Kookoo Sabzi – Welcoming Nowruz with a Herby Frittata

19 March 2025

This weekend is Nowruz, a spring festival which originated in Persia some 3,000 years ago. Nowruz, or New Day, is a celebration of the end of winter and the start of a new year on the date when day and night are equal in the Northern Hemisphere – usually on or around the 20 – 21 March. The holiday is celebrated in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Central Asia, and in parts of Turkey, Syria, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia and China.

Preparing for Nowruz (Nauryz) in Almaty, Kazakhstan

There are many traditional foods associated with the holiday – Uzbekistan has sumalak, a paste made from what flour, sprouted wheat and oil. Kazakhstan has Nauryz Kozhe, a soup made from seven ingredients: barley, meat, kumis (fermented horse milk), onion, garlic, water and salt.

Iran’s *Kookoo Sabzi* – a herby frittata

Iran’s Nowruz table features the wonderfully named Kookoo Sabzi, sometimes written as Kuku – a herb-filled cousin of Italy’s frittata. The fresh herbs represent rebirth, while the eggs stand for fertility.

Kookoo Sabzi is usually a combination of garlic chives, corainder (cilantro) and dill, but seeing as we’re not fans of dill, we’ve opted to replace it with parsley and mint. You can also omit the coriander if that’s not your thing (feel free to add some dill if you must). We’ve added parsley and mint, along with toasted walnuts, for some protien, and barberries (if you can find them – we couldn’t), to add a tart edge to the dish. Cranberries are a good replacement if barberries are proving hard to track down.

Turn it onto a plate and slide it back into the pan

Ingredients (makes four servings)

50 g fresh parsley
50 g fresh coriander
50 g garlic chives (jusai)
25 g fresh mint leaves
50 g walnuts
10 g dried barberries (or cranberries)
4 eggs
20 g chickpea flour
One teaspoon each of: cumin seeds, sumac and turmeric
25 ml olive oil

Method

Wash the garlic chives and cut into 0.5 cm pieces. Leave to dry on a tea towel or kitchen paper. Wash and finely chop the parsley, coriander (including stems) and mint leaves. Combine all these ingredients with the chickpea flour, spices, berries and the eggs.
Crush and then toast the walnuts (without oil) for 10 minutes in a 12 cm frying pan. Remove the walnuts and mix them in with the herbs and eggs. Put half the olive oil in the frying pan and heat it up and then add the herb mixture, flattening it with a spatula.
Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes. Put a plate on top of the kookoo and turn the frying pan over. Add the rest of the oil to the empty pan and heat it up. Slide the kookoo back into the frying pan and cook for another 10 minutes.
Cut the kookoo into four slices and serve with a dollop of natural yogurt and some olives.

A Smashing Alternative to Avocado

23 January 2025

Here at KKC we’re big fans of smashed avocado, but in Kazakhstan it can sometimes be difficult to find the ideal fruit when needed – they’re either underripe and too hard to use immediately or gone mushy with grey stringy bits. Another problem is that most of these fruit that make their way here are grown in Israel and Colombia. So, a less well-travelled alternative is needed – look no further than the humble garden pea.

Move over avocado, here come the smashed peas!

Smashed peas can be used replacement for avocado, and involve a lot less food miles. We combined our peas, from a tin as there were no frozen peas in our local supermarket, with some unsalted cashews and chopped celery to make a great substitute for the alligator pear.

There could be a solution in the offing to the problem of sourcing avocadoes in Kazakhstan. An enterprising farm in the south of the country, near Shymkent, has started growing bananas in greenhouses. This is quite a feat in a country with a sharp continental climate with hot summers and freezing winters.

This year’s banana crop will cover around 5% of demand in Shymkent and the commercial hub, Almaty. And in the coming years, GenGroup Qazaqstan hopes to add mangoes and avocadoes to the supply chain of locally grown fruits, significantly reducing the food miles clocked up for these treats.

Ingredients (makes four servings)

250 g peas
75 g celery
25 g cashew nuts
15 ml olive oil
One teaspoon cumin seeds
One teaspoon mustard seeds
To garnish: a handful of beansprouts
One teaspoon sunflower seeds (per serving)
One teaspoon pomegranate seeds (per serving)
Method
- Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan and add the mustard and cumin seeds,. When they start popping, add the chopped celery and stir fry over a medium heat for two minutes and then add the cashews and continue to stir fry for another few minutes until the cashews start to brown.
- Turn the heat down and add the peas. When the peas are warmed up, turn off the heat and use a potato masher to smash all the ingredients together. Spread the smashed peas on wholemeal bread or toast and garnish with pomegranate seeds, sunflower seeds and beansprouts.

Spicy Spinach and Pumpkin Fritters

30 November 2023

With Halloween and Thanksgiving, the two times in the year when pumpkins take centre stage, now behind us, we’ve got a simple idea to use up any leftover pumpkin you may have with this quick and easy spinach and pumpkin fritter recipe.

These fritters are totally vegan – there’s no need to add an egg to bind them together as chickpea flour and rolled oats do a great job of soaking up any extra moisture from the spinach and pumpkin and help the fritters hold their shape. They can be shallow fried on both sides in a little oil or baked in the oven for 30 minutes at 180 c. These spicy fritters taste good served with a side salad and chips or in a burger bun or pita with your choice of toppings.

Ingredients (Makes 6-8 fritters)

175 g grated pumpkin
50 g chopped spinach
50 g chickpea flour
25 g rolled oats
One teaspoon each of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, oregano, sumac and turmeric.
Half a teaspoon cinnamon
25 ml oil for frying

Method

Grate the pumpkin into a large bowl, add the chopped spinach and herbs and spices and combine all the ingredients. Now add the rolled oats and chickpea flour and mix well. Leave the mixture to rest for two hours in the fridge, so that any excess moisture is absorbed.
Form the mixture into small balls (about the size of a golf ball) in your hands. Heat the oil in a frying pan then turn the heat down low and add as many of the balls as will fit in the pan. Flatten them with a fish slice and after a few minutes turn them over. Cook until golden brown on both sides and then serve straight away.

Meet the Hasselback Potato

21 December 2022

Winter Solstice is upon us once again so it’s time to kick off the holiday season. If you’re looking for something a bit different for your festive feast this year, then look no further than the Hasselback potato, an attractive dish that tastes like a jacket potato crossed with a roast potato.

This method of preparation involves cutting the potato into thin slices that fan out while baking. It can be used for other vegetables like beetroot, carrot and butternut squash, as well as a sweet version using fruits like apple and quince.

Hasselback potato with a pasty and salad

Hasselback potatoes originated in Sweden with the dish featuring in a 1929 recipe book “The Princesses’ Cookbook” by Jenny Åkerström. In 1953. Lief Elisson, a rookie chef at Stockholm’s Hasselbacken restaurant, revived this method for preparing the humble spud.

To prepare the fruit or vegetables of your choice, place chopsticks or wooden spoon handles on either side and cut into thin slices until the blade hits the wood.

Ingredients

Four medium potatoes
25 ml olive oil
One teaspoon rosemary or thyme (fresh if available or dried)
One teaspoon cumin seeds

Method

Put two chopsticks or the handles of two wooden spoons on either side of the potato. Cut into 1-2 mm slices, cutting until the blade hits the wood.
Put the potatoes in an ovenproof dish with the cut side facing up. Drizzle liberally with olive oil and sprinkle cumin seeds and thyme (or rosemary) over them.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 c for one hour. Serve on their own or as part of a main course with a pasty or nut roast along with your choice of side vegetables or a salad.

Mooli Mattar Mücver

10 February 2023

This time round on KCC we’re taking a look at mooli, or daikon as some of you might know it. This large, white member of the radish family is common in Japanese, Korean and Chinese cuisine and is also widely used in the Indian sub-continent. It’s a versatile, vitamin-packed vegetable that can be eaten raw or cooked in a variety of dishes. It has a milder flavour than its smaller red cousins but adds an interesting, mildly spicy crunch to salads and stir fries.

Mooli mattar mücver served in a bap with salad

Mücver fritters are a perennial KCC favourite so we decided to make some with grated mooli, mattar (green peas), celery and some chickpea flour to glue it all together for our latest mücver variation. This version is great served in a burger bun or baguette with some fresh coleslaw, shredded salad greens and a dash of soy sauce.

Meet the mooli aka daikon or winter radish

The mooli can be quite wet when grated so give it a good squeeze to remove the excess liquid. The chickpea flour will help bind the fritters together and soak up any remaining moisture so that they hold their shape better when frying.

Ingredients (makes four 125 g fritters)

200 g grated mooli
200 g green peas (fresh, tinned or frozen)
1 celery stick
50 g chickpea or pea flour
One teaspoon cumin seeds
One teaspoon turmeric
Two teaspoons paprika
Oil for frying

Method

Peel and grate the mooli into thin strips. Squeeze the moisture from the grated mooli. Chop the celery stalk and leaves finely and put into a bowl with the grated mooli. Add the peas and the spices and mix well. Now add the chickpea flour and blend everything together. The mix should be sticky but not wet – if it’s too moist, then add a bit more flour until you get a sticky consistency.
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Form the mix into four golf ball-sized pieces. Place in the pan and flatten with a fish slice. Turn the fritters over after frying for two to three minutes. Cook for another two to three minutes until both sides are a golden brown colour. Serve in a burger bun or in a baguette. Top with grated carrot and red cabbage and shredded lettuce or rocket, add a splash of soy sauce and enjoy!

KCC’s Courgette, Coconut and Mung Bean Mash Up

10 November 2022

As the first snow falls here in Almaty, it’s time for some heartier fare. This recipe started out life as courgette soup, but the sudden drop in temperature called for something with a bit more oomph so we added some mung beans and dried coconut to give it a more stew-like consistency. To add a bit of colour, we sprinkled some pomegranate seeds on top and gave it a drizzle of pomegranate sauce before serving.

KCC’s Courgette, Coconut and Mung Bean Mash Up

The delicate, thin courgettes of the summer are giving way to the robust, denser marrows of autumn – perfect for making into a soup. Mung beans are a versatile store cupboard basic – they can be added to stews or grown into bean sprouts for stir fries and salads – check o ut more recipe ideas here. They’re a staple in home-cooked meals in Uzbekistan, where they’re known as mash, hence the “mash up” in the name of this dish.

Ingredients (makes four servings)

1 kilo courgette
One celery stick
One medium onion
Bunch of radish leaves
200 g dried mung beans (soaked overnight)
50 g desiccated coconut
50 ml olive oil
Two teaspoons dried thyme
Two teaspoons cumin seeds
1.5 litres vegetable stock
Pomegranate seeds and Pomegranate sauce to garnish

Method

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based pan and fry the cumin seeds until starting to crackle and then add the diced onion and cook for five minutes over a medium heat. Next add the diced celery, lower the heat and and cook for another five minutes, stirring occasionally. Cut the courgette into four pieces lengthwise and then slice into 1 cm thick chunks. Add to the pan along with the thyme and stir fry for ten minutes. Add one litre of vegetable stock and the chopped radish leaves and simmer over a low heat for twenty minutes.
While the soup is simmering, cook the mung beans in a separate pan with 500 ml vegetable stock and the coconut. Cook for twenty – thirty minutes or so until the beans are softening or until all the liquid is absorbed.
Remove around 25% of the courgette mix and blend the rest to a smooth consistency with a stick blender. Add these blended courgettes to the cooked mung beans and stir well. Bring to a boil and then add the reserved courgette mix. Pour into soup bowls, garnish with a few pomegranate seeds and a drizzle of pomegranate sauce and serve immediately.

Apricot and Lentil Courgette Roundels

13 October 2022

It’s that in-between time of year as the nights grow longer and thoughts turn towards more substantial meals after a long summer of salads and lighter fare. The last of the seasonal vegetables such as tomatoes and courgettes are perfect for stuffing and baking in the oven, making a bridge between summery salads and the heartier soups and stews of winter that are coming up.

Apricot and lentil courgette roundels drizzled with pomegranate sauce and served with a seasonal salad

We stuffed some courgettes with a mixture of red lentils, apricots, tomato, onion, bulgur wheat and lemon juice to make a versatile roundel that can be served as part of a main course or eaten on its own as a meze, a fully vegan alternative to the sausage roll!

Apricot and lentil courgette roundel – a vegan alternative to the sausage roll?

The autumn fruit is at its best at the moment, and we’ve added some pear and pomegranate to an autumnal red cabbage, carrot, celery and radish salad to accompany these apricot and lentil courgette roundels to make a great lunch or supper. By adding a jacket potato, you can make it into a more filling main course.

Ingredients (makes enough mixture for 10-12 roundels)

Three medium sized courgettes
100 g red lentils
50 g dried apricots (or four fresh apricots if available)
One small red onion (approx 75 g)
One medium tomato (approx 100 g)
50 g fine bulgur wheat
25 ml olive oil
200 ml vegetable stock
Juice of half a lemon
One teaspoon cumin seeds
One teaspoon red chilli flakes
Black pepper to taste

Method

Cut the dried apricots into eight pieces and soak in hot water for at least 30 minutes. While the apricots are soaking, heat the oil in a heavy based pan and add the cumin seeds. When they start to sizzle, add the finely chopped onion and fry over a medium heat until they start to soften. Grate the tomato into the fried onion and cook over a low heat for five minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
Now add the washed lentils, pour in the stock and stir. Cook over a low heat for 15-20 minutes until most of the water has been absorbed. Add the fine bulgur wheat, mix it in well and leave covered for 15 minutes. Drain the apricots and stir them into the mixture. Add the lemon juice, chilli flakes and black pepper to taste and mix well.
While the lentils are cooking, start to prepare the courgettes by slicing off the ends to make them flat. Cut into 3 cm slices. Gouge out the seeds with a small spoon, leaving a little bit of flesh at the bottom of the roundel.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 c. When the lentil mix is cool, pack it into the courgette roundels and stand them on a baking tray with the filling topmost. Bake at 180 c for 30 minutes or so – the courgette should still be firm and not too squidgy and the lentil mix should rise slightly and be beginning to brown on top.
Serve alongside a salad of red cabbage, carrot, celery, radish, pear and pomegranate and a jacket potato, drizzling pomegranate sauce over the roundels or allow to cool and serve the roundels as a snack on their own.

KCC’s Revolutionary Rhubarb Recipes

25 April 2022

While walking through the market in Samarkand recently we came across tables laden with something we hadn’t seen for quite a while – rhubarb, those colourful stalks that instantly evoke childhood memories of rhubarb crumbles served with custard. In Samarkand, the favoured way to eat the stalks is raw.

It’s a tiring business selling rhubarb in Samarkand

Rhubarb is a classic harbinger of spring, with its short growing season over by summer. Often thought of as a fruit because of its use in puddings, complete with lashings of sugar to counteract its tartness, these stalks are in fact a vegetable.

Rhubarb has a long history in Chinese traditional medicine. It started to be imported into the west, where it was prized for its medicinal properties, along the Silk Roads in the 14th century. Transport costs, along with its popularity and relative scarcity, saw it command a higher price than cinnamon, saffron, and opium at one point.

Its high price spurred efforts to localise its cultivation and by the 18th century it was being successfully grown in Europe. The edible stalk’s greater availability, combined with the arrival of affordable sugar, led to it becoming a culinary staple in the world of desserts.

Rhubarb also has its uses in savoury dishes with its sharp flavour adding an interesting note to a lentil dhal. We served our dhal with a fruity plov and some flat bread. Any leftovers can be mixed with chickpea flour to make a fritter as part of an unusual brunch.

Ingredients (makes four servings)

200 g rhubarb
One large onion
150 g red lentils
75 g spinach
25 ml olive oil
500 ml vegetable stock
One teaspoon cumin seeds
One teaspoon cinnamon
One teaspoon red chilli flakes
50 g chickpea flour

Method

Heat the oil and cumin seeds in a heavy-based pan. When the seeds start to sizzle, add the chopped onion. Cook for five minutes over a low heat, stirring occasionally. Add the cinnamon and red chilli flakes and the rhubarb stalk, cut into 1 cm slices – do not use the leaves as these can be bad for your health.
Cook for three minutes over a low heat, stirring occasionally, and then add the washed lentils and the vegetable stock. cook over a low heat for 20 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Stir in the washed spinach and serve hot with rice or flat bread (or both!)
To make rhubarb fritters, mix leftover 200 g dhal with 50 g chickpea flour. Form into eight walnut-sized balls and fry in oil on both sides until starting to brown, flattening with a fish slice as they cook.

Grip Green Shakshuka

9 April 2022

With spring greens making a welcome reappearance, it’s time for a brunch special – green shakshuka, North Africa’s breakfast star.

This dish, usually made with tomatoes and peppers, is originally from Tunisia but has now spread all over the Middle East.

For our spring greens version, we made a bed of cumin fried onions, banana peel, radish leaves and spinach on which to poach some eggs for our sublime, zero waste brunch special.

Ingredients (for two servings)

one medium onion
one banana peel
100 g spinach
50 g radish leaves
four eggs
one teaspoon cumin seeds
one teaspoon chilli powder
25 ml olive oil

Method

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and add the cumin seeds. When they start to pop, add chopped onion and cook for five minutes over a low heat. Add the banana peel (to prepare, use a knife or spoon to scrape off any remaining banana flesh (use this in a cake, smoothie or banana bread) and then slice the peel into 1 mm strips).
Stir fry for another five minutes and then add the chopped radish leaves and three minutes later add the washed and chopped spinach. Cook until the spinach starts to wilt.
Make a depression in the mix and pour an egg into it, repeat with the other eggs, sprinkle chilli powder over the eggs put, put a lid on and steam until the eggs are set

Nauryz Noodles

21 March 2022

Happy Nauryz – the day of the Spring Equinox that marks the start of the new year in some parts of Asia. it’s a big celebration in Central Asia with a focus on things coming back to life after the long winter months. This year we’ve made some green noodles inspired by shivit oshi – dill noodles from Khiva, Uzbekistan, to mark the coming of spring.

As you may recall, here on KCC we’re not huge fans of dill, aka the devil’s weed, so we replaced it with spinach to give our noodles their distinctive green colour. We served our noodles with an orange and green stir fry made from pumpkin, carrots, spring onions, beansprouts and broccoli.

Shivit Oshi – dill noodles in Khiva, Uzbekistan

We washed our Nauryz noodles down with some Turan Tiger beer as a nod to the year of the tiger.

Ingredients (makes four servings)

For the noodles

300 g plain flour
100 ml water
40 ml olive oil
120 g spinach

For the stir fry

100 g spring onion
300 g pumpkin
200 g carrot
300 g broccoli
200 g beansprouts
50 ml olive oil
20 ml soy sauce
Two teaspoons cumin seeds

Method

For the noodles

Pour boiling hot water over the washed spinach leaves and leave for one minute. Drain and then cover with cold water. Drain again and put in a blender with the water and blend to a smooth paste.
Stir the oil into the flour and then add the blended spinach. Mix well and knead the dough. Make sure it is neither too sticky (add more flour if so) or too crumbly (add more liquid if so). Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
Roll the dough to 1 mm thickness on a lightly floured surface. Fold the dough over three or four times and then cut off 2 mm slices and pull out the noodles by hand.
Cook in a pot of boiling water for five minutes – taste to check that the noodles have the texture that you prefer (e.g. al dente or softer). Drain and serve immediately.

For the stir fry

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and add the cumin seeds. When the seed begin to pop, add the chopped spring onions and stir fry over a medium heat. Add the pumpkin, cut into 1 cm cubes and stir fry for five minutes.
Next add the broccoli and stir fry for another five minutes over a medium heat. Add the grated carrot and beansprouts along with the soy sauce and cook for a few more minutes. Serve on a bed of noodles.