Makdous substitutes

Different shape, near-identical flavour family, and the most satisfying swap on a mezze table. Muhammara is red pepper, walnuts, garlic, olive oil and usually pomegranate molasses and breadcrumbs, blended into a thick dip - which is essentially the makdous stuffing without the eggplant. What changes: you lose the eggplant entirely, along with the whole-vegetable presentation and the contrast between tender flesh and crunchy nuts. Muhammara is also sweeter and much more pepper-forward, since roasted red pepper dominates, whereas makdous leans on raw garlic and salt. On a plate with bread and olives it fills the same slot convincingly.

Best for

mezze plates and breakfast spreads, eating with flatbread, when you want the flavour without weeks of curing, serving a crowd

Leave the walnuts coarse rather than blending them to paste, so you keep some of the crunch that makdous has. A heavier hand with the garlic than most recipes suggest pushes it toward makdous, as does easing off the pomegranate molasses so it is less sweet.

The best substitute if you want the actual dish. 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.

The closest ready-made option and a genuinely quick fix. 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.

Right table role, entirely different texture. 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.

Not an imitation but a substitution of role, and often the smartest choice. 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.

There is no substitute for cured makdous, and it is worth being direct about that. 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.