Lalo (Jute Leaves Legumes)
March 9, 2020
Lalo (jute leaves) is a leaf packed with minerals, vitamins, and anti-oxidants that has an intense green color; it is slightly rough yet a little slimy kind of texture. It is the beloved signature dish of Latibonit (Artibonite) but a lot of people in other regions of Haiti cook this dish, not only Latibonit people.
Lalo is a dish that a lot of people have opinions on, fights have been known to break out during conversations about how to prepare Lalo properly (I’m just kidding, or am I??? LOL). The fights I’ve seen down in some people’s YouTube comments section under Lalo videos is surprising but goes to show how serious of a topic it is for some. Some people feel that they are experts when it comes to preparing these leaves as it isn’t that easy of a task; as I mentioned above it does have a rough texture and requires longer than normal cooking times to get it somewhat softened. I was told by a really good cook in Haiti that you should sprinkle some baking soda in the pot to help soften it up; I didn’t get clear instructions so I wasn’t sure how or when to incorporate it so I didn’t. Next time I make it I will use the baking soda and I’ll update this post.
You can put sliced onions and carrots in it but some people take that as a sign of disrespect, they absolutely hate onions and carrots in lalo,
like despise the look of it because in Haiti they don’t do that, it’s just the dark green leaves. I was told “siw pa mete vyan kochòn ak cirik ou pa fè lalo”, which means “if you don’t put smoked pork and crab then you haven’t made jute leaves” LOL.
Cleaning the meat was not a big challenge, you’re just cutting off fat and you really don’t have to remove all of it (it’s not that serious). If you’re a G (gangsta) buy your crab live and clean it properly, I posted a video on how to clean crab properly as per my mom (she’s been cleaning crab for a long long time). I couldn’t find live crab so I went with the “cleaned crab” that the fish market was selling; I put cleaned crab in quotations cause it is far from clean all they really did was removed the back of the crab. If you buy the so-called cleaned crab make sure you scrape the dirt and sand off of it, remove the mouth bits left behind, the gills, and the guts, and clean with lime halves.
I got my Jute leaves straight from Haiti that’s the
best to use if you can, if you can’t check the frozen section in maybe the Asian markets or Indian markets in your area to see if they have it. It will probably be called Molokhia, I haven’t personally used this but I know people who have and they liked it.
Ok so based off of the tips that seasoned Haitian cooks have given me, here they go…
- You have to chop the leaves up really small.
- If you’re using dried leaves you must refresh them by soaking them overnight.
- Add some baking soda to the water that you’re going to add in the pot with the Lalo (I haven’t tried this yet but I will and report back).
- Add another leaf to it, most people add spinach to it, which is what I did.
- You must must must must add crab and smoked pork!
- Clean your crab thoroughly!
- You have to add a lot of oil to it to get that authentic Lalo look (I don’t make the rules, I just follow them; it is what it is people).
- Only use a wooden spoon when cooking Lalo (again people I don’t make the rules, I just follow them!)
This will be your final product… I shared this with native Haitians and I told them to be honest with me and they all gave it a thumbs up. One of my friends although he said it was good did say that he felt the pork wasn’t salty enough (*shrugs*). Please remember to salt to taste people, super important… I say start with less then build up, you don’t want it to be salty or manke sèl (missing salt). I served this with white rice and black bean puree (Sòs pwa nwa) and I loved it! I worked hard on this so I hope you guys give my recipe a try, you won’t regret it, if you do please let me know so we can discuss and provide more helpful tips to the community.
Ingredients
Adjust Servings
| Ingredients for Lalo: | |
| 6 lbs smoked pork | |
| 6 lbs beef for stew | |
| 2-4 blue crabs | |
| 5 cups of dried Lalo, finely chopped | |
| 1 pack 6 oz fresh spinach, finely chopped | |
| 1 ⅓ cups oil | |
| 1 tablespoon cooking margarine | |
| ½ teaspoon salt | |
| 1 bouillon cube | |
| 3 sprigs of thyme | |
| 1 hot pepper | |
| Ingredients to marinate meat and crab: | |
| ½ teaspoon sea salt | |
| ½ tsp garlic powder | |
| ½ tsp onion powder | |
| ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper | |
| 1 tsp salt free blended herbs | |
| ⅛ tsp clove powder | |
| 2 tbsp sour orange juice | |
| 1 tbsp lime juice |
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