Slow Stew · Jute Leaf
Mloukhiya
Photo: IssamBarhoumi / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Many Tunisian families cook mloukhiya for the Islamic New Year, when its dark green colour is meant to bring a 'green', prosperous year.
Dried, ground jute-mallow leaves are cooked for hours with beef or lamb until the stew turns a deep, near-black green and thickens to a glossy consistency. It's ladled over bread or couscous at the small gargotes around the Tunis medina.
Why it's made this way: The long, unhurried cooking time makes mloukhiya a weekend dish in the capital, one families still simmer on low heat all afternoon the way earlier generations did.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3443 dishes from 118 countries.
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