Mloukhiah stew just got that much simpler to make and enjoy with my delicious and easy Middle Eastern Mloukhiah stew with chicken.

This post was inspired by a post I read on Nutrition Unplugged a week ago. Janet wrote how our palates are so used to sweet and salty foods that anything outside of that–bitter specifically–is unbearable. What’s bitter you think? Hello asparagus, kale, and Brussels sprouts. You see where I’m going. Janet quoted Barb Stuckey, author of Taste What You’re Missing (added to my to-read list), among other Nutritionist.

And if it’s not bad enough that we can’t tolerate bitter flavors, we’re also teaching our kids to only accept sweet, salty, and greasy tastes. One expert Janet interviewed said that taste preferences broaden over time–ever wondered why you hated egg plants as a child and now you can’t get enough? When we dull our taste buds and our kids’, we’re not receptive to new flavors and tastes.  We’re certainly not helping our kids broaden their preferences when we offer the same sweet, salty, and greasy foods. Kids menus don’t help either–they’re pretty much the same everywhere you go: cheese pizza, chicken fingers, French fries, and spaghetti with tomato sauce. If we’re lucky, they might offer broccoli or apple slices but that doesn’t give our kids the chance to taste something new.

Stuckey suggests eating more ethnics foods to widen our tastes preferences. And what a perfect time to share with you one of my favorite Middle Eastern recipes: mloukhiah stew. By the way, you can find it spelled many different ways: molokhia, molokheya, mloukhya, and so forth!

It’s a leafy green vegetable similar to spinach. Growing up, my mom bought it fresh, leaves on the stems, and my brother and I were assigned to pulling the leaves. Then my mom would then wash them, spread them over an old bed sheet (there was one designated for kitchen needs) or large trays, and let them air dry for a day. Then she would freeze half of them whole, and that would be used to make a slightly different version of this recipe. She would finely chop the remaining with a funny looking knife then freeze them. As I grew up, she would let me do the chopping myself. I loved it.

Those days are gone. My mom in Jordan still gets her mloukhiah fresh, but she gets the leaves already pulled. Here in the US, I’m happy to be able to get the frozen. They’re sold in Middle Eastern grocers in the freezer section. You might want to ask for some help since sometimes it’s a treasure hunt to get what you’re looking for from these freezers.

The recipe is simple. In Egypt, they make mloukhiah stew with rabbits. My mom has always cooked it with chicken, which is the Palestinian/Jordanian way of doing it. I started by making a chicken broth from fresh organic chicken breasts. You can cut corners and use store-bought chicken broth, but it won’t taste as good, trust me. I used my pressure cooker because it cooks the chicken in no time. You can use any other pot, but it won’t be as fast.

I can’t give you details about the nutrients in mloukhiah stew  . It’s not something you can find on the USDA database. The two different packages listed different amounts for pretty much everything. It’s a leafy green vegetable. That’s enough for me.

The taste is a bit bitter and a bit sour, especially with the added tomato paste and lemon juice. But that’s the way it should taste. You won’t find mloukhiah stew   in your local kabob restaurant, so go out and give it a try on your own. Let your taste buds try something new!