Minced Mulukhiyah

Salam to all,

here is a simple recipe for Mulukhiyah.. For those of you who are not familiar with it.. it is a green leaf (also known as Jews Mellow) that is picked and minced and made into a soup. Here is more on it from wikipedia (link)

Here is a picture of how it looks like on the plant, I had it in my garden this past summer.

Here in the states it is very hard to find fresh, but found frozen in most middle eastern groceries. A package usually looks like this:

And for the carb counters out there (as myself) one serving has 3.9 carbs

anyways, u will need either a cut up chicken, or just chicken breast cubes, which what i used this time.. for time's sake.

Ingredients:
1-2 lbs of chicken (or meat)
1 bag of frozen Mulukhiya
garlic powder
onion powder
4-5 cloves of garlic
mortar & pestle or garlic crusher
salt
black pepper
about 4 full tablespoons of cooked chickpeas (canned is fine)

pita bread or rice to serve with
salad and lemon wedges to squeeze on it..

In some oil Brown the chicken pieces until no longer pink.
Then cover with water,add salt, black pepper, and a bay leaf and let it boil until done.

defrost the mulukhiya bag and place whats in it in a blender. If they are in leaves form they will look like this (note on the bag it said (leaves without stems), i think i see more stems than leaves in here!) If u have the time u can pick them out and cut them off.. but who has time for that?

Once the chicken is done, take a few ladel-full spoons of broth and place in the blender as well. Blend by "pulsing" until the leave are minced throughly.. It will feel like a thick pudding consistency "kind of"

When that's ready, Get a small empty pot and pour the "green stuff" in it and on medium high heat, keep stirring until boils and the foamy stuff goes away.. Meanwhile, keep adding broth and stirring until it is of thin consistency and not "mucusy" anymore.. Like as thick as heavy cream.

add 3-4 tbsp of cooked Chickpeas (the canned version is perfect) and all the chicken meat and put it in the soup. Add salt to taste, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder and a Dash of black pepper. Lt it boil on meduim heat for few more mins.

Meanwhile crush 4-5 garlic cloves and saute them in oil until browned, then add to the finished Mulukhiya soup.

Taste and adjust seasonings as u like.
Serve with white rice or pita bread, lemon wedges on the side, and salad.
Squeeze the lemon juice on your plate before you eat..


Sorry dont have a finsihed picture because we were too hungry to eat and snap a pic!
Sahtain!