قرمه سبزی (Ghormeh Sabzi)
Sometimes called Iranian herb stew or Qormeh Sabzi. This stew is a very popular in Iran and other countries of Persian descent. Ghormeh is the Farsi word meaning gourmet and Sabzi means vegetables, so ghormeh Sabzi to mean the vegetable gourmet.
Its taste is fresh and a bit citric, contrasted by an aftertaste of meaty warmth and complex flavor. This stew is not easy to master, so please take every caution noted in the preparation below.
The preparation time is about 1.5 to 2 hours.
Ingredients
- 3 limo amani (dried limes)
- 500 gr veal, cut to chunks
- 1 leek cut into fine slices
- 500 gr red beans, soaked overnight
- 1 cup of coriander, (finely chopped, tightly packed)
- 2 cups of parsely (finely chopped, tightly packed)
- 5 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 fresh lime
- 1 teaspoon powdered turmeric
- 1 tablespoon powdered fenugreek
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon wheat flour
- 1 liter beef broth
Preparation
Start by soaking your beans for at least 4 hours, the more time the better, you can change the water after the first hours and use it to water your plants, as bean water is rich in plant nutrients.
When you are ready to start set your trusty cooking pot on the stove, set to medium, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Grab the meat and sprinkle it with flour covering all surfaces of the chunks well. Put them in the pot and brown them well. Do not remove the sticky residues from the pot; that’s the magic part.
OK, now that the meat has been browned add the green part of the leek and stir well, try to scrape any meat that might still cling to the surface so it is floating freely in the stew.
After the leek has released some of its water add the beef broth, the turmeric and the red beans and the limo amani (make a little hole in them with a pointy knife for best results) to your pot. Stir and set the stove to low. Cover it with a heavy lid and wait for one hour, check on its progress every 15 minutes and stir it gently and add water when necessary.
In a separate container mix together the rest of the leek, the coriander, parsley, garlic and fenugreek. Heat up a large pan with the other tablespoon of olive oil and sauté the herbs until they turn dark green. Put the resulting mix in the pot and cover for another half hour (it might be more if your beans are not ready yet). Check on it after 15 minutes and stir it to avoid any burning to happen.
Before serving turn off the heat and add the juice of your fresh lime (you can leave this as an option for your guests as well), make sure that the last three plates you serve contain a limo amani each.
You can serve the stew with a side plate of delicious persian rice to compensate the citric flavor of your ghormeh sabzi.
This recipe will serve 6 hungry stew lovers.