Khoresh Qurmeh Sabzi( Ghormeh sabzi, vegetable and meat Stew)

A: " what is your favorite dish?"

Iranian: " Qurmeh sabzi!!!"

 yes, we Iranians love Qurmeh sabzi,  you may not like Qurmeh sabzi when you eat it for the first time but  I promise you  that  you will  be hooked to it  after the second try. Qurmeh sabzi  is one of those  appetizing dishes,  this stew is a hit for Iranians and miss with non Iranians.  most of non Iranians  don't know much about  this very popular stew. I don't want to exaggerate because some people can hate it , but as far as I know people simply love it. The stew  comes with rice, actually Iranians eat all kind of stews over Rice.

Ingredients: 

2 medium onions .....diced finely 

1 teaspoon  turmeric 

450 gr  meat ( stewing meat or lamb chops)

1/3 cup kidney beans 

3 cups fresh parsley (finely chopped )

2 cups cilantro (finely chopped )

1cup fenugreek (finely chopped )

1cup chives (finely chopped)  or persian leek

1/2 cup spinach( finely chopped)

salt and pepper   for taste

5 dried persian limes ( limoo amani)....I like sour taste  so I usually add more dried lime)

Direction

 Soak beans over night, next day  half cook beans separately,  when I want to cook  beans I usually boil  it for a few minutes, and drain the water , I repeat it twice , this way  beans do not make the stew color  darker or reddish brown  and most important  it prevents  blowing gas!!!! LOL

Dice onions finely , saute onion in oil until translucent, add meat (cut meat in 2cm cubes or use lamb chops)

add turmeric  and stir well , allow  meat to become brown  all sides.

 Add turmeric and , season with pepper (just a pinch of black  pepper) , add 3 glasses of water and cover it and cook it for about an hour, some people add  dried limes and salt too,  but I prefer to not add salt and lime at this stage because it will longer the time of cooking, as salt and sour stuff would harden the meat)

In the meantime break the dried limes into  halves and removes seeds completely, remember  that seeds would give your stew  bitter taste so you rather remove them  completely . (you can see the cleaned and broken  limes in above picture), fry finely chopped  vegetables  in  2 tablespoons oil  or 1  ..depends on your diet,  until its water evaporates and u smell the aroma , don't over fry it  at all,

Add half cooked beans  fried vegetables and dried limes to the meat  , add salt just to taste , add 2 cups water and cover it  and cook it  for 2 more hours.(or 1.30 hours)

Take the first munch and  your eyes will be widened in delight !!!!!!!!! Nooshe jaan