Egyptian Molokheya – The Soup of Jute

I bet most of you never heard of jute before. It was news to me too! For the longest time, I thought Molokheya, as we call it in Egyptian, didn’t exist outside Egypt. Wrong! It’s served in other middle eastern countries such as Lebanon where, instead of a soup, it’s a stir fry of  the same ingredients. Recently, I found fresh Molokheya in our local farmers market and there, they called it “okra leaves” but don’t take that literally, jute isn’t really the leave of an okra plant. The only thing that’s common between the two is that, depending on how they’re prepared, sometimes they have a slimy consistency.

This mean green soup is rich in flavor from the addition of garlic and coriander. Not long ago, and in many homes of rural Egypt today, the jute plants were bought fresh. Leaves were removed one at a time, put together on a huge cutting board then, and using a mezzaluna, they were finally chopped. As you can imagine, this is a long process. Today, inside and outside Egypt, everyone buys the Molokheya frozen and the taste is just as good.