Oman: vegan madrouba

It is time to head back to West Asia and pay a visit to Oman and cook a vegan madrouba. After a brief blogging break, we are ready to leave Burundi and our beans and bananas, cross the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden to land back on the Arabian Peninsula. Here in Oman, we cook a vegan version of madrouba, a crushed rice dish full of warm species. Read on to learn more about Omani cuisine or jump straight to the recipe.

Oman is a country on the tip of the Arabic peninsula, neighbouring the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The country has a long history as a seafaring nation and an important link in the trade routes between the east and west ​[1]​.

Omani cuisine

Omani cuisine shows the country’s history as a trading and seafaring country. Many dishes are based on preserved ingredients such as dried limes and dried or salted fish and meat ​[1], [2]​. The long history of trading has brought South Asian influences which have combined with Arabic and Bedouine recipes based around rice and meat. Fish is also a big part of Omani cooking as are bread and yoghurt.

Omani dishes

Many Omani dishes are based around rice. You can find variations of biryani – spiced rice often mixed with meat like chicken, maqbous – saffron flavoured rice cooked over your protein, and aursia – a type of mashed rice with spices ​[2]–[4]​. The Omani cuisine is also full of bread ranging in complexity, from simple to elaborate ones flavoured with dates, sesame or thyme ​[2]​. The Omani people also enjoy thin, soft ragag flatbreads that are similar to crepes or thin pancakes. If this sounds familiar, it might be because we already cooked these flatbreads when we visited Oman’s northern neighbour, the United Arab Emirates.

Omani coffee, or kahwa, sounds like a great experience as well. Lightly roasted coffee beans are ground with cardamom and brewed into coffee, served piping hot ​[1], [2]​. Sometimes a dash of rose water is added to the coffee and it is almost always served with dates on the side.

When researching dishes for this blog post, one dish that stood out as extra interesting was madrouba, a mashed rice porridge full of warm spices.

Madrouba

Madrouba (also spelled mathrooba and madhrooba) is a rice porridge that is popular in Oman and the neighbouring countries ​​[5]–[7]​​. In Oman, the dish is made using rice but in nearby countries like Qatar, cracked wheat (jareesh) are used instead ​[1], [3]​. For the Omani madrouba, rice is boiled for a long time along with tomatoes, onion, garlic and a range of fragrant spices such as turmeric, cardamom, coriander, cumin and cinnamon ​[8]–[10]​. In the original recipe, chicken is boiled to disintegration as well. At the end of the long cooking time, the dish is mashed using a potato masher or immersion blender to create a puré or porridge (which has been described as having a baby food like-texture ​[5]​). Some recipes include fresh herbs like parsley and coriander ​[8]​ and some also include bell peppers ​[11]​. One of the many flavours included is black limes or loomi, which we encountered when cooking Persian ghormeh sabzi in my very first blog post ​[8]–[10]​. Madrouba is often finished off with some oil or ghee ​[8]–[10]​ and can be topped with fresh limes or fried onions ​[8], [9]​.

Vegan madrouba recipe

In traditional madrouba, chicken is boiled in water for an hour or so and then shredded before being added back to the finished rice. The rice and chicken are then mashed together, obliterating most traces of either. To replace chicken in this dish, I considered this finely shredded, mashed or almost even pureed texture. The replacement I decided on was chickpeas and red lentils. Boiling chickpeas for a long time and then mashing them creates a bit of a chunky texture while cooking red lentils for a long time yields a soluble mush. In the one vegan madrouba recipe I managed to find online, by One Arab Vegan, lentils were used as the protein, and quinoa was used instead of rice ​[5]​. (Side note: I love adding red lentils boiled to destruction to different dishes to thicken them and add some extra protein. In our go-to lentil Bolognese, we use both green and red lentils to provide two different texture elements: mushy red lentils and firmer green lentils.)

Other vegan chicken replacements you can try for your vegan madrouba are stringy textures like the classic jack fruit ​[12]​, oyster mushrooms ​[13]​ or king oyster mushrooms ​[14]​ torn into shreds using a fork. In this dish, the real hero is the spices so a simple skipping a protein replacement also works without losing too much.

Dried limes or loomi

Madrouba gets some of its flavour from dried lime, or loomi. These limes have been dried in the sun which causes their colour to change. The loomi contribute a very strong citrus peel flavour and slight bitterness to the dish. You can find these in the spice section of many middle eastern stores. They are sold both whole and ground.

In the past, I have substituted loomi for lime zest and some fresh lime juice. It works but it is not quite the same. Alternatively, you can try to find another dried bitter citrus fruit such as bitter oranges.

Conclusion

The madrouba tasted great. Full of warm spices and great flavours. The dish was very easy to make, pretty much just boil everything for a while. I was surprised by how much food this recipe made. I aimed to make two servings but the long cooking time and the large amount of water made the rice swell a lot, creating a very large volume of food. Not more calories but much more filling than I expected.

Regarding the dried limes, during my research, I found several recipes using powdered dried limes and one recipe that discarded the peel and just used the dried lime flesh. Instead of buying powdered dried lime, I tested this second approach. I don’t think it mattered much and next time I will use the loomi whole (which I usually do and a few madrouba recipes are doing).

This vegan madrouba is a simple and flavourful one-pot meal with cupboard items and I will make it again.

Vegan madrouba

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Vegan madrouba

This vegan madrouba recipe reimagines an Omani classic where rice and spices are boiled for a long time before being mashed to create a rice porridge.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Arabic, Oman

Keyword porridge, rice

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 200 mL long grained white rice such as basmati
• 50 mL red lentils
• 100 mL cooked chickpeas
• 4 tbsp oil, such as canola see note
• ¼ onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tomato, diced
• 2 whole dried limes see note
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• cayenne pepper to taste
• salt to taste

Toppings (optional)

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• ¼ onion, thinly sliced
• fresh lime wedges

Instructions

• For the dried limes, cut them open and tear out the dark, soft flesh. Discard seeds and shells. Chop coarsely and add to the pot.
• Put a large pot on medium to high heat. Add 2-3 tbsp canola oil.

  Fry the diced onion until it starts to brown.
• Add garlic and ginger and stir until soft and fragrant.
• Add the diced tomato and all the spices, including dried limes or zest.
• Stir in the rice, lentils and chickpeas. Add 600 mL water and bring to a simmer.
• Let the rice simmer at a low temperature for 40-60 minutes. Stir frequently and add more water as needed. I ended up using 1200 mL total.
• Meanwhile, fry the thinly sliced onion until dark brown.
• When the rice is soft and starting to fall apart, finish the dish by mashing the rice with a potato masher.
• Optional: stir in some olive oil.
• Serve the dish hot and top with the fried onions and maybe some fresh lime wedges.

Notes

Dried limes: dried limes can be found among the spices in many Middle Eastern grocery stores. If you can’t find them, you can substitute with lime zest and a bit of lime juice.

References