Jute Leaves

Jute leaves, from the jute plant Corchorus olitorius, also known as Jew's mallow, nalta jute or tossa jute, are used to prepare mulukhiyah, a traditional Egyptian and Arab dish that gives the leaves their common regional name. The dish and its leaves are eaten mainly in Egypt, the Levant, including Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Cyprus, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Nigeria and Algeria. The leaves are rather bitter, and when boiled the resulting liquid becomes a thick, highly mucilaginous broth often described as slimy, similar to cooked okra; they are typically eaten cooked, chopped and sauteed with oil, garlic and cilantro, or prepared as a soup or stew, a tradition with roots in medieval Arab cooking recorded in fourteenth-century Egyptian cookbooks.