Harissa is a spicy, smoky, peppery red chilli paste. If you've ever enjoyed hummus, kofta, or fattoush, then harissa should be familiar to you. The name harissa comes from the Arabic verb harasa, meaning ‘break into pieces’. The simplest version of this spicy Middle Eastern sauce is just the bare bones: chillies, salt and olive oil.

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Everything You Need to Know About Harissa
Hot sauce
If a recipe calls for harissa, you usually just want it to be spicy. For this purpose, whatever hot sauce you have on hand will do the trick. Tabasco, sriracha, sambal oleck, chilli bean paste or Korean gochujang provide the right amount of heat and offer a similar consistency to harissa. Their main weakness as an alternative to harissa lies in the exact flavour. Harissa has layers of cumin, coriander, and caraway seeds, whereas other hot sauces can have a different flavour profile.
For example, gochujang has a sweet fermented taste similar to miso - very different from harissa's taste. Therefore, we recommend a chilli paste with the simplest ingredient list. Sambal oelek makes a great substitute since it contains only chillies, vinegar, water, and salt. Compared to harissa, it's very neutral, so your recipe may not have the same spicy nuance, but if you explore your spice rack, it's possible to add a hint of harissa to your recipe. Add cumin, coriander and caraway to sambal oelek (start with 1/2 teaspoon per cup) until you reach your desired flavour profile.
Though sriracha has a different consistency, it's a great harissa substitute. Garlic undertones in sriracha go well with harissa, and if you want to layer in extra flavour, mix in cumin, coriander, and caraway. A bonus of adding extra spices is that it thickens up the comparatively thin sriracha sauce, making it more paste-like and closer to harissa in consistency. If you want to thicken it further without adding more of the three spices above, you can add hot paprika.
Fresh chopped red chilli with caraway seeds
Harissa can be substituted with finely chopped fresh red chillies, a pinch of caraway seeds, and enough olive oil to make a pesto-like sauce. You can use ground coriander if you don’t have caraway seeds.
Chilli oil
Plenty of great chilli-flavoured oils on the market will give a similar kick to harissa.