VEGAN BAGHALI POLO // PERSIAN DILL AND FAVA BEAN RICE
At last… the meal you were waiting for but didn’t know you were. Non-Persian vegan friends do not scroll past. This rice is like something you have never tried. Yes… I know what you’re thinking. How many rice dishes can Iranians have? They’re endless. And I can’t lie to you, they will never cease to amaze your tastebuds.
🌿 Baghali polo or Persian dill rice is a fragrant rice dish: the fresh flavours of dill with a gorgeous, steamed fava bean and fluffy basmati rice. I serve it here with kookoo-ye baghali, which is a kind of herb frittata packed full of parsley, coriander and dill, with onions, garlic and spices.
🍳 Kookoo is a popular vegetarian dish normally made with egg; we have many different kinds of kookoo. In this recipe, I substitute the egg with chia seeds, which works perfectly. Baghali polo is sometimes served with meat but is commonly served with kookoo.
🍖 Vegetarian foods in our cuisine are not uncommon as meat has historically been the more expensive option and thus kept to a minimum for many.
Serve this dish with torshi (pickles), and a creamy vegan yoghurt-mint sauce. (How many herbs is that now?)
VEGAN BAGHALI POLO // PERSIAN DILL AND FAVA BEAN RICE
Course:
Main Course
Prep Time:
15 minutes
Cook Time:
45 minutes
Total Time:
1 hour
Servings:
4-6
INGREDIENTS
3 cups of rice
2 bunches of fresh dill or 8 tablespoons of dried dill
500g of peeled, cooked fava beans
2 tbsp of salt
Vegetable oil
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Wash 3 cups of basmati rice until water is no longer cloudy.
2. Boil in 8 cups of boiling water with 2 tbsp of salt until half-cooked (6-10 minutes). The rice should be tender but still hard in the middle. Drain the half-cooked rice in a colander, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.
3. Mix ¼ cup of oil with two spatulas of half-cooked rice. Place some broad beans and dill on the bottom. Then spread the rice-and-oil mixture at the bottom of a large, non-stick pot.
4. Place a quarter of the rice on top and then add a quarter of the dried or fresh dill and mix gently with a fork. Repeat by adding more broad beans and dill, rice, then mixing. Continue until all the ingredients have been used up.
5. Poke 5 holes into the rice with the back of a spoon but be careful not to disturb the bottom. Pour over 70ml of oil evenly with a slotted spoon. Leave it on medium heat with the lid on for 10 minutes.
6. Next, turn it to the lowest possible heat and put on the lid wrapped in a towelcloth or damkoni. Leave it to steam for 40-45 minutes longer.
7. When it is ready, place a large dish over the pot and flip it upside down to reveal your tahdig. You may wish to run the bottom of the pot under running cold water to make sure the tahdig has separated from the sides of the pot.
8. Now you can serve your Baghali Polo with Kookoo-ye Baghali or Vegan Mahiche!
NOTES
You can buy frozen fava beans which are already peeled. The peeling process is a very long one if you are using fresh!
For decoration, you may remove some of the rice and mix it with a little bit of bloomed saffron (1/6 tsp of ground saffron brewed in 1/6 cup of boiling water). This will give it a yellow colour, and you can use it to decorate by placing on top of the tahdig, or around it.