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Molokhia

Molokhia is a green leafy soup made with chicken stock, molokhia leaves, and optional aromatics, simmered and served hot.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 15,539 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Molokhia

Timeabout twenty minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leaves

  1. Chop the molokhia leaves as finely as possible until they are bright green and slightly slimy.

  2. Bring the chicken stock to a near boil over high heat in a large pot.

  3. Add the molokhia, stirring well.

  4. Add the tomato paste, chile pepper, bay leaf, onion (if desired), and black pepper, continuing to stir.

  5. Reduce heat and simmer for about twenty minutes.

Make the garlic fry

  1. After ten minutes of simmering, heat the oil (or butter) in a skillet.

  2. Grind the garlic, ground coriander, and salt together into a paste using the back of a spoon or a sharp knife.

  3. Fry the paste in the oil for two to four minutes, stirring constantly, until the garlic is slightly browned.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the garlic mixture and the oil it was fried in to the simmering molokhia. Stir well.

  2. Add any remaining optional ingredients you like.

  3. Continue simmering and stirring occasionally for a few more minutes.

  4. Adjust seasoning.

  5. Serve immediately, hot.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Tomato + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molokhia leaves
Provide the main body and slightly slimy, thickening texture of the soup.
Chicken stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the whole soup.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma, and frying it until lightly browned deepens its flavour.
Ground coriander
Contributes warm, citrusy aroma when fried in oil with the garlic.
Olive oil, butter, or cooking oil
Carries fat-soluble aroma from the garlic and spices into the soup.

The step that matters

Frying the garlic and coriander paste. Garlic burns quickly and turns bitter if overcooked, so it should be stirred constantly and only lightly browned. Frying in fat releases the aromatic compounds of the spices, which then spread through the soup when the mixture is added.

Flavor stand-ins for the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, onion, olive, clove, coriander, lemon):

  1. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, onion, olive, clove, coriander, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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