Pasta Starring Molokhia: Ryuji Turns a "Vegetable Nobody Knows How to Cook" into a Full Meal

On this day, A-ko, the staff member who usually joins in the banter, had a sore throat and could barely speak. The cause was singing every song alone at karaoke, not a cold. So another staff member was hastily brought in as the "voice," trading back-and-forth with Ryuji as the cooking went on. A-ko likes molokhia and kept eating in silence during the tasting.

Ryuji introduces molokhia as a vegetable so nutritious it's called "the king of vegetables." Yet most people only use it in soup or ohitashi. The staff member had the same impression and said they had never eaten molokhia pasta. Ryuji has hardly eaten it either.

The recipe started with a TV show. The show asked Ryuji to use molokhia, and when Ryuji asked why, the answer was "because it's unpopular and nobody wants to eat it." So Ryuji made molokhia ramen, and the cast was moved by it. Ryuji's reasoning: if you can make it into soup, you can make it into ramen, and if you can make it into ramen, you can make it into pasta. Actually making it turned out to be delicious, and that is the starting point for this video. Ryuji also said that pasta goes with just about anything, to the point that it makes you wonder what can't be made into pasta.

According to Ryuji, molokhia appears in stores from around June to July, when the weather warms up. Ryuji believes it's still unpopular because people don't know how to cook it.

Ryuji emphasizes how well molokhia and garlic go together. The "Cleopatra's soup" made previously on this channel was also a garlic and molokhia soup. It's based on a soup eaten in Egypt and contains plenty of garlic. This time, Ryuji uses 2 cloves of garlic for two servings. Because molokhia itself is delicious, the pasta is kept simple.

About 80g of bacon is used, cut thick rather than thinly sliced. Ryuji jokingly gave the reason as "because A-ko likes it," but also acknowledged that it gives the dish a nice chunky texture. Instead of bacon, tuna, leftover pork, ground meat or thinly sliced chicken are fine too.

One bunch of molokhia (about 80g) is used in its entirety. Ryuji says the more molokhia, the better. It rarely has dirt on it, but wash it once just in case.

The stems are edible too, and their texture is nice. Slice the stems finely into small rounds. For pasta, the leaves should also be chopped finely, with almost a pounding motion. This is the laborious part of the recipe, and also the key point, because pounding brings out a strong stickiness. A food processor isn't bad if you find it a hassle, but since pounding is what brings out the stickiness, Ryuji says the way you pound it matters. Ryuji also said many people were probably surprised the first time they bought and chopped it, when it suddenly became sticky.

When the staff member saw the chopped molokhia and said "I want to eat it like this with soy sauce and Ajinomoto," Ryuji replied "then the video would be over," drawing laughs. It was also mentioned that it's tasty quickly boiled and eaten with natto.

There was a bit of discussion about whether to use 1.8mm pasta or go al dente, and al dente won out. Ryuji's explanation: adding molokhia gives the sauce a strong thickness. Viscous liquids cling well to pasta, so there's no need to do anything special with the pasta. Since the sauce coating the outside is slippery, slightly firm pasta suits it. They used the sponsor's "Spaghetti That's Delicious Al Dente," which both Ryuji and the staff member said was good.

Add salt to the boiling water at about 1% salinity. This is to season the pasta itself, and Ryuji stressed to be sure to add it. The package boiling time is 8 minutes, but to get it al dente, aim for 7 to 7½ minutes; in practice it was taken out at 7 minutes, 1 minute short.

Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the garlic and bacon. What Ryuji repeatedly called important here is letting the garlic get slightly browned. Molokhia inevitably has a grassy smell, and the toasty aroma of garlic softens it. The bacon can also be browned quite a bit, and Ryuji said "brown it this much" several times.

Add all the chopped molokhia, sauté lightly, and add 100cc of water (for two servings). Many people add pasta cooking water at this point, but since the cooking water contains salt, it tends to get too salty. That's why using water is the key point, Ryuji explained. Once the water goes in, it thickens right away and turns gloopy. Ryuji called this "the power of molokhia."

For umami, add 2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon powder. Cleopatra's soup also gets chicken umami from something like consommé, so it's the same idea. For one serving, just halve everything. There's no need to simmer; 2 to 3 minutes of heat and it's done, then turn the heat down. Molokhia isn't inedible raw, but Ryuji says it's not really eaten raw. Since the stems are finely chopped, they keep a crisp texture.

Garlic and molokhia provide enough aroma, so black pepper can be added if you want, but Ryuji says it's delicious without it. The thinking is that if you're eating molokhia, you want to fully savor the molokhia, so nothing extra goes in.

Finally, add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce. Just as you pour soy sauce over ohitashi, soy sauce suits molokhia, and a little adds depth. At 1 teaspoon, it's purely a hidden seasoning.

Just before the pasta is done, add about 2 small ladles of pasta water to the sauce. This is to match the pasta's saltiness while adjusting the moisture; if there's too little liquid, the molokhia ends up sticking to the pasta.

Add the pasta, boiled for 7 minutes, to the frying pan and toss with the heat on to emulsify (mantecare). To finish, drizzle 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil around the pan. It's one you can buy at Kaldi for under 1,000 yen, with a nice olive aroma. Showing off the sauce's stickiness, Ryuji tasted a bite and added a little salt. Saying that the freshness of pepper suits it too, Ryuji ended up adding a fair amount after all. Seeing the vivid green of the finished dish, the staff member said it was "a color that looks good for your body."

At the tasting, Ryuji and the staff member kept saying "delicious." The staff member said the thickness was great and wanted to eat every bit of the sauce left on the plate.

Ryuji explained that the reason it's so good is that molokhia's thickness wraps up the oil and everything else, and that clings to every single strand of pasta. The staff member remarked that even though the whole thing, stems included, is used, it isn't bothersome, and when finely chopped, the crunch becomes just the right texture.

For a change of flavor, a little "Majisco" was drizzled on to make it spicy. That works too. The staff said things like "it's this delicious and yet it's an unpopular ingredient?", "it'd be a restaurant's signature dish," and "it would hold up at a pasta shop." Ryuji called it "Hall of Fame" material, adding that it's packed with molokhia, nutritious, and good for you while still being delicious. As for A-ko with the sore throat, Ryuji joked that the thickness makes it good for the throat, sort of.

Prefacing it by saying this video probably won't get many views, Ryuji rated it as quite high among recent pastas and one of the very tastiest of Ryuji's own pastas. Ryuji also says that once you eat it, you'll definitely want to buy molokhia whenever it's in stores.

In between cooking steps, Ryuji talks about the intent behind introducing this recipe. The channel updates daily, and viewers watch every day. Ryuji has put out many pork and chicken breast recipes, but not many recipes with vegetables as the star. Molokhia on its own only makes a side dish, but as pasta, it becomes a full meal. If you remember this recipe, you'll be able to buy molokhia without hesitation when it's cheap. So Ryuji really wants people to learn this pasta. The staff member agreed that it's hard to pick up ingredients you're not used to cooking with.

To wrap up, Ryuji said that molokhia is probably a vegetable that doesn't even make it onto people's shopping lists unless they know how to cook it. Ryuji then said they want to keep featuring vegetables that are unpopular but very delicious.