Kuwait – Traditional Margoog (Meat and Vegetable Stew)

by Fariha Saeed

About the dish

Usually stew are cooked on low heat. Margoog is a stew which is made with meat, vegetables and pasta. The combination of meat and vegetables with pasta and gravy tastes so delicious together. The meat is cooked on low heat so it can absorb all the flavors of spices. The vegetables are really soft and pasta is really good. The texture of meat is tender, juicy and soft so when you take bite it melts in your mouth. The vegetables are soft. The texture of pasta is a little chewy and the gravy is really thick and flavorful. You can have this as a lunch or dinner. You can find this anywhere in Kuwait. This is so famous around the world. When you take a bite of it the first thing you taste is the thick gravy, and then tender meat with soft vegetables and chewy pasta. There are two ways you can serve this with:

• You can serve this with a thin flat bread
• You can serve this by adding the stew on the top of bread and then bake it.

You can serve this at special events. You can serve this to the guests to impress them. The important thing about the dish is you have to cook this dish on low heat. If you cook this on high heat the dish will burn. Most of the stew do not have pasta in it so it is optional if you do not like pasta you can skip this but if you like pasta you can add this. Margoog is one the famous dishes of Kuwait. All the people should try this once in their life. This is the specialty of Kuwait. The flavor of this stew is very different from others because it contain squash and eggplant.

Nutrition list

• calories 180
• fat 6 g
• protein 14 g
• carbohydrates 102

Ingredients of the stew

• 1 kg lamb (cubes)
• 1 cup oil
• 2 small onions (chopped)
• 1 tomato (chopped)
• 1 egg plant ( cubes)
• 2 carrot (chopped)
• 1 zucchini (thin long pieces)
• 1 potato (cubes)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. red chili
• 1/4 tbsp. turmeric
• 5 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 kg pasta (boiled)
• 2 star anise
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• 1 cup yogurt

Cooking

Take a pan and add oil, onions and tomatoes in it and turn the flame medium. Sauté it for 15 minutes. Now add eggplant, carrot, zucchini and potatoes and again sauté it for 15 minutes. Now take a large pot and add oil and lamb in it and fry it until the meat turns white then add the lemon juice and yogurt and again fry it.

Now take a pan and add salt, red chili, black pepper, turmeric and star anise and roast the spices a little bit and then add this in the cooking pot and mix well. Now add all the vegetable mixture in the cooking pot and mix well. Now add the pasta in it and mix it for 5 minutes.

Now cover the lid for 10 minutes and let it cook. After 10 minutes the stew is ready.