Kuku
Kuku Sabzi
کوکو سبزی
The pattern above is ornament, not a photograph of the dish.
- Hands-on time
- 25 min
- Cooking time
- 40 min
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Makes
- 4 servings (Estimated)
- Kind
- Kuku
- Where it is eaten
- Popular national dishes of Iran
- Serving
- 250 g
Ingredients
Makes 4 servings
- kuku greens — leek greens, parsley, coriander and dill in roughly equal parts 500 g
- eggs 4 large eggs
- garlic, finely chopped 3 cloves
- walnut kernels, chopped small 2 tbsp
- barberries 1 tbsp
- turmeric 0.5 tsp
- oil 4 tbsp
- salt 0.5 tsp
- black pepper 0.5 tsp
Method
Wash the greens whole and never after chopping — chopped greens washed in water bruise and the کوکو comes out dark. Drain them in a colander, then spread them on a cloth until they are properly dry. Water left between the leaves is the single commonest reason the mixture turns out slack.
Chop the greens fine with a knife rather than a processor. If you do use a machine, pulse it in short bursts — run it continuously and the greens go pasty and weep.
Sauté the chopped greens in a tablespoon of the oil over gentle heat for about five minutes, only until they soften and lose their raw smell. Stop there. Fried too long they darken and turn bitter. Tip them out and let them cool to room temperature.
Soak the barberries in cold water for a few minutes and drain them well. Dry barberries stirred straight into the mixture scorch against the pan.
Beat the eggs on their own with the salt, pepper and turmeric until they are completely smooth and just frothy — that aeration is what gives the کوکو its lift. Stir in the garlic, walnuts and drained barberries.
Only when the greens are properly cool, fold them into the egg. Hot greens set the egg on contact and the mixture looks curdled.
Heat the remaining oil in a non-stick pan until it is properly hot, then pour the mixture in and level the top with the back of a spoon so it is the same thickness everywhere — uneven thickness cooks unevenly. Lower the heat to gentle and cover for the first few minutes; the trapped steam helps the middle set.
Give it fifteen to twenty minutes a side over gentle to medium heat. Wait until the underside has set firmly before turning — turn it early and it breaks up. Cutting it into quarters and turning each piece is easier than flipping the whole thing. It is done when a fork comes out of the centre clean.
Let it cool a little before cutting, or the slices tear. Serve with bread, yoghurt, tomatoes and pickles.
Cook's notes
Sources disagree about how much egg 500 g of greens wants, from three up to five. Four is the middle of that range and the version here. Too little egg and the کوکو crumbles when you cut it; too much and it tastes of omelette rather than herbs.
Several cooks add a tablespoon of wheat flour to bind a loose mixture, and it does work. We have left it out because this dish is otherwise gluten-free and the flour would quietly change that. Drying the greens properly does the same job. If you add it, the dish is no longer gluten-free.
For the oven instead of the pan: 180°C in a greased tin, covered with foil. It uses much less oil and slices more neatly for a table, but you lose the fried crust. Scatter the walnuts and barberries between two layers of the mixture rather than through it, or the ones sitting on the base of the tin burn.
Barberries and walnuts make this the مجلسی version; the plain everyday کوکو has neither. Go easy on the barberries — too many and the whole thing turns sour. Fenugreek, if you use it at all, wants to be a very small part of the greens: it is the usual cause of a bitter کوکو.
We consulted authoritative Persian cooking sources to prepare this recipe. Visit them for more detail and for regional variations of this dish.
Sources consulted:
- Parsiday — طرز تهیه کوکو سبزی حرفهای خوشمزه و مجلسی به روش تهرانی 2026-08-13
- Beytoote — طرز تهیه کوکو سبزی 2026-08-13
- Chi Shi — طرز تهیه کوکو سبزی پفکی خوشمزه و مجلسی به روش رستورانی 2026-08-13
Reviewed: 2026-08-13
Background
This dish belongs to the broader Iranian culinary repertoire and is prepared across the country with family and regional variations. Its cultural identity is tied more to home tables, gatherings, or everyday cooking than to a single local origin.
Nutrition
| Energy | 510 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 25 g |
| Fat | 32 g |
| Carbohydrate | 30 g |
Where this comes from
Official documentation strongly supports the dish or geographic attribution, but all recipe fields are not traceable to one dish-specific official recipe page.
Record: IR0028 · Evidence: B (Officially supported)
Open the source page https://visitiran.ir/fa/type/persian-foods