For this recipe I followed my friend’s suggestion Nastaran and added grate ginger! It has a beautiful harmony with the flavor of beetroot and yogurt. I also added black onion seeds that combines well with the rest of the ingredients but it’s optional.

This Borani is a good option also as breakfast with cereal but without onion seeds. 🙂

Ingredients | 4-5 servings

• 8 tablespoons of yogurt (whole, no sugar)
• 1 medium beetroot.
• 2 g grated ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon of onion seeds
• to taste Salt, pepper

Preparation

– Cut in dice the beetroot, some prefers to grate them. It’s up to you.

– Mix all the ingredients in a bowl: yogurt, beetroot, salt, pepper, ginger and onion seeds. You’re done!

I took this photo the day after. It’s always so much work to do when you have guests at home and want to serve a Persian banquet. So Borani is one of those choices that you can prepare a day before so you may work on other dishes. Time also helps to have a more tasty and colorful Borani!

Notes:

• Some grate garlic instead of ginger. Do as you prefer. The main ingredients are yogrut and beetroot for the rest you are the boss! 🙂
• The proportions between yogurt and beetroot is subjective. For more creamy result add more yogurt.
• When you prepare beetroot Borani the day before, it probably thickens because beetroots and onion seeds absorb the humidity of yogurt. Add 1-2 tbsp of yogurt to adjust Borani’s creaminess.

Noosh e jan

The post Borani of beetroot appeared first on Foodcraftz.

If you have both main ingredients (lentils and squash) cooked, this dish will take no longer than 20-30 minutes.

Ingredients | 5 servings

• 400g/14.1oz squash
• 200g/10.5oz lentils
• 1 medium onion
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 3 tbs clarified butter
• Lemon juice (to taste)
• salt and pepper (to taste)

Preparation

– Cooking lentils: add them in a pot with 4cm/1.5in water above the surface. (follow the package instructions for cooking time)

– Stir fry chopped onion in clarified butter, till they become golden.

– Add the squash and a bit of salt. To have a greater taste, stir for 10 minutes, then put the lid on and wait other 10 minutes so the squash is tender.

– Add: cumin, turmeric and stir. The squash should be soften by now. Smash the squash pieces by pressing the back of spoon or a meat masher. This will help the stew become creamy.

– Add the cooked lentils, pour 2 cups of boiling water.

– Add freshly grate nutmeg on top and let it simmer for ⏳ 20 minutes.

– Adjust the season with salt and a bit of lemon juice and it’s ready!

Notes:

• While cooking lentils, don’t add salt because it makes them harder to cook. Add salt when they are cooked.

• Make sure the squash has a good quality so it sweet taste has a greater impact on the the dish. Once I bought from the super market the squash and the stew was very tasteless.

Serve with extra virgin olive oil and bread.

Noosh e Jan and Enjoy ☺️

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The season of the fava beans is in the mid spring – early summer. In Iran, people buy kilos and after peeling, they store them in freezer to enjoy various dishes made of it for whole year.

Ingredients | 4 servings

• 530g/12oz minced Meat (with 30% fat)
• 350g/12oz Rice (basmati, Thai or similar)
• 120g/4oz Dill (finely chopped)
• 4 Onions
• 350g/12oz Fava Beans (cut in half)
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 1/2 tsp Cumin
• Salt and Pepper
• Cinnamon (to taste)

Preparations

– Wash the rice until the water is clear.

– Grate 1 medium onion and squeeze to discard excessive water.

– In a big bowl add rice, grate onion, meat, dill, turmeric, cumin, salt and pepper.

– Smash them with a meat mallet and make a sticky paste. The meat’s fat acts as a glue.

– Shape the paste into balls (smaller than tennis balls) and put them aside.

The final pot

– In a casseruole, stir fry 3 chopped onions, until translucent.

– Add a bit of turmeric, salt and pepper and stir.

– Pour hot boiling water to almost half of the pot and stir.

– Place the koofteh/meatballs one by one, gently in the pot. Make sure the meatballs shape is intact.

– Only the the tips of koofteh should remain out of water.

➡️ Important: each meatballs should have 1 inch/2cm of distance from the others. Because when the rice cooks their volume will grow.

– ⏳Put the lid on, cook on low heat untill the juice is reduced to 1/4th.

Last touch: 10 minutes before serving add a bit of cinnamon on the top of each meatball.

Serve koofteh with pickles, plain greek yogurt and salad.

Noosh e jan (Buon appetite) ☺️

The post Koofteh baghali, fava bean meatballs with dill appeared first on Foodcraftz.

Some add the meat broth for a richer taste. Since we are using ghee/clarified butter this is a vegetarian version but feel free to replace with oil of your choice to have a vegan Adasi.

Ingredients | 4 servings

• 250g / 2 cups lentils
• 1 L Water
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 3 tbsp Clarified Butter
• 1 Onion (diced)
• Salt (to taste)
• Black Pepper (to taste)
• 1 tsp Corn or Potato Starch (optional)

Preparation

– In a big pot, on medium heat, sauté the diced onion.

– When they become golden, add the spices: turmeric & cumin & black pepper.

– Sauté spices for some seconds, to intensify their flavors.

– Add lentils followed by boiling water.

– On low heat, simmer for ⏳ 2 hours.

– 30 minutes before finishing: add salt.

➡️ Because salt increases the cooking time of the lentils and harden their texture. That’s why we add it toward the end of cooking time.

The final touch:

– Mix 1 tsp of corn or potato starch in half cup of cold water.

– Add the mix to Adasi. It will make the soup more shiny and creamy. Simmer for ⏳ 5 minutes and it’s ready.

Notes

• Adasi is served with golpar (Persian Hogweed), drops of lemon, fried onions or a knob of butter. (any of these alone is good enough 🙂 )
• Soak the lentils a night before, for a better and quicker result.
• It’s usually cooked with green lentils

Noosh e jan ☺️ (buon appetite in persian)

The post Adasi, vegetarian lentils soup appeared first on Foodcraftz.

Sholezard has two main ingredients: rice & saffron. No Basmati rice for this recipe. Because it should release starch during long hours of cooking. The Thai rice can be a good option, it has perfume and a considerable amount of starch.

Ingredients | 4-5 servings

• 100g/3.5oz rice (i.e. Thai)
• 1.2 liter Water
• 250g/8.8oz Sugar
• 1/2 cups Rose water
• 1 tsp Saffron
• 3tbsp slivered Almonds or/and Pistachios
• Cinnamon for decoration

Preparations

– A night before wash the rice and soak it in the water.

Next day: add water and sugar to rice in a big pot.

– Simmer for ⏳ 4-5 hours. Stir occasionally to avoid the rice stick to the bottom.

➡️ While waiting, mix the rose water with saffron. Cover it and let it rest for an intenser taste.

– Back to rice pot: after long hours of cooking, rice has soften and we have a creamy, shiny and dense cream.

– Add the mix of saffron and rose water.

– Continue to simmer for last ⏳ 5 minutes until the consistency and color becomes like the following:

– Turn off the heat and add half of the almonds. We save the other half for decorations.

– Mix all together and Sholezard is ready. While it’s warm pour it on the serving bowl because it tends to solidify when cools down.

– Wait another 1 hour to cool down

Decorate with cinnamon, almonds, and pistachios and serve 🙂

Notes

• The rose water is a distilled liquid from rose flowers and it absorbs more than any other liquid the color of saffron.
• Usually, Sholezard is poured into small serving dishes or one big bowl. It’s served cold or at room temperature.
• Mix the rice and sugar during the cooking time, it’s very tricky if you add sugar at the end, even for “adjust” the sweetness you will risk the creamy consistency into runny liquid :-/ (it happened to me!)
• The cold Sholezard tends to feel less sweet, that’s why the amount of sugar for Sholezard seems excessive.

Noosh e jan (buon appetite)

The post Sholezard, Persian rice pudding with saffron appeared first on Foodcraftz.

For the olives I used “Taggiasche olives”, their origin is the Liguria region in Italy, but feel free to use any olive you like, just make sure they don’t have any additives. Even if the label says: “added natural aroma”. Because since they are chemicals, in contact with heat in the oven, they change the flavors and ruins the taste of the dish. (It happened to me :-/ )

Ingredients | 4-5 servings

• 4 Bell Peppers colors of your choice
• 4 tbsp Olives
• 1 tbsp Oregano
• 1 Onion
• 2 Tomatoes
• 2 cloves Garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Black pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven at 180C°/350F°

– Deseed and cut into strips the bell peppers, chop the onion, tomatoes and garlic.

– Put the ingredients into a large baking dish, toss with olive oil & oregano.

♨️ Roast them in the oven for ⏳ 1 hour at 180C°/350F° and they are ready.

This dish is tastier if served lukewarm.

Notes

• The roasted peppers become more delicious the next day.
• If you like add some cheese on top, but add them in the last 10 minutes before finishing avoid altering the flavor in too high heat.
• They are a perfect side for all kinds of proteins.

Enjoy! ☺️

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Get yourself a good organic chicken breast*. In Italy, fortunately many small farmers avoid antibiotics or feed chickens with GMOs. I Bought these two (in photo), one from conventional supermarket and the other from a trusted butcher. See how obvious is the difference between an industrial and free-range chicken:

Ingredients | 2 servings

• 1 Chicken breast
• pinch Saffron
• 1 Lime or Lemon
• pinch of salt
• Olive oil extra virgin

Preparation

– Cut the chicken in big strips of 1 inch/1.5cm thickness

– In a small glass, add a pinch of saffron and pour 2tbsp of hot boiling water wait ⏳5 mins till it color turns red.

➡️ We’ll add salt later, to keep the chicken’s juice.

– In a bowl, mix the the chicken with 1 lime juice (or lemon).

– Add the saffron water and a drizzle of olive oil & mix.

– It should rest at room temperature for ⏳ 30 minutes.

Preheat the grill pan, add salt and pepper to the chicken and start to grill right after. Cook each side of chicken for 2-3 minutes (it depends on how thick is the chicken breast).

Taste to check it’s consistency and salt before removing from pan.

Serve it right away!

Notes

• The lemon helps the meat to tenderize.
• Lemon and saffron mixture are a classic marinate for chicken kababs in Iran.

Buon appetito. ☺️

* Check out this article in Dr. Axe website: Free-Range Chicken Benefits vs. Conventional Chicken Dangers

The post Easy Grilled Chicken Breast with Saffron appeared first on Foodcraftz.

In this recipe, I opted for cooking them in the oven (coated in oil) but this will be a lighter version but not less delicious 😉 .

Ingredients | 3-4 servings

• 3-4 big Eggplants
• 3 cups Tomato puree (passata)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 mozzarella
• 60g/2oz Basil
• 100g/3.5oz Ground Parmesan Cheese
• Extra virgin Olive Oil to taste

Preparation

– Cut the eggplants into disks, sprinkle salt, place them in a sieve and wait for 1-2 hours so they lose their water and become soft.

– Cut the mozzarella in 1cm/0.3inch (if they are fresh) let them rest at room temperature. This way they will lose water.

– Make the marinara sauce: sauté garlic in olive oil, add tomato puree, salt, pepper and cook all together for 10 minutes.

– Turn off the heat and add chopped fresh basil.

– Back to eggplants: pour oil on them and make sure they are coated in oil completely. Put them in the preheated (on 180C°/360F°) and cook each side until their surface becomes golden. (both sides)

Time to Ensemble!

– Setup your working space and bring a casserole where we cook Parmigiana.

With this order, add layers until all ingredients are finished:

• 1- A layer of tomato sauce
• 2- Eggplants
• 3- Tomato sauce
• 4- Mozzarella (again)
• 5- Sprinkle of parmesan cheese

– The last layer should be a mix of marinara sauce and parmesan cheese on top.

Place casserole in the preheated oven (on the bottom side) at 190°C/ 374°F for ⏳ 40-50 mins

Notes

• Before serving wait 1 hour at least so the Parmigiana cools down. When it’s hot, it seems very humid and watery. All the juice will be re-absorbed when it’s cooling down.
• 36 months Parmesan Cheese gives a tastier flavor to the dish.
• The type of eggplant/aubergine used for this dish is called Italian eggplant. They are usually large and short in height with a dark purple color. Since we don’t peel them, better be organic.

Buon appetito!

The post Eggplant Parmesan no frying appeared first on Foodcraftz.

➡️ This is an easy recipe, you only need to prepare the marinade for meat the night before.

Ingredients | 2-3 servings

• 500g / 17.6oz Meat (lamb or veal) chopped 2inch/5cm
• 1 small Pomegranate (possible sour or less mature)
• 70g /2.4oz crushed Walnuts
• 1 grated Garlic
• bunch of Chopped Parsley
• 1 sliced Onion
• salt (to taste)

Preparations of Marinate

Night before:

– In food processor crush the walnuts

– Chop the meat into the 2inch/5cm pieces.

– Peel a pomegranate and crush the seeds in a bowl with a masher to extract the juice.

– Mix meat, pomegranate (seeds and juice), grated garlic, parsley, sliced onion, walnut paste, salt and pepper in a bowl. Cover with a foil and put the marinate in fridge for the next day or at least 6 hours.

Next day

⏳ 30 minutes before grilling, remove the sour kebab from the fridge. (the meat shouldn’t be very cold for grilling)

➡️ Based on your barbecue dimensions add meat to the skewers. Mine was: max 3 – 4 pieces per skewer.

Grill each side for 3-4 mins and it’s done!

Notes

• If you are using wooden skewers make sure they are soak them in water to avoid burnings (keep them in water for 1 hour at least before grilling)
• The sourness of pomegranate makes the meat tender.
• Serve the kabab torsh with basmati rice kateh style and a bit of melted butter, sumac and raw onions.

Noosh-e-jan (in persian: Buon appetite) ☺️

The post Sour kebab – Kabab torsh appeared first on Foodcraftz.

p.s. I’m not sure how kids react to Lubia polo. It took me 20 years to change my mind! :))

Ingredients | 3-4 servings

• 450g/16oz green Beans
• 300g /10oz chopped Meat
• 1 big Onion
• 1 teaspoon Turmeric
• 400g/14.1oz Basmati rice
• 3 big Tomatoes – chopped
• 1-2 tbsp Tomato paste
• a pinch of Nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• Clarified butter
• Salt and Black pepper

Preparation

– Cut green beans in small chunks stir fry in a pan until their color is no longer bright green. Transfer the green beans to a bowl.

– Dice the onion and in the same pan you’ve cooked the green beans, stir fry the onions.

– When they become translucent add the turmeric, salt, and pepper. Continue to stir for some more seconds.

– Add meat, when it changes its color and releases the juice, add the tomato paste and the chopped tomatoes.

– Cover the pot with the lid ⏳ Cook for 20 mins on medium heat (add half cup of water if it’s too dry). The meat should cook completely.

[ ➡️ Meanwhile… prepare boiling water for white rice ]

– Add the green beans to the stew followed by cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook all together for another ⏳ 5 minutes and turn off the heat.

Preparing rice:

– Wash the rice until the color of the water is no longer opaque. Add salt to the boiling water (just the way you do for pasta).

– Add rice and wait till the water boils again.

– When the rice is doubled in size and starts to float on the surface of water it’s time to drain. (Do not rinse because we don’t want to lose the salt and aroma of rice)

Ensemble!

– In a nonstick pot with a thick bottom (to spread the heat evenly), add a layer of rice (2 cm/1inch) followed by a layer of green beans stew

➡️ Continue till both ingredients are finished.

– Place the pot on low heat, gently create holes in the mix with the bottom of a wooden spoon so the humidity comes out.

– Cover the lid with a clean kitchen cloth to absorb humidity.

Cook for 1 hour and it’s ready!

Notes

• (optional) I’ve peeled the fresh tomatoes and removed the seeds
• Using frozen green beans makes the cooking process quicker
• Serve lubia polo with Shirazi salad and yogurt.

Noosh e Jan (buon appetite! ☺️)

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