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Khoresh-e Ghormeh Sabzi (Persian Herb Stew)
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Khoresh Ghormeh Sabzi (Persian Herb Stew)

Prep Time1 hour
Cook Time6 hours
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: iran
Servings: 6 peoples
Calories: 550kcal
Author: Aloorecipes

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.