Khoresh-e Goje Sabz (Aloocheh) – Persian Green Plum and Herb Stew
Khoresh-e Goje Sabz is a flavourful lamb and herb stew with mouthwatering Persian green plums. As you may know, we Iranians love all things sour and so one thing many of us are obsessed with is Goje Sabz, Persian green plums. These are plums that are harvested unripe and therefore they are wonderfully crunchy and sour. In the stew they become soft but they give it a refreshing sour taste. You can find them in Middle Eastern and Turkish grocery stores and they are in season now.
You can easily turn Khoresh-e Aloocheh vegan by replacing the meat with the same amount of mushrooms of your choice. You can cut down the cooking time by one hour without the meat and simply sauté the mushrooms in a bit of vegetable oil over high heat for 15 minutes before the sauce is done. Add them to the stew and let it simmer for a final 10 minutes.
Serve this mouthwatering lamb stew with aromatic Persian saffron rice.
Cook the most popular Persian dishes at home with the help of my e-book.
Ingredients (serving 4)
500g / 1.1 lbs lamb leg or shoulder
500ml / 2 cups water
350g / 12.3oz Goje Sabz (about 25 Persian green plums)
200g / 7oz parsley (chopped, without stalks)
60g / 2.1oz mint (chopped, without stalks)
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
8 tbsp vegetable oil
Juice of one lemon (optional)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp black pepper
Salt to taste
Time
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 1 h 50 min
Total: 2 h 10 min
Method of cooking Khoresh-e Goje Sabz
Preparations
Wash the herbs, allowing enough time for them to dry on a clean kitchen towel. Make sure to keep the parsley and mint separate. The reason for this is, that the parsley needs to be fried much longer than the mint. That’s because parsley has a higher water content than mint and therefore takes longer to sauté. If the mint is fried for too long, it will taste bitter.
Cut the meat into chunky pieces. If the meat you have is on the bone, don’t throw the bone away. It will give your stew amazing flavour.
Finely chop the onion and garlic.
Finely chop the parsley and mint (keeping them separate).
Sauté the ingredients
Sauté the chopped parsley in 3 tbsp of veg oil for about 10 minutes until it turns dark green. Transfer it to a bowl. Then briefly sauté the mint in 1 tbsp veg oil for about 30 seconds only. Now you can add the mint to the same bowl as the parley.
Sear the meat in 3 tbsp of vegetable oil until golden brown on each side. Remove the meat from the pan and gently caramelise the chopped onions in the same oil for about 15 minutes until golden brown and delicious. Then add the chopped garlic and let both sauté together for about 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste, turmeric and black pepper to the onions and stir everything into a paste, letting it sauté for a couple of minutes.
Get the stew simmering
Return the meat (plus bones if you have them) and fried herbs to the pan or transfer them to the pot you want to cook your stew in, together with the onion mixture.
Boil 0.5 litres (about 2 cups) of water and add it to the other ingredients in the pot. Season with salt, put on the lid and let the meat simmer in the stew over low to medium heat for about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Once the stew has been simmering for 1 hour add the goje sabz to it and let it simmer for the remaining 30 minutes.
Taste your stew. If you like it more sour add lemon juice also adjust the salt to your taste.
Serve your Khoresh-e Goje Sabz with aromatic rice, red onions, salad, yoghurt and/or fresh herbs. Enjoy!
I’d love to see your Khoresh-e Goje Sabz! 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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