Ghormeh Sabzi — Persian Herb Stew

Name: Ghormeh Sabzi — Persian Herb Stew
Total time: 3 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Persian
Ingredients: 600 g Lamb or beef stewing meat, in 3 cm cubes; 200 g Parsley, finely chopped; 100 g Coriander (cilantro), finely chopped; 100 g Chives or garlic chives, chopped; 2 tbsp Dried fenugreek leaves (shanbalileh); 150 g dried Red kidney beans; 2 medium Onion, finely chopped; 4 Dried limes (limoo amani), pierced; 1 tsp Ground turmeric; 5 tbsp Oil; 1.5 tsp Salt

Often called Iran's national dish: a mountain of parsley, coriander, chives and fenugreek fried down almost black, then simmered slow with lamb, red kidney beans and whole dried limes until it is deep, tangy and savoury. Served over rice.

Fuente

Receta de Persian home kitchens · 🏺 Tradicional · Everyday and festive cooking of Iranian households — the shared repertoire behind sofreh (the spread) that no single person owns

Persian · traditional dish — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article describes ghormeh sabzi (also khoresht sabzi) as a traditional Persian herbal stew, calls it the national dish of Iran, and notes that its variants differ mainly in the beans and meat used — which is exactly the framing this book followed in offering lamb or beef with red kidney beans. Quantities and method here are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Zahra Abdalla Zoya Biglary Taste of Persia

⏱ 180 min🍽 6 porciones🔥 430 kcal🇮🇷 Irán

HalalSin lácteosSin glutenSin frutos secos

Pasos

Fry the onion in 2 tbsp oil over medium heat until soft and golden, about 8 minutes. Stir in the turmeric, then add the meat and brown it on all sides.
Pour in enough hot water to cover the meat by a finger's width, bring to a simmer, cover and leave it to cook gently for 1 hour while you deal with the herbs.
In a wide pan, fry all the chopped herbs and the dried fenugreek in the remaining 3 tbsp oil over medium heat. Keep stirring for 12 to 15 minutes, until the bright green darkens to a deep, almost khaki green and smells nutty rather than grassy.
💡 This frying is the difference between a great ghormeh sabzi and a flat one. Raw-tasting herbs stirred straight into the pot give a thin, grassy stew. Fry until they smell toasted and the pan looks dry.
Scrape the fried herbs into the meat pot. Add the soaked kidney beans, the pierced dried limes and the salt. Top up with a little hot water if it looks dry.
Cover and simmer very gently for another 1½ hours, stirring now and then. It is ready when a slick of dark oil rises to the surface and the stew is thick, glossy and deep green-brown.
💡 That layer of oil floating on top is a sign of a well-cooked khoresh in Persian cooking, not a fault. Taste for salt and sourness now — press a dried lime against the side of the pot to squeeze more tang out if you want it.
Rest it off the heat for 10 minutes, then serve over plain steamed basmati rice, ideally with a piece of golden tahdig on the side.

💡 Consejos

Frozen chopped ghormeh sabzi herb mix is sold in every Persian shop and is genuinely how many Iranian families cook it on a weeknight — no shame in it. You still need to fry the mix down before it goes in the pot.
It tastes better the next day. The flavours settle overnight, so this is an ideal make-ahead stew — cook it a day early if you can.
No dried limes? Stir in the juice of one fresh lime at the very end, but know it is a different, brighter sourness — dried limes give a deeper, fermented tang that fresh cannot copy.