of raw crushed garlic, salt, Aleppo pepper and a generous pour of olive oil, then refrigerate and eat within a few days. Makdous delivers fat, salt, sharp garlic and walnut crunch against soft eggplant, and the mellow depth comes from weeks of curing - a fresh version tastes bright and pungent instead. Important: the oil cover and the salt are the preservation method, not seasoning, so never adjust the salt or process in a tested curing recipe.

Other makdous substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Fresh quick-cure stuffed eggplant
Different taste
Use the same amount by count of eggplants; refrigerate and eat within about 4 days
The best substitute if you want the actual dish.
What changes
Roast or pan-fry small or baby eggplants until they are completely soft and collapsing, cool them, slit them, then pack each with a paste of coarsely crushed walnuts, a lot of raw crushed garlic, salt and Aleppo pepper. Sit them in a dish, cover them generously with olive oil and refrigerate for a day so the flavours settle. What changes: this is a fresh dish, not a preserve. It tastes bright, sharply garlicky and clean where real makdous is mellow, rounded and faintly funky from its weeks in the jar. It is genuinely delicious, and it is also the version to make if you are at all unsure about home preserving.
Best for
getting the makdous experience the same week, mezze plates, breakfast with bread, labneh and tea, cooks without access to a Middle Eastern grocer
Keep it refrigerated at all times and eat it within a few days - this is a fresh garlic-in-oil preparation, which is exactly the sort of thing that must not be left at room temperature. Do not treat it as a shelf-stable preserve, do not can it, and do not extend its life by adding more oil. Use small eggplants; large ones are watery and seedy and will not hold their shape.
3Deli oil-marinated chargrilled aubergine, dressed with walnuts and garlic
Taste and texture differ
Use Roughly 60 g of marinated aubergine plus 1 tbsp crushed walnuts and 1 small crushed garlic clove for every serving
The closest ready-made option and a genuinely quick fix.
What changes
Buy chargrilled aubergine slices from a deli counter or a jar, drain off the excess liquid, and dress them at home with coarsely crushed walnuts, crushed raw garlic, salt and a little more olive oil. What changes: deli aubergine is usually packed with vinegar and herbs, so the result is noticeably sour and more Italian in character, and grilling gives it a smoky edge makdous does not have. Adding the walnuts and raw garlic yourself is what pulls it back toward the Levant - without them it is simply marinated aubergine.
Best for
same-day mezze plates, antipasti-style spreads, sandwiches and wraps
Rinse or pat the slices if they are aggressively vinegared, and taste before salting. Sliced flat rather than whole and stuffed, so it looks quite different on the plate - stacking or rolling the slices around the walnut mixture gets you closer visually.
4Baba ganoush or moutabal with walnuts stirred in
Taste and texture differ
About 3 tbsp per person, with 1 tbsp coarsely chopped walnuts per portion
Right table role, entirely different texture.
What changes
A smoky aubergine dip with crushed walnuts and extra raw garlic folded through it covers a lot of the same ground - aubergine, garlic, nuts, olive oil - and it takes twenty minutes rather than a month. What changes: it is a smooth, creamy, smoky dip, so you lose both the whole-vegetable form and the salty preserved intensity. Baba ganoush is also built on tahini, which brings a sesame flavour makdous has none of. Skip or reduce the tahini and go heavy on garlic to make it read more like makdous.
Best for
mezze spreads, eating with flatbread, using up large aubergines rather than baby ones
Char the aubergines directly over a flame or under a hot grill until the skins blacken - the smoke is what makes the dip worth eating. Stir the walnuts in at the end so they stay crunchy rather than blending to a paste.
5Oil-cured olives and walnuts alongside labneh
Taste and texture differ
Use A small handful of olives, 2 tbsp walnuts and 3 tbsp labneh for every person
Not an imitation but a substitution of role, and often the smartest choice.
What changes
What makdous contributes to a breakfast or mezze table is a salty, oily, garlicky punch and something rich to eat with bread. Good olives supply the salt and the oil, walnuts supply the crunch and the tannic bitterness, and labneh supplies the creamy element that makdous's soft eggplant provides. What changes: obviously not makdous, and no eggplant anywhere. But the plate is balanced in the same way and nothing tastes like a substitute for something missing.
Best for
Levantine breakfast plates, mezze spreads, when no aubergine is available, quick assembly with no cooking
Dress the olives with a crushed garlic clove, a little Aleppo pepper and olive oil and let them sit for an hour - this is a small step that makes the plate taste considered rather than assembled. Kalamata or oil-cured black olives are better here than green.
6Buying a jar - the honest recommendation
Taste and texture differ
There is no substitute for cured makdous, and it is worth being direct about that.
What changes
The flavour comes from weeks in a sealed jar under oil, during which the garlic mellows, the salt penetrates and the eggplant develops a soft, faintly fermented richness that no fresh preparation reproduces. Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian grocers sell it in jars, as do online Middle Eastern shops, it is not expensive, and a jar lasts a long time because a couple of eggplants is a serving. If you tasted it at a restaurant and want that exact thing, buy it rather than approximate it, and make the fresh version above in the meantime.
Best for
deciding whether to substitute at all, recipes where makdous is the point
Refrigerate after opening, always use a clean dry utensil, and keep the remaining eggplants fully covered by the oil. Discard the jar if the oil smells off, if the eggplants are slimy or discoloured, or if the lid is bulging.

What is Makdous?

Makdous is Makdous, also spelled makdus or mekdous, is a Levantine preserve of baby eggplants that are briefly cooked, slit and stuffed with crushed walnuts, garlic, salt and red pepper, then packed into jars under a full cover of olive oil where they soften and mellow over several weeks.

Cooking tips

The oil in a jar of makdous is not just a seal, it is a preservation method working alongside the salt - and oil itself does not make food safe. Submerging vegetables and garlic in oil creates exactly the airless environment that Clostridium botulinum prefers, which is why traditional makdous depends on thorough salting and drying and why garlic-in-oil is a well-known risk area. Never reduce the salt, skip the draining step or lengthen the room-temperature curing time in a tested makdous recipe, do not invent your own oil-cure, and follow National Center for Home Food Preservation guidance for any home preserving. If you want makdous this week rather than next month, make the refrigerated fresh version and eat it within a few days.
Serve makdous at room temperature, never straight from the fridge. Cold, the olive oil is thick and cloudy and the flavour is muted and waxy; twenty minutes on the counter and the oil clears, the aroma opens up and it tastes like a completely different and much better thing.
The oil left in the jar is a second ingredient, not waste. It has taken on garlic, walnut and pepper flavour, and it is superb for frying eggs, dressing a tomato salad, or pouring over hummus or labneh. Use it before it is gone.
Always use a clean, dry spoon, take what you need, and push the remaining eggplants back under the surface of the oil, topping up with fresh olive oil if they are exposed. Anything sitting above the oil line will spoil, and a wet or dirty utensil is the usual way a good jar is ruined.
Use baby or small slim eggplants, not large ones. Big eggplants are watery and full of developed seeds, so they collapse into mush and dilute the stuffing, whereas small ones have dense flesh that stays intact and holds a slit open around the walnut filling. Crush the walnuts coarsely with the side of a knife rather than grinding them, so they stay crunchy against the soft eggplant.

Frequently asked questions

What does makdous taste like?

Salty, deeply garlicky and rich with olive oil, with the soft, almost silky flesh of the eggplant giving way to crunchy walnut and a gentle warmth from the red pepper. The curing rounds everything off, so the garlic is pungent rather than raw-harsh, and there is a faint tangy, savoury depth that comes from the weeks in the jar. It is intense, which is why it is served as a small item on a breakfast or mezze plate rather than eaten in quantity.

Can I just leave makdous out?

Yes, if it is one of several items on a mezze or breakfast table - swap in muhammara, olives, labneh or baba ganoush and the plate will still be balanced. It is almost never a component inside a cooked recipe, so there is rarely a structural problem. What you lose is the specific pleasure of a whole soft eggplant packed with garlic and walnuts, which is unusual enough that people who know it will notice its absence.

Can I make makdous quickly instead of curing it for weeks?

You can make something very good quickly, but you cannot make cured makdous quickly, and you should not try to speed up a preserve. Roast small eggplants until soft, stuff them with crushed walnuts, garlic, salt and Aleppo pepper, cover with olive oil and refrigerate for a day - that is a fresh dish, it tastes bright and garlicky, and it must be kept cold and eaten within a few days. Do not leave a fast version out at room temperature to cure, do not can it, and do not adapt the salt in a tested recipe, since salt level and process are food safety controls in oil-cured preserves rather than matters of taste.

How long does an opened jar of makdous last?

Refrigerated, with the remaining eggplants fully submerged in oil and only clean dry utensils going into the jar, several weeks and often longer - it is a preserve, after all. What ends a jar early is contamination from a wet spoon or eggplants left sitting above the oil line. Throw it out rather than risk it if the oil smells rancid or sour, the eggplants are slimy or oddly coloured, there is any mould, or the lid was bulging when you opened it.

Is makdous the same as baba ganoush?

No, though both are eggplant. Baba ganoush and moutabal are dips made from charred eggplant blended with tahini, lemon and garlic, eaten fresh and smoky. Makdous is whole small eggplants stuffed with walnuts and garlic and preserved under oil for weeks, eaten as firm individual pieces. They taste and feel completely different, but they can occupy the same place on a mezze plate, and baba ganoush with walnuts and extra garlic stirred in is a reasonable stand-in.

Related substitutes

More preserves substitutes

Makdous substitute

Other makdous substitutes

2Fresh quick-cure stuffed eggplant

3Deli oil-marinated chargrilled aubergine, dressed with walnuts and garlic

4Baba ganoush or moutabal with walnuts stirred in

5Oil-cured olives and walnuts alongside labneh

6Buying a jar - the honest recommendation