When learning to cook regional dishes, I like to go straight to the source. I want to observe the way it’s done by people who grew up cooking and eating the food. I’ll travel pretty much anywhere to learn the secret of an authentic regional dish. Luckily, when I wanted to learn Persian cooking, I didn’t have to travel– instead, our friend Farah came to me. 🙂
Farah was born in Iran. She immigrated to Israel with her family when she was 5 years old. Her father worked as a cook in many different places, eventually landing as the head chef in a Tel Aviv hospital kitchen. Farah followed in her father’s footsteps, opening a small Persian cafe in Jaffa for other Iranian immigrants. She later moved to the United States with her family and cooked professionally for many years.
Farah cooks in my kitchen while I take notes.
Farah is a terrific cook, and she’s generous with her talent. I asked her to give me a crash course in Persian cooking. When she asked what dishes I’d like to learn, I told her I really wanted the secret to making Persian rice with tah-deeg. So, she taught me how to make Persian rice with dill and lima beans… and Persian rice with raisins and carrots… and garlic roast chicken... and cucumber salad… and kooba, fried bulgur wheat pies stuffed with ground lamb and pine nuts. In addition to all this, my husband’s sister brought along two delicious eggplant recipes.
Needless to say, by the end of the night we were beyond stuffed! I think I waddled to bed. But the calorie splurge was worth it. Such a delicious meal!
Did I mention the Persian Lamb Stew? No? Well, it was my favorite dish of the night. I love it when a simple recipe is so full of flavor. You may be more familiar with traditional Irish Stew, but even if you’re not a big fan of lamb, you might want to reconsider and try this stew. The spiced meat is ultra tender, it flakes with a fork and melts in your mouth. The basmati rice soaks up the yummy sauce, a perfect accompaniment to the stew. As a bonus, this dish is gluten free. It also contains a hefty dose of turmeric, a spice that has strong anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties. What a treat!
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Persian Lamb Stew
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon black pepper (or more to taste)
- 1 teaspoon salt (if salt sensitive, you may want to use less and salt to taste at the end of cooking)
- 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (omit if spice sensitive)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium onions, minced
- 3 pounds lamb meat cut into chunks for stewing (leg meat works well, it cooks up very tender)
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped
- 4 cups steamed basmati rice for serving
Instructions
- In a small dish, mix together turmeric, black pepper, salt, and crushed red pepper seasoning.
- In a large pot, or large dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium high heat till hot (not smoking). Saute for 10 minutes until onion softens and starts to turn golden brown.Begin browning the lamb. Add the lamb stew meat to the pot. You can use bone-in lamb meat, boneless meat, or a combination of the two. Brown the meat for a few minutes on each side. Drain the fat that collects at the bottom of the pot.
- Sprinkle the seasonings evenly across the top of the browned meat.
- Cover the meat with 4 cups of water. Bring mixture to a slow boil, then reduce heat to medium low. Simmer on medium low heat for two hours.
- Use a large shallow spoon to skim the fat from the surface of the cooking liquid every 30 minutes.
- After 2 hours, add tomato paste to the pot and stir slowly until paste dissolves into the broth.Simmer for another 20 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the meat is nice and tender and the sauce has thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more salt and.or spice, if desired.
- Garnish the stew with fresh parsley or cilantro. Serve lamb and sauce over freshly steamed basmati rice.
Nutrition
Has anyone tried to make this in the crock pot? How would u do it?
I am preparing a Middle Eastern dinner for eight for this coming Saturday evening. Believe it or not, I’m using TWO of your recipes (the other is falafel). Plan to use this as the main dish. Question: you told Joana she could make the Persian stew the day before. But I need to do as much as possible as soon as possible. Could I make this today (Tuesday) and freeze it for a few nights?
Hi Brian, I’ve never frozen this but most stews freeze quite well and I have to reason to think this one will be any different. If it were me I would refrigerate it first, skim off the solid fat that rises to the top of the sauce, then freeze. Enjoy!
Here’s my report on freezing the stew. I made it on Tuesday, refrigerated it overnight. Froze it Wednesday. On Saturday, I removed it from the freezer then thawed/heated it in the microwave. That’s all. Served it straight from the microwave. It was wonderful. We had so much food last night that not all of it was consumed, so my wife and I had leftover Persian lamb stew after church today. So good! We served it with brown basmati. Thank you for blessing the world with your talents, Tori!
Thank you for reporting back Brian! Glad you enjoyed the stew, and so happy my recipes helped make your night special.
One more question…
can I do it the day before? will it be as good?
Yes, you can make ahead and refrigerate overnight. Skim the fat (solid white stuff) that rises to the top of the sauce, then reheat on stovetop to a simmer.
I want to do this recipe with leg which has a lot of bones and less meat. Should I add the amount of sauce accordingly to the weight of the meat or cut down a little?
It should be 3 pounds of meat/bones together, doesn’t matter if it’s more meat or more bones as long as the weight is 3 pounds total. I don’t think you’ll need to adjust the amount of sauce, but I usually use more meat than bones so I can’t say for certain.
Thank you! Even with no sauce it was delicious.
You’re welcome Zeenie, glad you liked it! 🙂
I have a question. I only made 1 lb of lamb so I only added two and half cups of water. After an hour of low heat cooking most of the water had evaporated. So I just added tomato paste and cooked it for another ten mins. By then there was barely an sauce left. Should I have put four cups of water even though I had only one lb of meat?
Hi Zeenie– yes, this is not a recipe where you can “halve” all the ingredients. You really need the full amount of sauce, even for a reduced amount of meat.
Whoo girl, this recipe is amazing! It was almost curry-like, and just mild enough for the hubby and our guests! I pureed the onions for my husbands sake (lol) and served it with Spanish style jasmine rice and a little basil. So good! 🙂
Awesome Jessica!
I’m wondering how spicy this recipe is? I love the heat, but my hubby… not so much.
Hi Jessica– I wouldn’t say it’s super spicy, but I am a fan of spice like you. It does have a lot of spices, but in terms of heat level it is not very hot. If you’re worried about it you can cut the hot pepper flakes in half and add more to taste, that is where the small amount of heat comes from.
Thanks! I just love how involved you are with your online community. I appreciate the quick response. 🙂
Thanks for noticing Jessica! 🙂
I made this last week using a half shoulder (in one large piece, not cubed) and currently have it braising on the stove using whole shanks. Amazeballs recipe!
Isn’t it awesome Joshua?? So happy you like it!
I made this today. I did it exactly the same except I added some chopped garlic half way though cooking onions. It was YUMMY!! I served with Regular white rice as my supermarket was out of basmati still tasted good!
I made this yesterday exactly as described and it was absolutely delicious!! Thank you for the great recipe, I think I’ll be cooking this for years to come 🙂
M – 26 x
So great to hear that Marianna, thank you for writing!
Exactly what I was looking for, simmilar to a local Afghan restaurant. Flavourful just make sure to simmer the meat long enough in the water. I will make this again insha Allah (God willing)
Happy to hear that!
Hi Tori! This looks AMAZING. Thinking of doing a Sephardic theme for the second night of passover and will incorporate this!
At 28 I’ve taken on the responsibility of cooking for all Jewish holidays as I got sick of my family ordering from Zabar’s and Fairway every year. Of course I work full time so I’m wondering if there would be a good way to do this in the crock pot while I’m at work?
Hi Jackie, I think it would work quite well in a crock pot but I’m not sure if it will need quite as much liquid, since it won’t reduce in a covered cooker. If I were to try it I would probably only add 3 cups of water and cook it on low for 8-10 hours, and you’ll likely need to skim quite a bit of fat from the top of the liquid at the end of cooking.
I’m making this as I type and have a quick question – do you cover the pot when it’s simmering for two hours, or leave it open? Thanks!
Hi Kate. No need to cover the pot, but do make sure it’s simmering slowly on medium low or low. This way the sauce will reduce. If you feel more comfortable covering the pot, make sure it’s vented so that some of the liquid can evaporate. Keep an eye on it to make sure the liquid doesn’t reduce too much or get dry. Enjoy!
Thank you for the immediate response! I can now go take a nap while my baby sleeps and the stew simmers with ease. 🙂
What about adding some dill?
Great and easy stew Tori.
Maybe my mouth is crazy, but I feel it needs some sweet too. Not sure if currants, raisins, grapes or dates.
What do you think?
I served mine over whole grain couscous.
Yum!
I did it and it was so easy and soooo tasty!!
This looks amazing and relatively easy. We love lamb and eat it with some regularity and I’m definitely adding this to my repertoire. Can’t wait to serve it to my family.
This was simple and so amazing. My friends and family loved it!!!!!! Thank you
what about cumin?
Hi Keni– yes, garlic and cumin would both work well in the recipe. I would add 2-3 cloves of minced garlic and 1-2 tsp of cumin (to taste). Enjoy!