Saltah

01 / ABOUT THE DISH

About the dish

Saltah is the national dish of Yemen, a hearty stew usually eaten for lunch. It can be prepared with or without meat. The key ingredients in saltah are hilbeh, a condiment based on fenugreek, and zhug, a condiment consisting of chillies, oil, cumin, garlic and coriander. Hilbeh and zhug are added to the brown stew that often contains lamb or chicken meat, if used at all. It is quite likely that the dish is of Turkish origin when it was made from leftover ingredients. Common accompaniments to saltah include rice, tomato, potatoes, vegetables and scrambled eggs, and saltah is traditionally served piping hot in a metal or stone bowl and eaten with Yemeni flatbread that can serve as a utensil to scoop up the food.