Unwinding - Mesopotamian Leek Stew
This is one of a few recipes taken from Yale University’s cuneiform tablets, and is a sample from a collection of Babylonian recipes. Its name is pasrutum, and simply translates to “Unwinding”.
(Image credit: Norris, Dana & Wagensonner, Klaus)
Of the collection, this is one of a few vegetarian examples of Babylonian cooking. However, since Babylonia was a relatively well-watered region of the world in antiquity, this is potentially not indicative of Babylonian tastes. Vegetables and fruits would have made up the bulk of people’s diets back then, as it was easy to come by, sustainable, and filling.
Cook along with my video, as you can see below!
15ml / 1 tablespoon olive oil
1-2 whole leeks, finely chopped
150g / 1.5 cups cilantro or parsley, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
500ml / 2 cups broth (chicken or vegetable broth)
100g / 1 cup stale sourdough bread, crumbled
70g / 0.5 cup barley
You’ll first need to prepare a broth or stock for this, so put your 500ml or 2 cups of boiling water into a pot or jug and add your stock cube of choice. In this case I’m going with chicken stock, but you can just as easily go for vegetable stock if you want this to remain a vegetarian dish. Ancient Mesopotamian cooks obviously didn’t have stock cubes back then, but in order to save time, these will do for now. The original recipe simply asks you to “prepare water” which is pretty vague, so this is how I’ll be interpreting this recipe today.
If you want to make vegetable broth yourself, just toss in some aromatics - onions, parsnips, and leek greens - with some spices, like sage, rosemary, and thyme, before stewing them together in a pot for a few hours. strain and then use as a delicious stock for soup in the future!)
Finely chop your leeks into thin slices, and then roughly chop these slices again. Remember, we want everything here to cook at the same rate. There’s nothing worse than biting into a lump of under-cooked leek when enjoying this stew.
In a pot that can fit everything, add your olive oil and heat it over medium heat until it shimmers. Add your chopped leeks and saute them for about 5 minutes, or until they start to turn translucent - but not before they brown entirely! If you see a light fond developing, don’t worry, it will de-glaze after the next step
When the leeks start turning translucent, add the minced garlic, cilantro. However, I’m not a fan of food tasting like soap - so I’m substituting it for parsley - a close analogue. In any case, saute these for another 5 minutes until they smell amazing and fragrant.
Pour your stock mixture into the pot with the rest of the vegetables and scrape up everything off the bottom of the pot, so everything gets incorporated. Turn the heat up to high and wait for it to boil. Once it reaches a rolling boil, turn the heat down low and let it simmer for about 20-25 minutes.
If you want, you could add about a cup of barley to the soup at the same time as the stock. This adds new flavours and textures to the dish, and although it was not mentioned in the original clay tablet recipe, it wouldn’t be totally out of place in the culinary landscape of Mesopotamia!
Step 7 - Plating
Before you serve it up, be sure to pound up some stale sourdough bread into small crumbs and scatter them across the top. I figured this is to add body to the soup, and add a new texture to the dish. Add salt and pepper to the stew to taste. And finally, plate up the stew in a bowl of your choice, garnish with a sprig of cilantro or parsley, and dig in!
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