Ghormeh sabzi is a much-loved meal, thought of as the national dish of Iran. It’s a slow-cooked stew that is made with herbs, together with lamb, kidney beans and dried limes. This means it is exploding with herby, zesty and savoury flavours. If it’s your first time eating something like this, it’ll be unlike anything else you’ve tried. For that reason, we recommend giving it a try!
This dish is It is best served with chelo, or Persian rice. You can find out how to cook that in our separate post here.
The dish can also easily be made vegan by using closed-cup mushrooms instead of lamb, maintaining that chunky, meaty texture and absorbing the flavours.
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 500 grams of lamb cut into 2-inch or 5cm chunks, OR one pack of closed-cup mushrooms cut into halves (300g)
- 1 can red kidney beans or ½ cup of dried kidney beans, soaked (available here)
- 1 Large sweet onion, finely chopped
- One pack of dried herbs (100g) (available here)
- 4 dried limes (available here)
- 1 tsp turmeric
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Vegetable oil
- Water
Instructions
- In a large stew pot, start by frying the onions in 2 tablespoons of oil until well cooked
- Add the meat or mushrooms, turmeric and fry (if using lamb, make sure the sides of the meat are brown)
- Add water to cover the meat by 2 inches or 5cm, then bring to boil on a high heat for a couple of minutes
- Rinse kidney beans and add them to the stew along with the herbs. cover and cook on low heat for about 1 hour.
- Next add the salt and pepper, and dried limes. Poke the dried limes with a fork. Leave to simmer on a very low heat for an hour.