Kabuli Pulao – The Afghan National Dish

Kabuli Pulao is an incredibly delicious dish from Afghanistan, as the name suggests. This light and aromatic rice dish with lamb, other meat or poultry, that’s jeweled with carrots and raisins is the Afghan national dish. It is also popular in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Other forms of the spelling include Qabuli Pulao, Qabeli Palaw and Qabuli Palau. In Persian, we call it Qabeli Polo.

Qabuli, Qabeli, Kabuli, … whatever you may call it, it’s absolutely drool-worthy and I dare you to give it a try! The first time I had it in an Afghan restaurant a few years back and it became one of my favourite dishes. I’m sure you’ll love it too, so I just had to borrow this yummy dish from our neighbours and come up with a recipe for it.

You can download this recipe as a printable PDF for a small fee here.

Cook the most popular Persian dishes at home with the help of my e-book.

Here is a short video of the cooking process on my Instagram.

Time

Prep: 30 min

Cook: 2 h 30 min

Total: 3 h

Ingredients (serving 4)

2 cups / 400g basmati rice

2 lamb shanks (1.9lbs / 850g incl. bones) or lamb shoulder or leg (1.1lbs / 500g without bones)

3 carrots (7oz / 200g) (I also used a trio of British Chantenay carrots to give some extra colour to my Ghabeli Polo and for my Thadig.)

1/2 cup / 80g brown raisins (keshmesh poloei)

1 onion

5 cloves garlic

3 tbsp sesame oil

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp butter

3 tsp cumin powder

3 tsp sugar

2 tsp cumin powder

1 1/2 tsp cardamom powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground garam masala

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp salt + extra to taste

1/4 tsp ground saffron

3 ice cubes (for blooming the saffron)

1 tbsp slivered pistachios as garnish (optional)

Method for cooking Kabuli Pulao

Prep the ingredients

Transfer the ice cubes into a glass. Sprinkle the saffron over the ice. Let the ice melt. The saffron will dissolve in the water. Alternatively, you can dissolve it in a few tbsp of freshly boiled water.

Peel the onion, cut it in half and slice it. Peel the garlic cloves and finely chop them.

Peel the carrots and chop them in julienne size.

Cook the sauce

I used lamb shanks for my Kabuli Pulao, for the purpose of presentation. You can however use lamb shoulder or leg. In this case, cut the meat into about 2″ / 5cm large chunks.

Heat 3 tbsp of sesame oil in a frying pan and sear the lamb shanks (or cubes) for about 10 minutes until golden brown from all sides.

Remove the meat from the pan and gently fry the onions in the same oil over low to medium heat. After 15 minutes add the garlic and fry both together for another 3 min.

Season with turmeric, black pepper, 1 tsp of cumin powder, and salt. Combine everything well.

Add 2 cups / 470ml of freshly boiled water. Add a few teaspoons of saffron water.

Give the mixture a good stir and return the meat to the pan.

Put on the lid and let it simmer over low heat for 1h 45 min to 2h 15 min. If you’re using whole lamb shanks, turn them occasionally. (After 45 minutes you can start parboiling and cooking the rice)

Note: Usually, the rice is layered with spices, meat, sauce, carrots, and raisins, similar to Persian Loobia Polo. If you want to use this method you should wait with parboiling the rice until the meat is perfectly cooked.

Because I wanted to leave my lamb shanks whole for the presentation I took another approach and only layered the rice with the spices only. Then I served my Kabuli polo with caramelised carrots, raisins, and slivered pistachios on top. I also served the meat and sauce separately. If you would like to use my method you can start parboiling and steaming the rice once the meat has been simmering for 45 minutes.

Below I describe the more traditional approach.

Sauté the carrots

Melt the butter in a small pan. Add the carrots and sugar, close the lid, and gently caramelise them over low heat for about 10 minutes.

Wash the raisins and fry them in 1 tbsp butter for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.

Remove them from the pan and set them aside. The raisins shouldn’t be fried for longer, because they would bloat and burst.

Parboil the rice

Bring a large enough pot of water to boil and dissolve 2 tbsp salt in it. Don’t worry, you will rinse most of the salt off later.

1. Wash the rice in a bowl by adding cool water to it, moving it around with your hand, draining the water, and repeating this process 3 to 4 times to remove the rice starch as much as possible. This results in fluffier, less sticky rice.

2. Add the rice to the pot and keep the water boiling. Let the rice parboil until the rice corns are soft on the outside but still have a bite in the center.

3. How long this process takes depends on your rice. I’m using Tilda Pure Basmati Rice and it takes 4 minutes for the rice to cook to this stage. It might take anything from 3 to 7 minutes.

4. Once your rice is parboiled, drain it in a strainer and immediately rinse it with cold water to interrupt the cooking process and wash off any excess salt. Finish the sauce

Once the meat is cooked, remove it from the pan. The sauce should be nicely reduced by now. Sieve the sauce through a strainer to filter out the onion and garlic. All their goodness is now in the sauce and you can discard them.

Layer the rice

Set some of the carrots and raisins aside for later as garnish.

You can combine some of the parboiled rice with a few tsp of saffron water and add it to the pot first for a nicer-looking tahdig.

Place a non-stick pot over medium heat. Cover the bottom with 4 tbsp vegetable oil.

If you want to make Carrot Tahdig, cut the Chantenay Carrots in half and place them flat-side down in the pot. Carefully add the saffron rice.

Now add a layer of white parboiled rice. Then add a little sauce, a little meat, some carrots and raisins, and sprinkle with some of the ground garam masala, remaining cumin, and cardamom powder. Repeat these steps until all the ingredients are used up. If you’re using this method, you can pour the remaining saffron water over the rice in the end.

In my alternative method I only combined the parboiled rice with the spices: garam masala, cumin, and cardamom powder before letting it steam.

Poke 3 holes halfway through the rice with the back of a wooden spoon. Line the lid with a clean kitchen towel. As soon as steam rises from the rice, put the lid on.

Reduce the temperature to low and let the Kabuli Pulao steam for 45 to 50 min. 

Serve your Kabuli Pulao

Serve your Kabuli Pulao on a large plate. Garnish with the carrots and raisins, you set aside earlier and sprinkle with slivered pistachios, if you like. Enjoy!

If you used my method of serving the whole shanks, you can now mix the remaining saffron water with a small part of the rice and garnish the white rice with it. Arrange the caramelised carrots and raisins on top, as well as optional slivered pistachios. Serve the rice with the lamb shanks and sauce separately.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! If you have any questions please let me know in the comments, I’m always happy to help. 

I’d love to see your Kabuli Pulao! Feel free to tag me with @igotitfrommymaman on Facebook or Insta so I can take a look and give you a thumbs up!

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