Zhug does not have the most appetising name and I’m not even 100% sure how to pronounce it, but it has been on my ‘to make’ list for a long time. Zhug (or zhoug) is a spicy green sauce from Yemen and is normally used over meats and vegetables. I love Middle Eastern food perhaps more than any other (Indian food comes a close second), and I’m often on the hunt for new recipes to make. Luckily I found one in my Royal Marsden Cancer Cookbook – an invaluable resource when I was having my cancer treatment last year, and one which continues to provide me with fantastic recipes.
Do you ever find that when you buy fresh herbs you either get not enough or a whole bunch that you’d never use in a month? I’m fortunate to have a Turkish supermarket in walking distance where I can get fresh herbs very cheaply, but they’re always in such huge quantities. I read that the amount of food people waste is high at the moment, thanks to the stockpiling and panic buying of the past few weeks, and in my ongoing quest to reduce our household food waste I decided to make zhug to put an over-excess of fresh coriander to good use.
It couldn’t have been easier to make: I just whacked everything into my food processor and it was done in seconds.
I used it on top of some veggie burgers and it was so delicious my husband couldn’t quite believe it. I’m so excited to see what we use the rest of it for – I don’t think this will be the last time I make zhug!
New Day, New Thing 