This is a Persian dish which I often make for my husband. It will taste much better if you use fresh herbs. It also goes very well with either fish or chicken. Hope you like it.
This comment is from the author of Persian Sabzi Polo. I apologize for not telling you what to do with the oil. I usually first bring the water to boil, then add the rice and let it boil until the rice rises to the top. Then I drain the rice, add 2 or 3 Tablespoons of oil mixed with half a cup of water in the pot before I mix the other ingredients with the rice and put it back into the pot. Then I cook the rice on medium heat for 5 minutes and then reduce the heat and cook the rice for the remaining time already mentioned in the original recipe. I hope this helps in motivating more people to make this dish. Viostars idea of mixing the oil with the rice and herbs is also good. Note: You can use lima beans from the freezer section in your grocery store instead of fresh fava beans. Thank you....Neda
Read MoreI have a persian husband and have made this several times and have tweaked it each time and I think I've come up with the perfect version that guests can't stop talking about. I cook the rice with butter and chicken stock and dried onion. When it's done I add fresh chopped dill and parsley, canned fava beans and salt and pepper. Fresh herbs taste better than boiled herbs!! It's simple and everyone who tries it at my house loves it!
Read MoreThis comment is from the author of Persian Sabzi Polo. I apologize for not telling you what to do with the oil. I usually first bring the water to boil, then add the rice and let it boil until the rice rises to the top. Then I drain the rice, add 2 or 3 Tablespoons of oil mixed with half a cup of water in the pot before I mix the other ingredients with the rice and put it back into the pot. Then I cook the rice on medium heat for 5 minutes and then reduce the heat and cook the rice for the remaining time already mentioned in the original recipe. I hope this helps in motivating more people to make this dish. Viostars idea of mixing the oil with the rice and herbs is also good. Note: You can use lima beans from the freezer section in your grocery store instead of fresh fava beans. Thank you....Neda
I have a persian husband and have made this several times and have tweaked it each time and I think I've come up with the perfect version that guests can't stop talking about. I cook the rice with butter and chicken stock and dried onion. When it's done I add fresh chopped dill and parsley, canned fava beans and salt and pepper. Fresh herbs taste better than boiled herbs!! It's simple and everyone who tries it at my house loves it!
I love Sabzi Polo! When I prepare the rice I rinse it then put it in boiling water for 5-8 minutes, drain rice in a strainer, dry pot out with a towel and pour the vegetable oil on the bottom, mix rice with herbs & favas then transfer rice to pot and cook on low for 45 minutes. Make sure to wrap a towel around the pot lid so it absorbs the water that would fall back in the rice otherwise, try it trust me it makes a difference.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. My Persian/Iranian husband recently passed away but he left us some wonderful dishes including this one. He used the towel over the pot before replacing the lid method which helped form the tadig perfectly. Before sealing the pot with the towel, he would mound the rice and dill mixture up into a "hill" in the pot and sprinkle quite a bit of turmeric on top making a golden surface to the hill. He said it is traditional for each person to get some of the tadig to crunch along with the softer rice. I miss him greatly and cook his "legacies" often. My very American son is addicted to this one.
This is delicious! To answer ur question Flix..the oil is to be mixed with the rest of the ingredients all together, and you can also use butter instead of oil.
I made this recipe with brown rice instead of white (personal preference). It tasted great! I think I might try it next time with fresh herbs added at the end (instead of during the cooking process).
To all those that are having a hard time getting the rice from the bottom of the pot can use this little secret...Once that crispy rice/tadik is done run some cold water in the sink and put the bottom of your hot pan in it...It will be much easier to remove .......... I gave it four stars because i hate sabzi pollo but my family loves it so ...its a good recipe...but one star goes for my hatred of it :D
I've made this recipe a while ago, and I thought it was a good Persian rice dish. But, I noticed that one person used dried beans? Dried bean have to be soaked overnight and also cooked before you can do anything with them! Unfortunately they gave the recipe one star for having a failed recipe when they used, hard dried beans. And the rice is supposed to be slightly stuck, I usually just slide something under it and then place it back on top of the serving dish of rice. Does anyone have any tips to offer for the best crust? ie: type of pan/wrapping lid in a tea towel?
My friend's mother used to make this, and I have looked for a long time for the recipe. Thanks! I loved it.
This made the house smell wonderful! I used another reviewers recommendation and put a damp towel over the top, worked like a charm and the crust at the bottom was great!
This did not work for me at all! The rice was hard and dry at the end of the cooking time. I tried adding more water and simmering it longer but it just ended up gummy on the outside and crunchy on the inside. During the first boil is the lid supposed to be on? Maybe that is where the trouble started.
Quite delicious! The dill overpowered other herbs but was very interesting overall. Made a lot too (even though I made 1/4th of the recipe given)!
Disaster. Recipe should say that fava beans were FRESH. ugh :( I used dry ones. The rice tasted ok but I'm really annoyed about the bean situation. Plus the rice on the bottom of the pan is a real pain to get out.
first time cooking with favas and we loved this! i used only 2 cups long grain brown rice in 4 cups of water at the start. then a little less herbs for the lesser volume. otherwise followed the recipe and it turned out great. we liked the proportions of favas to rice we got. also took another reviewer's advice and saved some herbs to add fresh at the end. will definitely make again. thank you!
This was really good. Still not as good as I've had at the restaurant or the mosque, but that could of been because of me. I will definitely make again when I've got some dill on hand.
i m always one of the Sabzi polow and fava 's fan,but i think you should note pepper,cinnamon and turmeric are optional,with these spice my sabzi polow's tase was a little changed to Indian food,and you can also cook it without fava beans ,and serve it with meat or fish(fried or cooked),it will be more delicious with Iranian rice,
really tasty rice dish, i loved that crispy rice at the bottom of the pan. I will be making this again. Thanks for sharing!
This recipe was really good, but I got a little confused with what water I was doing what with, so my rice came out a little mushy. But for flavor, I used all fresh herbs and it was fantastic! Always attempting to add some more protein into my vegan diet, I added sliced almonds in the last 10 minutes as well. On accident, today on day 2 I was eating a Cutie orange and decided to throw it in (cold) to the rice I heated up. It was an amazing accident! It was great without the orange, but it added a little something extra. Also, I had no idea of how much tumeric to put in but my rice came out really yellow and had great flavor. I put maybe 2 tbsp in it. Thanks for the great and new recipe!
I had never had fava beans before; made this for a Persian dinner guest, and his remark was that it tasted like his mother's cooking. I thought it was delicious. So I made it again the next time I had fava beans - this time they were from my own garden.
Was so delicious I'm making it again tonight. ..I ate the leftovers yesterday for lunch. Trading is exactly like I remember from my Persian friend.
Couldn't find fava beans, but substituted baby limas and it came out just as I remembered it. However, this recipe makes a lot. I mean A LOT! So you might want to scale it back a bit.
Hello, I am a Persian Girl from Iran. It is one of our traditional meal which is usually served with cooked lamb or beef specially the muscles parts. The rice is better to be less cooked avoiding breaking down or getting sticky. for the herbal matterials we only add fava bean and dill. I will put some photos when I cook it next time. Hope you enjoy it ;)
This is a fantastic dish and my husband really enjoyed it. I ended up cutting it in half recipe size, increased the oil and spices just a little bit and it was so good. I am not normally the cook in our household, I am the baker but his birthday is coming up so I decided to make this. The recipe did get me in trouble though. He was skeptical about me trying something that isn’t just burgers and fries because I don’t normally cook (he cooks a lot, things like Thai food with peanut sauce) but it was a first to me. Now that he realized I can cook like this, he just asked me to make it again for dinner. I am suspecting my days of not being the one cooking dinner at all are over... Still, it was worth it.
I did half the recipe and cooked with chicken broth. It was tasty but it didn't wow me. I had cooked in cast iron pan but wasn't able to get enough of the crust that was referred to. I did think that it tasted better the next day when flavor blended more. I did enjoy he burst of cilantro.
As always I adjusted certain things, but kept it as close to the recipe as possible. Added caramelized minced onions, used fresh herbs, used a bit of chicken stock... Also a little fresh lime. Perfection. Thank you for the inspiration!
