🥗 STARTER
Matbucha (Cooked Tomato and Pepper Salad)
Charred, peeled tomatoes and red peppers cooked slowly in olive oil with garlic and hot chili for an hour and a half until thick and jammy, served cool with bread among the first-course salads.
Israeli · easy · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 110 min
~134 cal · 2g protein · 12g carbs · 9g fat · 3g fiber · 6g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
↓ Jump to Recipe
AI-generated illustration
Matbucha means "cooked salad" in Arabic. It comes from the Maghreb, and Jewish immigrants from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya brought it with them to Israel, where it has become as familiar as hummus.
It is made from just a few things: ripe tomatoes and red peppers, usually charred and peeled first, garlic, hot chili and plenty of olive oil. The secret is time. The vegetables cook down slowly, stirred now and then, until almost all the liquid has gone and they turn into a thick, glossy spread somewhere between a salad and a jam.
In Israel matbucha is one of the salatim, the small salads that crowd the table at the start of a meal, above all at the Friday night Shabbat dinner, scooped up with challah or pita before the main course arrives. It is better the next day, and it keeps for a week in the fridge.
Saved recipes and passport stamps are kept on this device. Sign in to keep them across your devices and leave reviews.
Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 6 large (about 800 g) ripe plum tomatoes
- 3 medium red bell peppers
- 1 hot green or red chili, seeded and finely diced, or more to taste
- 1/2 medium onion, finely diced, optional
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1 tsp sugar, optional, if the tomatoes are sharp
Instructions
- 1Heat the grill to high. Lay the tomatoes and peppers on a tray and grill for 10 to 15 minutes, turning, until the skins are blistered and charred in places.
- 2Put the peppers in a bowl and cover it so they steam. When everything is cool enough to handle, peel the tomatoes and peppers, seed the peppers and chop both roughly.
- 3Warm the olive oil in a wide heavy pan over medium heat. Add the chili, onion if using, and garlic and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until soft and fragrant but not brown.
- 4Add the tomatoes, peppers, paprika and salt. Bring to a gentle bubble, then turn the heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 90 minutes, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes, until the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is thick, glossy and jammy.✎ Chef’s noteStir more often near the end, when it thickens and can catch on the bottom. The oil will start to separate at the edges when it is ready.
- 5Taste and add the sugar if it needs softening, and more salt or chili. Let it cool completely and serve at room temperature or cool with challah or pita, as part of the first-course salads.✎ Chef’s noteMatbucha tastes even better the next day and keeps for about a week in the fridge.
Maghrebi Jewish tradition as cooked in Israel.
Ratings & reviews
Cooked it? Rate this dish:
No account needed. Sign in to leave a full review with a comment.
Cooked it?
Kept on this device, no account needed. Sign in to leave a review and keep your passport across your devices.
No reviews yet, be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tel Aviv. Shakshuka is North African, from the Maghreb, and it came to Israel with Libyan and Tunisian Jewish families in the 1950s and 1960s before becoming widely popular only from the 1990s. Hummus and falafel carry the same argument, so what a city can honestly claim is how it eats them, not who first made them.
🗺️
Israel. Israeli food is a young, dynamic melting pot of Jewish diaspora and Middle Eastern traditions, hummus, falafel, shakshuka, and sabich. Fresh salads, olive oil, and market-driven cooking define a vibrant, multicultural table.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Israel
SabichPita stuffed with fried eggplant, hard-boiled egg, hummus, salad, and a drizzle of tangy amba and tahini.
Jerusalem Mixed GrillMeorav Yerushalmi: chicken and offal seared fast with onion, cumin, and turmeric, stuffed into laffa.
MalawachA flaky, buttery Yemenite-Israeli pan-fried flatbread served with grated tomato and zhug.
Browse all Israel recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Grill or barbecue, Steamer.
Storing it: Best assembled just before serving. Prep the components ahead and dress at the last moment so it stays crisp.
Make it an Israel meal
LimonanaDrink
RugelachDessert
Similar dishes from around the world
Salata Aswad (South Sudanese Eggplant and Peanut Salad)South Sudan
Eetch (Armenian Tomato and Bulgur Salad)Armenia
Vinegret (Beet, Potato and Pickle Salad)Belarus
Azifa (Ethiopian Green Lentil Salad)Ethiopia
Shalgam (Kazakh Radish Salad)Kazakhstan
Aloo Sadeko (Nepali Spiced Potato Salad)Nepal
Cuisine
Diet
Vegetarian Recipes from Around the World
Vegan Recipes from Around the World
Gluten-Free Recipes from Around the World
Dairy-Free Recipes from Around the World
Nut-Free Recipes from Around the World
Egg-Free Recipes from Around the World
Pork-Free Recipes from Around the World
Vegetarian Israeli Recipes
Dairy-Free Israeli Recipes
Frequently asked questions
What is Matbucha (Cooked Tomato and Pepper Salad)?
Charred, peeled tomatoes and red peppers cooked slowly in olive oil with garlic and hot chili for an hour and a half until thick and jammy, served cool with bread among the first-course salads.
Where does Matbucha (Cooked Tomato and Pepper Salad) come from?
Matbucha (Cooked Tomato and Pepper Salad) is an Israeli dish from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Can Matbucha (Cooked Tomato and Pepper Salad) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Matbucha (Cooked Tomato and Pepper Salad) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Matbucha (Cooked Tomato and Pepper Salad) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Matbucha (Cooked Tomato and Pepper Salad) take to make?
About 140 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 110 minutes cooking), serving 6.
Get the Sunday Spin
One dish from somewhere in the world, in your inbox every Sunday. No spam, just dinner inspiration you can cook that day.