Kuku Sabzi
Nowruz Mubarak and a frittata that's mostly greens
I’ve always loved the Iranian New Year, Nowruz. It is celebrated on the spring equinox which seems more fitting than a random day in January. It is figuratively and literally a time of rebirth. We are shaking off winter and looking forward to longer days with more sunshine. Trees blossom, bulbs start poking their little greens out of the ground. It is a time to set intentions and say goodbye to anything that you don’t want to carry into the new year with you, and clean your home and buy new clothes to have a fresh start.
It is also a time to eat lots of greens. The traditional Nowruz meal is usually a combination of sabzi polo ba mahi (herbed rice pilaf and fish), ashteh reshteh (noodle and bean soup with herbs usually eaten the last Wednesday eve before the new year), mast-o khiar (yogurt with cucumber), sweets, and Kuku sabzi of course.
Kuku sabzi is a mountain of herbs barely held together with a few eggs. Sometimes it also has chopped walnuts and tiny tart barberries. The exact proportions and mix of the herbs is flexible, but parsley, cilantro, dill, and leeks or scallions are the most common. I like to add a bit of mature, not baby, spinach to balance the herbs, but you could substitute Swiss chard or kale or leave it out entirely. Kuku is a great way to both stretch your eggs and eat a lot of greens.
Herbs are the main event, not a garnish. When you are shopping you want to buy big, glorious bunches of herbs, definitely not those little plastic packs with 3 sprigs of cilantro or parsley or dill. International markets and farmer’s markets usually have the best prices and the biggest bunches, btw.
Purists would say that you must chop the herbs by hand, but I will confess that I almost always use a food processor to chop the herbs. It is easy to chop the veggies too small with the food processor, so make sure to stop pulsing before the mixture is pureed. You want the herbs to feel loose and dry not wet and sticky.
Purists would also say that you had to flip the Kuku and brown both sides in the pan, much like a Spanish tortilla, but I have never had good luck with flipping it so I use the oven to set the top. Much less stressful if you ask me!
Kuku is delicious pretty much any time of day, either on its own or with pickles, yogurt, bread, and feta. I like it best warm or room temperature, wrapped in flatbread with feta and cucumber. The leftovers are excellent too. Nowruz Mubarak!