Ramadan Recipes 2025: Warak Enab
- Written byPost-Grad Community
- Published date 26 February 2024
Ramadan is an annual celebration for Muslims across the globe to spiritually reflect through fasting, prayer, and community building.
As we enter the 2025 Ramadan period, Post-Grad Community wants to celebrate the diverse offerings of the Muslim community at UAL, by sharing recipes with postgraduate students and alumni who may or may not be taking part.
Our favourite recipes will be published weekly throughout the month. Submit yours now!
Warak Enab (Vine Leaves)
by Catriona Mahmoud (UAL Student Communications and Engagement Executive)
Not necessarily the correct recipe for Warak Enab (Egyptian vine leaves), but it certainly is my recipe!
Being Egyptian is a large part of my identity, but having been born in the UK, and raised in the United Arab Emirates, my cultural understanding is limited to only a handful of experiences in Egypt. A big part of connecting to my culture is through food and music, discovered and remembered through sharing the meals made and taught by aunties back home.
As any Arab will know, each country has their own variations of each dish. From Foul Medammes to Molokhaya, different cultural histories and family traditions can be seen through spices, viscosity, cooking times, and much more. Take my recipe for Warak Enab with a pinch of salt (literally please, let’s try and bring down our dad’s blood pressure levels), but feel free to enhance with your favourite flavours, and mostly enjoy the preparation stage!
*I tend to like my Warak Enab extra lemony, but if you prefer yours more traditionally then omit the lemon juice from the mixture and limit it to just the cooking broth.
Ingredients (makes approx. 90-100 Vine Leaves)
Stuffing mix
- Jar of vine leaves
- 2 cups Egyptian rice (or any short grain rice)
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 cup dill (finely chopped)
- 1 cup parsley (finely chopped)
- 1 cup coriander (finely chopped)
- 1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dry mint
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 white onion (grated)
- Salt to taste
Cooking broth
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- Juice of ½ a lemon
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Potato
Recipe
- Prepare your stuffing mix by combining your ingredients and setting aside while you get the vine leaves ready.
- Wash your leaves with cold water in the sink. Then boil for 5 minutes to soften them for rolling.
- Prepare a pot by slicing a potato into ¾ inch rounds and placing at the bottom. Cover this with your discarded stems and ripped leaves.
- Roll your vine leaves! Remember to remove the stalks each time you roll a new leaf. Place your leaf vein side up, and with the widest part facing you. Spoon a teaspoon of mixture about a third of the way up from the bottom. Fold the sides onto the mixture, then the bottom over that. Continue rolling upwards tightly. *There is a cheat method of rolling that I tend to use, using a Ziplock bag as seen in the video below.
- As you roll each vine leaf, place it into the pot (on top of the potatoes/discarded bits) in layers in a circular structure.
- Mix together the cooking broth ingredients and pour on top of your vine leaves, ensuring they are completely covered. Place a flat dish face-side down on top of the rolled leaves to make sure they are secured in place.
- Bring your pot to a boil, then turn down the heat to a low simmer. Cook for 1 hour to 90 minutes.
- Serve up! Feel free to attempt to flip the pot onto a serving dish (always a tense moment), and serve as a side dish, or on its own (with a dollop of greek yoghurt).
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