Molokhia substitute

Best substitute

Frozen or Dried Molokhia

Use the same amount by weight frozen; 1 cup dried per 2 cups broth as the molokhia you are replacing

Best for the real dish

Close match

The same plant in the form most cooks actually use, including in Egypt.

Other molokhia substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Okra plus Spinach
Different taste
half okra, half spinach, by weight
The best engineered swap, because it splits molokhia's two jobs between two vegetables.
What changes
Best for
molokhia soup with chicken, beef or rabbit, getting the right thickness, when no Middle Eastern shop is nearby
For a pound of molokhia use about half a pound of thinly sliced okra and half a pound of spinach, and simmer until the okra collapses. You get real slipperiness and roughly the right body. The flavour is sweeter and more distinctly okra, and the texture is chunkier unless you blitz it briefly with a stick blender.
3Spinach Alone
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
The answer most recipes give, and the one that only solves half the problem.
What changes
Best for
when okra is unavailable too, a quick green soup, children and cautious eaters
Spinach has no mucilage, so the broth stays thin and the soup tastes like seasoned spinach water rather than molokhia. If you go this route, thicken separately: about one teaspoon of cornstarch slurried in cold water per two cups of broth, added at the end. Also cook it briefly, since spinach collapses in two minutes.
4Malabar Spinach
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
A thick-leaved climbing green that is genuinely a little mucilaginous when cooked.
What changes
Best for
getting some natural thickening from a leaf, Asian and African grocers where it is common, summer, when it is in season
The best of the leafy greens for this job, because it does slightly thicken the broth on its own. It is milder and juicier than molokhia and never reaches the same viscosity, so a spoonful of okra alongside it closes the gap. The stems are tough; strip the leaves off.
5Purslane
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Succulent, faintly sour and faintly slippery, which is closer to molokhia than most greens get.
What changes
Best for
farmers markets and Turkish grocers, where it is cheap, adding a lemony edge, smaller batches
Genuinely slick when cooked and pleasantly tart, so it fits the dish better than spinach does. It is rarely sold in the quantity a pot of molokhia needs, and it never thickens as much, so treat it as a good partial swap rather than a full one.
6Amaranth Leaves or Callaloo
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Closer to molokhia in flavour than spinach is: earthier, more mineral, faintly bitter.
What changes
Best for
African and Caribbean grocers, flavour accuracy over texture, stews rather than thin soups
The taste is a good match, which is worth a lot, but there is no slipperiness at all, so the soup will be thin unless you add okra or a starch slurry. They are sturdier than spinach and want five to ten minutes rather than two.
7Swiss Chard or Beet Greens
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
The supermarket fallback, chosen for flavour rather than for any resemblance in texture.
What changes
Best for
when only ordinary supermarket greens are available, hearty green stews, using up leaves you already have
Earthier and more mineral than molokhia, sturdier so they need eight to ten minutes, and no thickening whatsoever. Strip out the thick ribs or chop them fine and start them earlier. Add a starch slurry if you want any body at all.

What is Molokhia?

Molokhia is the leaf of the jute mallow plant, spelled variously mulukhiyah, molokheya or molokhiya, called ewedu in Nigeria and saluyot in the Philippines, and sold in English as jute leaves or Egyptian spinach, and its defining property is that it releases mucilage into hot broth and turns the soup thick and slippery.

Cooking tips

Do not skip the ta'leya. Frying a lot of thinly sliced garlic with ground coriander in ghee or oil until fragrant, then pouring it hissing into the pot at the end, is what most people actually recognise as the taste of molokhia. Do this even when you are using a substitute, and it will carry the dish.
Never boil molokhia hard or for long once it is in the broth. Extended boiling breaks the mucilage and the pot separates into watery stock and green sludge. Two to five minutes at a bare simmer is enough.
Frozen blocks go into the hot broth still frozen and are broken up with a spoon as they melt. Thawing them first makes them watery and stringy.
The stock is doing at least half the work. Chicken, beef or rabbit broth, properly seasoned, is why the soup tastes rich; a molokhia made with water tastes thin no matter which leaf you used.
Serve it with lemon wedges and a splash of vinegar on the table. The acid cuts the slipperiness and is how it is normally eaten, and it also rescues a version made with a substitute that has come out flat.
If you dislike the slippery texture, the answer is not to swap the leaf but to blend the soup smooth and serve it as a thick green puree over rice.

Frequently asked questions

Is molokhia the same as spinach?

No. Egyptian spinach is a nickname, not a botanical fact, and it is misleading here. Molokhia is jute mallow, and unlike spinach it releases mucilage when it hits hot liquid, which thickens the broth into the slippery consistency the dish is known for. Spinach gives you green colour and no body at all.

Can I use okra instead of molokhia?

Okra is the closest thing texturally, because it thickens the same way. On its own it tastes distinctly of okra and gives you a stew rather than a soup of leaves, so the better version is okra plus spinach, roughly half and half, simmered until the okra collapses. Blitz it briefly with a stick blender if you want the finer texture of real molokhia.

Why is my molokhia slimy, and how do I make it less so?

The slipperiness is the point of the dish, not a fault, and it comes from the mucilage in the leaves. If you want less of it, add more acid, since a good squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar at the table cuts the sensation noticeably, and serve it over rice or bread. Do not try to boil it out, because long boiling ruins the soup instead of thinning it.

Can I just leave it out?

Not if molokhia soup is the dish, since it is the only ingredient that is not stock, garlic or meat. What you can do is make a different soup on purpose: a garlicky chicken broth with spinach or chard, finished with the same fried garlic and coriander, is a good meal and honest about what it is.

Is dried molokhia as good as frozen?

Frozen is better, and it is what most Egyptian cooks use. Dried leaves are darker, more bitter and thicken the broth less, though they store indefinitely and are the only option in some places. Rehydrate about one cup of dried leaves in two cups of hot broth for ten minutes before adding them, and be ready to compensate for the bitterness with extra lemon.

Is ewedu the same as molokhia, and do the same substitutes work?

Same leaf, different kitchen. Ewedu is the Nigerian, mainly Yoruba, preparation of jute mallow, cooked down to a loose green puree and traditionally worked smooth with a short broom called an ijabe, then served alongside amala and gbegiri. Egyptian molokhia is the same leaf chopped very fine and finished with a garlic and coriander ta'leya. Because you are replacing the same plant doing the same job, the substitutes are identical: frozen chopped jute leaf from an African, Arab or Turkish grocer is the real answer, and sliced okra with spinach roughly half and half covers both the draw and the greenness if you cannot get it. For ewedu specifically, lean a little harder on the okra, since the Nigerian version is meant to be noticeably drawing, and season with iru or locust beans rather than the Egyptian garlic-and-coriander route.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Molokhia substitute

Other molokhia substitutes

2Okra plus Spinach

3Spinach Alone

4Malabar Spinach

5Purslane

6Amaranth Leaves or Callaloo

7Swiss Chard or Beet Greens