Molokhia

Ingredients

• Molokhia leaves — fresh or frozen500 g
• Chicken1.2 kg
• Garlic10 clove
• Ground coriander2 tbsp
• Ghee80 g
• Cardamom pods4
• Bay leaves2
• Onion1
• Rice — to serve400 g
• Lemon — to serve2
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Simmer the chicken with the onion, cardamom and bay for forty-five minutes and strain the broth.

   50 min

2. 2

   Chop the molokhia leaves finely with a mezzaluna or blitz them to an even green mass.

   15 min

3. 3

   Bring the broth to the boil, add the leaves and immediately drop the heat to its lowest.

   6 min

4. 4

   Hold the soup just below a simmer for ten minutes, stirring; it thickens and turns slippery.

   12 min

5. 5

   Crush the garlic with salt into a paste and fry it in ghee with the coriander until deep gold.

   8 min

6. 6

   Pour the tempering into the soup — it will hiss — and cover the pot immediately for a minute.

   4 min

7. 7

   Serve with boiled rice, the chicken and lemon, each in its own dish.

   10 min

About the dish

The slipperiness is not a flaw but the sign of a proper molokhia. The leaves release mucilage like okra, and Egyptians value it precisely; trying to "fix" the texture means ruining the dish.

The soup is never boiled once the leaves are in. Boiling destroys the viscosity and molokhia separates into water and a green suspension.

The tasha — garlic fried with coriander in ghee — is poured into the finished soup with a hiss. It is the last step, and in Egypt the sound is how you know the soup is ready.

Worth knowing

• — Frozen leaves go in without thawing. Thawed, they lose some of their viscosity before they even reach the pot.
• — Do not scorch the garlic. Burnt, it leaves a bitterness that is particularly obvious in a slippery soup and nothing masks it.
• — Molokhia divides people: its texture is either accepted or it is not. Worth knowing in advance rather than trying to make the soup "normal".

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

40 g

Fat

22 g

Carbs

42 g

More from Egypt

• Koshari — Rice, lentils and pasta in one bowl under a vinegary tomato sauce and fried onion.
• Ful medames — Fava beans stewed to a cream with olive oil, lemon and cumin.
• Kunafa — Fine shredded pastry with a cheese filling, baked and drenched in sugar syrup.