Persian Baked Egg Dish (Kuku) Recipe
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Closely related to an Arab eggah and a distant relative to the Italian frittata, kuku is a simple yet elegant dish. It takes ingredients familiar to most Westerners (spinach, cilantro, cumin, cardamom) and combines them for a decidedly Persian flavor. If you’ve thought Persian food is too exotic for your tastes, consider this a starter dish. And if you are already a fan of the cuisine, serve this with salad or yogurt or eat it on its own for your next culinary adventure.
What to buy:
In a traditional kuku, the Persian herb mixture known as advieh is used. Advieh is a blend of numerous herbs, the most common of which are cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, and dried rose petals. Instead of having you search it out, we approximated the flavor by leaving out the dried rose petals and using ingredients you probably already have in your spice drawer.
Learn more about Persian food.
This recipe was featured as part of our Supercharge with Superfoods photo gallery.
- Clarified butter or vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
- 1 packed cup finely chopped spinach (about 3 ounces)
- 1 medium leek, white and pale green parts only, halved lengthwise, rinsed, and thinly sliced crosswise
- 1/3 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
- 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
- 18 large eggs
- Heat the oven to 325°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Coat a 13-by-9-inch baking dish with clarified butter or vegetable oil; set aside.
- Mix together salt, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, and pepper in a large bowl until evenly combined. Add spinach, leek, parsley, and cilantro and mix until evenly coated.
- In a second large bowl, whisk eggs until yolks are broken up. Pour egg mixture over greens and mix until evenly combined.
- Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake until firm in the center, about 25 to 30 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes. Slice into 8 to 12 pieces and serve warm or cold.
Beverage pairing: Bodegas 1+1=3 Brut Cava, Spain. A complex-tasting dish like this needs a wine that won’t stand in its way. The bubbles and acid of this dry cava lift the heaviness of the eggs, while its clean, brisk flavors don’t obscure the spices.
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I agree with Bio2. Kuku isn't an egg dish, its a vegetable dish with egg being used as the binding agent. And while I suppose you could use spinach, the more traditional kuku sabzi (at least as far as my family is concerned) would be a combination of parsley, cilantro, dill, and scallions - no spinach. Walnuts or barberries are optional (I actually prefer it without - but many people love them). And please, please don't make it in a square brownie dish - kuku should be round :)
Im iranian and let me say say that this is not the original recipe or at least close to original recipe. for a more authentic recipe do this:
Add no cardamom or cumin only cinnamon is enough.
use any vegetable you want, ( my mom never used leeks).
add some Walnuts and Burberry (I love this part). one of the main ingredient is Tareh which is a type vegetable that only grows in iran. it`s similar to chives. I also personally love to use lots of dill in the recipe.
The original food is based on grinded or crushed vegetables and called Kuku Sabzi (Sabzi means vegetables). So it is not an egg food but egg is used as a helper.
No baking powder needed at all (just flour) , since mixing will with eggs let the air in and makes it pure fluffy.
Instead of Veggies, Potatos can be used, called (kuku sibzamini) or eggplants.
Advieh is not a spice it is the (persian/arabic) word for spice.
A very lucrative (and expensive) variant of this food is just using juice and mixing with eggs ( no pulps).
Also small pieces of walnut and barberries makes it tastier and full of antioxidants.
erat2009: thanks for the tip!
This recipe doesn't add any baking powder. Baking powder is needed to make the kuku rise when baking; that why it looks so flat in the picture. Just a tip.
Whatever you call it, or wherever it's from, it looks delicious. Can we please just focus on the food instead of nitpicking the semantics? At any rate, this reminds me of a different (dare I say "exotic"?) version of the "spinach brownies" or "collard squares" that are making the food-blog rounds these days. I have bookmarked and will try this one soon.
Every friend or acquaintance born and raised in Iran has decidedly preferred to call themselves "Persian" which refers to an ethnic group of people (similar ancestors and culture). The Persians in Iran are only part of the entire group of Perisans, who also live in Afganistan for eg.
Forgive me if this is culturally insensitive but why is this "Persian" and not "Iranian"? If you eat Persian food then do you go to a Thai restaurant and order Siamese food too?
When I hear references to Persian-whatever in a modern context I wonder if the speaker just thinks I'm a bigot who would mindlessly recoil from any reference to Iran. Is there more to it than that?
It sounds very simlar to the french food called " Quiche ". Except that in Quiche one should put a tiny layer of flour based dough at the buttom of the oven plate before pouring everything on it.
This was very close to a recipe that is used in a fantastic Persian restaurant in Louisville, KY called Saffrons. I used to hover in the kitchen, trying the recipes at home and adding my own ingredients.
Large whole shrimp are a lovely addition, layered in the middle, baking up tender and juicy. Sweetly juxtaposes the aromatic herbs and spices. I serve it at brunch with spicy sesame oven roasted sweet potatoes and a green salad or fruit. Yum! Minted yogurt is nice drizzled over it as well.
I will try your recipe. Have gone to Persopolis Restaurant in Manhattan? It is very good and reasonably priced.