- shoulder of lamb, trimmed of as much fat as possible (the sheep is a very badly designed animal and it is impossible to remove all the fat), and cut on the bone into 3cm chunks (a nice butcher will do this for you)
- 2 large onions, chopped
- 8-9 dried limes, washed and pricked in several places
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 400g kidney beans soaked and cooked (or 2 cans of the same)
- 1 bunch each of fresh coriander, parsley, chives, spinach and fenugreek, washed, drained and chopped
- salt and pepper
Ghormeh Sabzi – herb and bean casserole with lamb
(Iran’s favourite national dish. To feed 6 hearty/8 modest eaters)
There is a sort of unwritten agreement amongst Iranian housewives that this dish should be served in every household at least once a week. As far as I know it isn’t actually written into the statute books, but I sometimes wonder.
When it’s blowing a gale around Persepolis we like nothing better than to tuck ourselves up around a roaring log fire and recount epic tales of the Persian heroes of old (although a video may be nearer the mark): and that’s the sort of evening when we just have to have ghormeh sabzi, one of the world’s ultimate comfort foods.
The dish is quite stunning – if you have made it correctly, it should in fact be a rich green in colour, and the aroma wafting from it should be enough to get them queuing down the street
Ingredients:
Help! I love the look of this recipe but I live in the desert in the middle of Australia, in Alice Springs, and can’t find dried limes. I do however have a lime tree which is laden right now. What should I do??
Sally Hodson
Hi Sally, If you are still interested, You can find the dried limes (Limo Amani) in Australia at: http://www.zaffrongrocery.com.au/pantry/Dried-Lemon-Limo-Amani . We do deliver outside Sydney metro :)
A useful link for our customers in Australia – thank you!
Goodness – I don’t know how I failed to see this comment earlier – sorry Sally!
Just sun-dry the limes and use sparingly and it will taste pretty much as good as the ‘limoo omani’ of Iran! Happy cooking!
Thanks for posting this recipe – this is the best thing ever! Various friends are being fed this as soon as they walk through the door. I’m addicted to it!