Khoresh Ghormeh Sabzi Recipe (Persian Herb Stew)
Khoresh Ghormeh Sabzi (Persian Herb Stew) is one of the most famous and popular Iranian dishes. This food is very delicious, it has a wonderful fragrance when it is cooked, its fragrance fills the whole house. This dish is usually served with Iranian pilaf (Iranian rice) and next to it, side dishes such as Pickles, Onions, Shirazi salad, Cucumber yogurt, and Doug are placed.
This food is easy to cook and has few cooking steps; It actually consists of just a few simple steps. But despite the small steps and easy cooking, it has small tricks that make you get the best result.
In this recipe, we will teach you the original Iranian herb stew along with its cooking tricks.
How to make khoresh ghormeh sabzi?
Step 1 – Fry the herbs. If your herbs are frozen, take them out of the freezer to thaw them. If the herbs are fresh, after cleaning, washing, and chopping them, you should cook them on heat.
How much to cook the herbs and the proportion of herbs in the stew are fully explained later. (First cooking herbs and then frying in oil)
Put the cooked herbs in a frying pan and add some oil. Frying herbs should be done patiently. The heat should be medium-low so that the herbs do not burn. Stir the herbs regularly, so that they do not stick to the pan.
At first, the herbs are completely green and gradually turn dark green. Add some oil if necessary. Add oil and stir constantly so that the herbs do not stick to the pan. Be careful not to add too much oil to the herbs; because eventually, your stew gets too greasy.
The more you fry the vegetables, the darker the color will be and you will have a tastier stew at the end; But some people do not fry the herbs enough. In fact, they want the herbs not to lose their properties and sacrifice the taste of the ghormeh sabzi to the properties.
I fry the herbs until they turn dark green and have a tastier stew.
Be careful not to fry the herbs until they burned and turn black; Only dark greens. In the end, the herbs are separated into pellets, and this is one of the signs of their preparation.
Herbs do not need any substances such as salt and spices.
Step 2 – Chop the onion and fry it in a pot. Then add turmeric and curry powder and fry them a little with onions. It is better to chop the onion finely, to give a better taste to the food. Also, if it is coarsely chopped, pieces of onion may be seen in the food and this is not attractive.
Step 3 – Add the meat to the onion and fry it until the meat is slightly fried and changes color. The color of the meat should change from red to brown. When you roast the meat, it gradually changes color and smells raw.
Meat that is not fried does not taste very good. Allow about 15 minutes to do this. The heat should be medium-high.
Step 4 – Add a little pepper to the meat. This step is optional.
Step 5 – Add tomato paste, do not pour it directly on the meat. Put the meat on the edge of the pot, then pour the paste on the bottom of the pot to fry with oil. Fry for less than 1 minute. We do this because tomato paste has a raw taste. then mixed the meat with tomato paste.
Adding tomato paste to the stew is also optional, and you can skip it.
Step 6 – Pour boiling water over the meat. If the water is boiling, the meat will cook sooner. How much boiling water is needed to cook meat depends on the amount of meat you have and whether your meat (Whether your meat cooks fast or slow).
In any case, it should take boiling water on the surface of the meat and it usually comes up to about 2-3 times more than the meat. (Boiling water level should be higher than meat)
Step 7 – Add the fried herbs.
Step 8 – Add salt and pepper. If your beans are not pre-cooked, add the uncooked beans now.
Step 9 – Add the Omani lemon about an hour after the ingredients are slightly cooked. It is better to make a few holes in the lemon with the tip of a fork or knife.
Step 10 – If you have already cooked your beans, add the cooked beans 2-3 hours before the stew is fully cooked. In the final stages, add the cooked beans to the stew; so that they do not overcook and are not crushed.
Step 11 – Reduce the heat (to the point of a candle flame and Small bubbles caused by boiling stew can be seen) and let the herb stew cook slowly on the heat, about 5-6 hours. after this time the stew is to mature. Put the lid on the pot to cook the stew
Step 12 – Add pomegranate paste or orange paste to the stew in the last half hour of cooking. This step is also optional and it is better to have sour pomegranate paste; To give a more sour taste to the stew and make it more delicious.
Serve hot with Persian rice.
Khoresh Ghormeh Sabzi (Persian Herb Stew)
Servings: 6 peoples
Calories: 550kcal
Ingredients
- 300-500 grams Lamb meat or beef chunk cut into 2-inch pieces
- 3 Omani limes (dried Persian limes) medium
- 500 grams herbs
- 150 grams pinto beans or kidney beans optional
- 1 onion medium
- oil
- boil water
- 1/2 tbsp tomato paste optional
- 2 tbsp pomegranate paste or orange paste optional
- Salt, turmeric powder and curry powder and pepper
Instructions
- In a pan pour the herbs. Add about 5 tablespoons of oil and fry the vegetables. (Herbs are pre-cooked.)Set aside.
- Add the oil into a pot over medium-high heat. Chop the onion and fry in the pot. Stir until the onion turns golden brown. After frying the onion, add the turmeric and curry powder and fry them a little.
- Add the meat to the onion and fry it.
- Add a little pepper to the meat. This step is optional.
- Put the meat on the edge of the pot, then pour the tomato paste on the bottom of the pot to fry with oil. Fry for less than 1 minute. then mixed the meat with tomato paste.Adding tomato paste is also optional.
- Pour boiling water on the meat. It should take boiling water on the surface of the meat and it usually comes up to about twice or triple more than the meat. (Boiling water level should be higher than meat)
- Add fried herbs. (prepare in level 1)
- Add salt and pepper. If your beans are not pre-cooked, add the uncooked beans now.
- Add Omani lemon. punctured in the Omani lime, make several holes in the lemon with the tip of a fork or knife.
- If you have already cooked your beans, add the cooked beans about 2-3 hours before the stew is fully cooked. (Depends on how pre-cooked, overcooked, or undercooked the beans are)
- Reduce the heat (to the level of a candle flame and to the extent that small bubbles can be seen on the stew) and let the herb stew cook slowly on the heat for about 5-6 hours and mature it.
- Add pomegranate paste or orange paste to the stew in the last half hour of cooking. This step is also optional, and it is better to have sour pomegranate paste to give a more sour taste to the crumbs.
Notes
The most important trick for cooking khoresh-e ghormeh sabzi:
- And yet... The most important trick of cooking stew: In order to have a genuine and delicious herb stew, you must pay a lot of attention to its cooking time. - Enough time should be spent cooking the stew, to mature the stew. That is, reduce the heat (like a candle flame and to the extent that the stew cooks small pieces) and cook on very low heat for about 5-6 hours. In this case, the stew is well placed and you will get the best result. The water should evaporate and the ingredients should mix well. - All types of stews will be mature with a long cooking time and low heat. - You can even cook the stew for about 2 hours from the night before. Then turn off the heat, and tomorrow morning put the semi-prepared stew on the heat. Cook for about 4-5 hours until noon and serve for lunch. In this case, the Persian herb stew is well mature and thickens. - If you are in a hurry and can not wait 6 hours, you can increase the heat a little so that the water evaporates faster and the stew is ready. But the result of 6 hours of patience is different, delicious, and wonderful, and this is the most important trick in cooking herb stew. - If you like to use healthier stuff (like me), I advise to see the post "how to make Omani limes". In this post I have explained the recipe for dried limes step to step with images. Another tip to make the herb stew tastier is to add some red pepper if you wish. If your herb stew is just a little spicy, it is more delicious. This is a model of ghormeh sabzi that is cooked in the south of Iran and Khuzestan. This stew will be great if it is a little sour and a little spicy. So pour a small amount of pepper on the meat and add some red pepper or black pepper in the middle or end of cooking. The best meat for herb stew is Lamb and mutton meat. You can use a pressure cooker to cook qormeh stew.Tips on beans in Khoresh ghormeh sabzi:
pinto beans and kidney beans are commonly used in qormeh stew. You can use a combination of kidney beans and pinto (two red units per pint).
kidney beans are good for Qormeh stew and in terms of taste, they are no different from pinto and small red beans.
You can use just pinto beans or just kidney beans. It’s up to you.
It is better to put the beans in water overnight to soften them a little and change the water several times to remove the bloating of the beans.
pinto beans are one of the best types of beans for cooking a genuine Iranian herb stew; You can see the photo here.
I usually cook the beans and keep them frozen in the freezer. While cooking, I quickly take one of them out of the fridge and pour it into the food.
Photo of pinto beans after cooking:
How to prepare herbs for herb stew:
herb stew is the most important factor in the taste of the stew. herbs stew includes 7 types of herbs and include : chives, spinach, cilantro, dill, parsley, fenugreek and beet leaves.
The main herbs is fragrant herbs such as chives, spinach, cilantro, dill, and parsley. The amount of fenugreek in the herbs should be small; Because it is bitter. Add a little beet because it sheds water and beets are mostly used for Ash Reshteh (Persian Noodle Soup).
Ratio of vegetables in khoresh ghormeh sabzi:
- 25% chives
- 20% spinach
- 20% cilantro
- 20% dill
- 10% parsley
- 5% fenugreek
- 5% beet leaves
Combine the herbs according to the proportions we have written, then chop, finely chop. You can use a kitchen knife, or use the Herb Chopper to get the best results.
Chop the herbs as much as you can. If they are coarsely chopped, in the end, your stew will not fit well. and the stew water will separate from the stew herbs and you will not get a great stew.
Then the herbs should be cooked. Put the herbs in a pan and let them cook. You have to stir constantly so that they do not stick to the bottom of the pan. Wait for the water to evaporate completely. At first, the herbs have water.
After the water has evaporated, reduce the heat so that it does not stick to the pan.
Cook, stirring continuously, until the water has completely evaporated and the herbs are wilted and very dark green – but not burned.
Turn off the heat and use the herbs in your herb stew.
If the amount of cooked herbs is large and they are for more than one meal, pack the extra amount and store it in the freezer. Put in plastic and put in the freezer to freeze. Use one of the plastics for each stew.
Nutrition Facts of Ghormeh sabzi with bones :
