It’s a great name for a great sauce. Piquant, green and Yemeni. Traditionally zhoug is always served with falafel and shawarma. Try it with eggs, chopped tomatoes, chicken or roast lamb. As zhoug contains all the herbs and spices I love the most, for me it’s win win!

1 large handful coriander, roughly chopped
1 small handful parsley, roughly chopped
½ preserved lemon, rinsed and roughly chopped (or 1½ tbsp lemon juice)
1-2 cloves garlic
6 green cardamom pods, seeds only
2 green chilies (or more if you like – it should be hot)
½ tsp caster sugar
1 tsp ground cumin
6 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you have a coarse paste. Check for seasoning.

Will keep for a few days in a closed jar in the fridge.

Meera Sodha in The Guardian even has the clever idea of combining zhoug, pesto-like, with a minced and gently fried whole head of broccoli to make sauce for spaghetti. Wise advice is to keep back some of the cooking water from the spaghetti to use to loosen the sauce.