Collard greens are a staple in Middle Eastern cooking, especially in Lebanon, where they’re often used interchangeably with grape leaves. Collard greens stuffed with a mix of rice, meat, and warm spices and cooked slowly to achieve a tender texture are known locally as silik mahshi in Arabic. Fortunately, there’s also a tasty vegan version that’s just as good!
Don’t toss those tough stalks that are a challenge to roll! In a display of culinary resourcefulness, they can be transformed into a flavorful dip known as mutabal silik, which translates to collard dip. Mutabal silik is a beloved Lebanese dip that will win over even the most ardent collard skeptics.
This dip fits right into the tradition of using lemon, garlic, and tahini as a base for many Middle Eastern dips, including hummus, baba ghanoush, beetroot dip, and white bean dip. Specifically, collard dip contains six ingredients: cooked collard stems, lemon juice, tahini, salt, garlic, and olive oil. It’s simple to prepare and is great as a light meal or a side dish. Serve with warm pita or as part of an appetizer spread of small plates.
Ingredients
- •450 grams (1 pound) collard stalks, roughly chopped
- •2.5 ml (1/2 teaspoon) sugar
- •1 large garlic clove, crushed
- •71 ml (1/3 cup) tahini
- •59 ml (1/4 cup) freshly squeezed lemon juice
- •5 ml (1 teaspoon) salt, or to taste
- •Extra virgin olive oil
Preparation
- 1. Place the stalks in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, add the sugar, and cook uncovered for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain to remove the excess liquid.2. Transfer the collard stalks to a bowl using an immersion blender to process to a rough paste. Add the crushed garlic, tahini, lemon juice and salt, mix well and transfer to a plate.3. Using the back of a spoon, create a well in the middle of the paste. Add some olive oil to the well.Serve with pita bread.
Storage:
The dip can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days.