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Lentils with Rice – Adas Polo Recipe

Adas Polo (or polow) is an easy Iranian dish. For this recipe, you’ll need 2 main ingredients: Lentils and rice. It doesn’t matter what kind of lentils (green, red, gigantic…) but the rice is better to be Basmati or any other long grain type of rice.

There are many variations of Adas polo عدس پلو ( = Lentils Rice) this is a vegetarian recipe.

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This recipe is with saffron tahdig.


Ingredients | 3-4 servings

  • 150g/5.2oz Lentils
  • 1 Onion
  • 350g/12.3oz Basmati rice
  • 1 teaspoon Turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
  • 2 knobs of Butter
  • Clarified Butter
  • Pinch of Saffron

For topping

  • 3-4 chopped Dates
  • a handful of Sultanas (raisins)

Video Recipe:


Preparation

Cook the lentils in a pot with water and salt for ⏳ 30 minutes.

➡️ The lentils should maintain their shape (be careful to not overcook)

– Make saffron water: In 1/3 cup, add a pinch of ground saffron, pour hot boiling water, wait for 5 mins, when saffron gives its full color to water and becomes red it’s ready.

Adas polo rice with lentils

– dice an onion.

– In a pan, add clarified butter and fry them.

– Add turmeric and salt and the cooked lentils followed by cinnamon.

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– Stir fry for some minutes, then turn off the heat.

The mix of lentils is ready for adas polo

– Pour half of saffron water to the mix of lentiles.

Making rice & combine with lentils:

– Wash the rice.

– In a big pot, boil salted water and add the rice to it (just like pasta).

⏳ When water starts to boil, and the rice grows in size and floats on the surface, drain the rice (do not rinse)

The rice is ready to be drained

Final pot

– Place a non-stick pot on medium heat.

– Pour half cup of boiling water and clarified butter with the rest of the saffron water.

Add the layers: first goes a layer of rice (for a good tahdig), followed by a layer of lentils. Continue, till all the ingredients are finished.

Adding 1 layer rice 1 layer lentils till all ingredients end up in the pot

➡️ The heat should be on medium for the first ⏳ 5 minutes.

– With the bottom of a spoon make deep holes in the lentils rice.

– Melt 2 knobs of butter in a cup of salty boiling water.

– Pour it over the pot.

– Cover the pot with the lid and a clean kitchen cloth (= damkoni) to absorb the humidity.


Put a clean kitchen cloth (preferably cotton) around the lid

– Cook on low heat, for ⏳1 hour and it’s done.

Toppings

– Fry the chunks of dates for 2 minutes on medium heat.

– Next add sultanas raisins (they are softer and burn quicker).

– Stir fry for a minute all ingredients and they are ready.

Lentils with Rice - Adas Polo Recipe

Notes

  • Some people like it without the sweet topping so sometimes the topping comes aside from the platter (as you see in the photo it’s not my case! lol)
  • For the meaty version: stir 150g/5oz of minced meat with turmeric and chopped onion. Add the meat layer alongside others to the pot.
  • Serve Adas polo with pickles, Shirazi salad, and white yogurt.

Adas polo rice with lentils
Adas polo rice with lentils
Adas polo rice with lentils

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

5/5 (10 Reviews)

Bahareh

Welcome to Foodcraftz! I'm Bahareh, a cook who started this food blog as a side project. Hope you find the recipes interesting I try to add more every month. Thanks for visiting!

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