Let’s be honest here, cooking Persian food can be time consuming. When I lived in Iran with my grandmother, I remember during my days off from school, she used to disappear in the kitchen in the early morning. At lunch time she used emerge from the kitchen with a delicious and perfectly cooked Persian meal. It’s safe to say that Ghormeh Sabzi is one of the most loved Persian Stews, but is also true that it is probably one of the most time consuming recipes because of the amount of herbs that are used.

In recent months I have been experimenting more and more with ways in which I can expedite Persian recipes. Today’s recipe is an example of how modern gadgets can help having a delicious recipe ready when you come home at the end of the day. As I have said before in my first slow cooker recipe, I am a fan of using slow cookers. With that said, I think that it’s important to do some prep work before loading the ingredients in the slow cooker. I have found that when it comes to meat, it’s pretty important to give it a quick sauté before adding it to the pot. The difference in taste is very noticeable.

For this recipe you can get everything ready the night before and load all ingredients in the morning before leaving your home. Alternatively, on a day off you can sauté everything in the morning, which takes about 30 minutes and then let the slow cooker do its thing. Regardless of when you choose to do the cooking, I suggest having the herbs cleaned and ready to go. A good way to save time when it comes to herbs is to follow the suggestion from my Frozen Persian Herbs post.

Now onto this recipe. The first time I made this recipe in the slow cooker I simply followed my original recipe for Ghormeh Sabzi. By the time it was all done, while the taste was good, the amount of water was way too much. So I made a few adjustment to the ingredients and amount of water and did a couple of test runs. I am happy to say that I am pretty happy with the results!

Ingredients (serves 4 to 6)

1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1 lb stewing meat
4 dried Persian limes
1/3 cup kidney beans, dried – soaked over night
2 cups leeks, chopped
5 cups fresh parsley, packed
3 cups fresh cilantro,packed
1 cup fresh feenigreek
1 cups fresh chives
salt & pepper
oil

Small dice onion and mince garlic. Sauté in oil until translucent.  Add turmeric and stir well.

Cut meat in cubes and add to onion.  Season with salt and pepper and allow to brown on all sides.

Place meat in the slow cooker’s pot.

Add soaked beans. Make a couple of holes in dried limes with a fork, then add to the pot.

Add some oil to the same pot that the meat and onion was cooked in and sauté leeks for a couple of minutes. I highly suggest not skipping the herb sautéing part.

Chop all the herbs and add to the leeks. Season with salt and sauté for another 5 minutes.

Add herbs to the pot.

Add two cups of water to the pot where the herbs were sautéd in and scrape the bottom of the pot.

Add the water to the slow cooker pot, cover and cook on high for 8 hours. Adjust seasoning as needed before serving.

Before leaving in the morning I loaded both my slow cooker and rice cooker. When I came home each time I made this recipe, our house smelled divine and it was such a wonderful welcoming feeling. I turned on my rice cooker and within a half an hour we had a fantastic meal ready!