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Pindžur (Macedonian Roasted Pepper, Eggplant and Tomato Spread)
Roasted red peppers, eggplant and tomatoes chopped coarsely and simmered briefly in oil with garlic and onion into a chunky, orange-red spread, served as meze with bread and white cheese.
Macedonian · medium · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 70 min
~233 cal · 4g protein · 22g carbs · 15g fat · 7g fiber · 10g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Pindžur is one of the cold appetizers of the Macedonian table, the meze that opens a long meal. It belongs to the same family as ajvar, but it is its own dish: ajvar is made from peppers alone, while pindžur adds tomatoes and eggplant and is left much coarser, orange-red and flecked with pieces of vegetable.
It is made in summer and early autumn, when peppers, eggplant and tomatoes are at their best. The vegetables are roasted until soft and blistered, peeled, chopped and simmered with oil, garlic and a little onion until thick, then seasoned with salt and often a splash of vinegar and a pinch of sugar. Most versions include a hot pepper or two, and every family has its own proportions.
It is eaten fresh in summer and from jars, as part of the autumn zimnica preserving, the rest of the year. It comes to the table in a small clay crock with bread and a piece of white cheese, or beside grilled meat.
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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
- 1 kg sweet red peppers
- 1 or 2 hot red chilli pepper, to taste
- 1 large (about 400 g) eggplant
- 500 g ripe tomatoes
- 100 ml sunflower oil
- 1 small onion, very finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
- 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
Instructions
- 1Heat the oven to 220C (425F). Roast the whole peppers, chilli, eggplant (pricked with a fork) and tomatoes on trays for about 40 minutes, turning once, until the skins are blistered and the flesh is soft. Take the tomatoes out after about 20 minutes, when their skins split.
- 2Cover the peppers in a bowl and leave to steam until cool enough to handle. Peel the peppers, chilli, eggplant and tomatoes and remove the stalks and seeds.
- 3Chop everything coarsely by hand; pindžur should stay chunky, not smooth.
- 4Warm the oil in a wide pan over medium heat and cook the onion for about 5 minutes until soft. Add the chopped vegetables and the garlic and simmer for about 25 minutes, stirring often, until thick and glossy and most of the liquid has gone.
- 5Stir in the vinegar, sugar and salt and taste. Leave to cool, stir in the parsley and serve in a bowl with bread and white cheese, or beside grilled meat.
Macedonian meze tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Skopje. Autumn is pepper season and the whole country smells of it. Red peppers are roasted in quantity, peeled and cooked down with aubergine into ajvar and put up in jars for the winter, and whatever is not made into ajvar gets dried and ground into the paprika that colours nearly everything else.
🗺️
North Macedonia. North Macedonian cooking is Balkan and garden-driven, ajvar pepper relish, tavče gravče baked beans, and grilled meats. Peppers, beans, dairy, and Ottoman-rooted pastries define a warm, rustic table.
🌍
Europe. A surprising amount of European cooking is under five hundred years old. Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, maize, beans and chocolate all crossed from the Americas after 1492, and none of them was trusted quickly: the potato took most of the eighteenth century to be accepted as food rather than animal fodder across much of the north.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from North Macedonia
Tavče GravčeNorth Macedonia's national dish: white beans baked in a clay pan with paprika, peppers, and mint.
BurekCoiled flaky pastry filled with cheese, baked golden and eaten with a drinking yogurt.
PastrmajlijaAn oval bread base topped with cubed marinated meat and baked crisp, North Macedonia's boat-shaped flatbread.
Browse all North Macedonia recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven, Steamer.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a North Macedonia meal
RavanijaDessert
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Pindžur (Macedonian Roasted Pepper, Eggplant and Tomato Spread)?
Roasted red peppers, eggplant and tomatoes chopped coarsely and simmered briefly in oil with garlic and onion into a chunky, orange-red spread, served as meze with bread and white cheese.
Where does Pindžur (Macedonian Roasted Pepper, Eggplant and Tomato Spread) come from?
Pindžur (Macedonian Roasted Pepper, Eggplant and Tomato Spread) is a Macedonian dish from Skopje, North Macedonia.
Can Pindžur (Macedonian Roasted Pepper, Eggplant and Tomato Spread) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pindžur (Macedonian Roasted Pepper, Eggplant and Tomato Spread) 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 Pindžur (Macedonian Roasted Pepper, Eggplant and Tomato Spread) 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 Pindžur (Macedonian Roasted Pepper, Eggplant and Tomato Spread) take to make?
About 100 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 70 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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