Before I lose my blogging inspiration, I would like to share with you this simple and delicious recipe: Ghormeh sabzi (Herb stew, pronounced as Gor-meh Sab-zee)). It is a Persian dish and as complicated as it may sound, it is actually pretty easy to make. I went through a lot of recipes (here’s one from Elika Mahony) and finally I was moved to make it but had to adjust to what I had, so this is my adapted version of Ghormeh Sabzi. I also shortened the cooking time – originally around 2 hours – by using my pressure cooker. This recipe is great for slow cooker/crockpot (around 4 hours on medium-high) or you can use a regular pot (around 2 hours on medium-high).

You will need:

1-1.5 pounds of meat (if you are Vegetarian or Vegan, you can do without meat or try to add soy meat substitute)

1 cup of almost cooked kidney beans (keep the water – you can use it later)

1 onion

1 celery bunch

1 spring onion bunch

1 tbspoon of dried dill

1 tbspoon of dried parsley

2 pieces of lemon

juice of the rest of the lemon

Spice mix:

1 teaspoon of each – turmeric, coriander, nutmeg

0.5 teaspoon of black pepper

How to make it:

A. If you are cooking with meat:

1. Cut meat into cubes, chop up the celery and onion.

2. In a pot warm up some oil. I put spices first into the oil and let them blend together – the taste and fragrance are much stronger that way. Then I throw in the onion and let it fry till golden. If you are going for a vegetarian version – skip step 3.

 

3. Put in the meat. Let it fry for a bit.

4. Add beans and 2 pieces of lemon. Stir. Add 2 cups of saved water from kidney beans and salt. Cover and boil (if using meat – in pressure cooker – 15 minutes after the steam starts coming out; 2 hours in the crockpot/slow cooker; 40-50 minutes in the regular pot; if not using meat – cut the time into half). Since I was using the pressure cooker, after 15 minutes I turned it off and let the steam come out completely until you hear a pop sound indicating that it is safe to open the cooker (about 20 minutes to be on the safe side).

B. The greens and the rest:

1. While the meat is cooking, warm up some oil in the frying pan. Add chopped up greens, dill and parsley. Fry on medium fire for about 10-15 minutes.

2. Add the greens to the pressure cooker, add the lemon juice for the remaining lemon and stir. You may need to add 1-2 more cups of water. Secure again and now cook the same amount of time as you did the first time.

3. Serve with rice or naan.

I hope you enjoy making this dish!