A few years ago, I had this pomegranate walnut stew at a Persian restaurant and I thought WOW. Of course, the next step was to try and make it. So I fussed around online and put together a recipe a couple of years back. Unfortunately I have no idea which actual recipe it was based on. For the Sabzi Polow, I cheated this time around. It is generally made similar to biryani: you cook the rice part way and then layer it with other stuff and continue cooking. Here is a great recipe. But we already had a lot of cooked basmati just waiting in the fridge and I was tired, so I improvised. I’ve actually faked biryani this way too and it was good!
Fesenjan
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion thinly sliced
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup Trader Joe’s Pomegranate Glaze
2 cups water
Salt
2 tablespoons sugar
Soy or wheat strips or gilled/fried eggplant.
- Heat oil in a medium sauce pan and saute onions over medium heat.
- Grind walnuts to a powder in a food processor and add to onions.
- Stir for a few minutes until they brown a little and then add the Pomegranate Glaze and water.
- Cook down for about 20-30 minutes so that the oil in the walnut separates out some.
- Serve over any soy or wheat strips or grilled/fried eggplant.
Sabzi Polow
3 cups cooked basmati rice [OR cook basmati rice in salt until it is almost done]
1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/3 cup finely chopped mint
1/3 cup finely chopped dill
Salt
2 tablespoons oil
- Mix together the cooked rice, herbs, quite a bit of salt (rice really soaks it up), and a little water so it isn’t super dry.
- Heat oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat.
- Add rice mixture and cover and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes.
- Lower heat a little and cook for another 15-20 minutes. The bottom should have a nice crust.
- Put a plate over the pan and flip over so that the rice comes out in one piece with a nice coating of crusty rice.
- We ran out of walnuts (so sad!), so I used a few pecans to make up the difference. I think it worked okay, but walnuts are so much healthier than pecans.
- I love the Pomegranate Glaze from Trader Joe’s. I haven’t actually tried pomegranate molasses from a Persian market yet, but that is what a lot of recipes call for. Are they the same thing?
- I try and limit soy and wheat meat products somewhat because soy and wheat aren’t the best things for you, but Tejas is a big fan. Where I might have used eggplant, he wants the soy strips!
- I talk about flipping over the rice so it comes out in a nice piece, but it didn’t come out that way for me this time 🙂
Oh my goodness … I’ve had that Persian pomegranate stew before, too. So delicious! I wanted to make it but couldn’t get organized to find a Persian market to get pomegranate syrup. Now that TJs has it, I’ll try it!
I hope Trader Joe’s still carries it! I used a bottle that my mom had from a while back. It is so yummy!