Recipes › Iranian

Iranian cuisine

Every Iranian dish we have, with the recipe for each — 79 of them, each one written for this site rather than adapted from anybody else's.

By protein

• Chicken (8)
• Beef (7)
• Veal (2)
• Duck (1)
• Lamb (18)
• Egg (17)
• Vegetarian (36)
• Vegetables (18)
• Desserts (20)
• Pastes, sauces and basics (16)

By region

• Middle Eastern recipes (159)

Every Iranian dish

• Abgoosht, sourced from Iran. It is cooked in one pot and then strained, and the solids are pounded into a second course. Lamb.
• Advieh, sourced from Iran. It is two different blends, and the one for rice goes on after the rice is cooked. vegan.
• Albaloo Polo, sourced from Iran. The cherries are cooked down with sugar and their syrup is held back to pour over at the end. vegan.
• Ash-e Doogh, sourced from Iran. The yogurt is the liquid rather than a finish, so it is tempered before it is heated. Lamb, Egg.
• Aush Reshteh, sourced from Iran. The noodles go in at the end and the kashk is stirred in off the heat so it cannot split. vegetarian.
• Baghali Ghatogh, sourced from Iran. The eggs are cracked in whole at the end and there is no meat in it at all. Egg, vegetarian.
• Baghali Polo, sourced from Iran. The beans are boiled in the rice water and the dill is layered in dry. Lamb.
• Barbari Bread, sourced from Iran. It is glazed with a flour-and-water mixture before baking, which gives it a skin like a pretzel. vegan.
• Bastani, sourced from Iran. Flakes of frozen clotted cream are stirred in at the end and stay solid in the finished ice cream. Egg, vegetarian.
• Bonab Kababi, sourced from Iran. Three ingredients and no pepper, made as one enormous skewer rather than several small ones. Lamb.
• Borani, sourced from Iran. The vegetable is boiled and then fried before the garlicky yogurt goes on. vegetarian.
• Bozbash, sourced from Iran. The green version of the mashed stew: herbs and leeks where the other has potato and tomato. Lamb.
• Chelow Kabab, sourced from Iran. The skewer is laid on the rice and pulled out from under a piece of flatbread held on top of it. Beef, Lamb.
• Delal Sauce, sourced from Iran. It is herbs preserved by being heavily salted, and it is eaten on raw fruit. vegan.
• Doogh, sourced from Iran. It is fermented for three or four days after the salt goes in, so it is not diluted yogurt. vegetarian.
• Dopiaza, sourced from Iran. The onions go in twice, boiled into the sauce and then fried on top. Lamb.
• Faloodeh, sourced from Iran. The cooked starch batter is pressed through a sieve straight into iced water. vegan.
• Fesenjan, sourced from Iran. The ground walnuts are cooked until their oil comes out and the sauce goes dark. Chicken, Duck.
• Gaz, sourced from Iran. An egg-white nougat whose original sweetener is an insect honeydew, now usually replaced with glucose syrup. Egg, vegetarian.
• Gerashi Yogurt Kebab, sourced from Iran. The cubes are spread on a cloth to dry before the yogurt goes on, and then marinated for at least a day. Veal, Lamb.
• Ghandi Bread, sourced from Iran. There is no yeast in it at all: it is raised with baking powder, barely kneaded, and pricked with holes an inch apart. Egg, vegetarian.
• Gheimeh, sourced from Iran. The potatoes are fried separately into crisp straws and go on at the table. Lamb.
• Ghormeh Sabzi, sourced from Iran. The herbs are fried slowly until they darken and smell nutty, and that is most of the flavour. Lamb.
• Gondi, sourced from Iran. Chickpea flour binds it instead of bread or rice, and cardamom is the only spice in it. Chicken, Veal, Lamb.
• Gosh-e Fil, sourced from Iran. The dough is rolled thin, pinched into an elephant's ear and deep-fried with no filling in it. Egg, vegetarian.
• Iranian Pizza, sourced from Iran. The base is thick, the cheese goes on in quantity, and it is often made with no tomato sauce at all. Beef.
• Jujeh Kabab, sourced from Iran. The marinade is onion, lemon and saffron and its own article names nothing else in it. Chicken.
• Kabab Barg, sourced from Iran. The meat is cut into thin strips, which is what barg means, and marinated in olive oil rather than yogurt. Beef, Lamb.
• Kabab Koobideh, sourced from Iran. The mince is kneaded semi-frozen so the fat stays in separate particles and bursts as pockets of juice. Lamb.
• Kabab Torsh, sourced from Iran. The marinade is a thick paste of crushed walnuts and pomegranate juice rather than a liquid. Chicken, Beef.
• Kalehjoosh, sourced from Iran. Walnuts and kashk carried by dried fenugreek and dried mint, with no noodles in it at all. vegetarian.
• Kashk, sourced from Iran. The yogurt is boiled first and fermented afterwards, which is the reverse of how yogurt is made. vegetarian.
• Kashk Bademjan, sourced from Iran. It is a dip rather than a stew, and the kashk goes in off the heat. vegetarian.
• Kateh, sourced from Iran. The water is absorbed rather than drained, which is why it is sticky and has no tahdig. vegetarian.
• Khoresh Bademjan, sourced from Iran. The aubergines are salted, fried and added at the end so they keep their shape. Lamb.
• Khoresh Karafs, sourced from Iran. It is soured with verjuice and the celery is the bulk of it rather than a flavouring. Chicken, Beef, Lamb.
• Kolompeh, sourced from Iran. The date paste is enclosed completely, so it bakes like a small pie rather than a filled biscuit. vegetarian.
• Koloocheh, sourced from Iran. It is stamped with a pattern on top, and filled with dates and walnuts. Egg, vegetarian.
• Kuku, sourced from Iran. There is less egg in it than a frittata and it sets slowly in a covered pan before being turned. Egg, vegetarian.
• Lavash, sourced from Iran. It is rolled paper-thin and slapped onto the inside wall of the oven, where it cooks in under a minute. vegan.
• Lavashak, sourced from Iran. The fruit puree is salted and spread exactly two millimetres thick. vegan.
• Lighvan Cheese, sourced from Iran. The curd is drained in triangular cloth bags and then ripened in brine for three or four months.
• Loobia Polo, sourced from Iran. The meat and beans are cooked to a finished stew before any rice touches them. Beef, Lamb.
• Mahyawa, sourced from Iran. Whole dried anchovies are ground to a powder and then fermented with the toasted spices. Fish.
• Masghati, sourced from Iran. It is a starch jelly, cooked until it turns transparent, with no gelatine in it at all. vegetarian.
• Mirza Ghassemi, sourced from Iran. The aubergines are grilled whole until the skins blacken, so the finished dish tastes smoked. Egg, vegetarian.
• Nan-e Berenji, sourced from Iran. It is rice flour, and the cookies are kept white rather than allowed to brown. Egg, vegetarian.
• Nan-e Nokhodchi, sourced from Iran. It is made entirely from chickpea flour, with no wheat in it at all. vegetarian.
• Nargesi, sourced from Iran. The only seasoning is salt, garlic and pepper, and the eggs go in last onto spinach already cooked down. Egg, vegetarian.
• Nettle Soup, sourced from Iran. Pomegranate paste is in every version, and the water the nettles boiled in is kept back as a tea. vegan.
• Noghl, sourced from Iran. Roasted almonds are turned in boiling rose syrup until a white shell builds up on them. vegan.
• Piti, sourced from Iran. It is baked in sealed individual crocks under a lump of tail fat. Lamb.
• Pomegranate Soup, sourced from Iran. Pomegranate juice is the liquid and the seeds go in whole at the very end. vegan.
• Poolaki, sourced from Iran. Vinegar goes into the syrup, which is what lets it set as a thin clear disc instead of going grainy. vegan.
• Qottab, sourced from Iran. The almond turnover is deep-fried rather than baked, and dusted thickly afterwards. Egg, vegetarian.
• Reshteh Khoshkar, sourced from Iran. Rice batter is poured through a cup with holes in it onto a hot plate, making a lace sheet that is then filled and folded. vegan.
• Sabzi Khordan, sourced from Iran. Nothing is cooked or dressed: whole raw herbs on a platter, eaten by the handful.
• Sabzi Polo, sourced from Iran. Fenugreek is the herb that makes it, and it goes in at a fraction of the weight of the others. vegan.
• Salad Olivier, sourced from Iran. The Iranian version is built on chicken and Persian pickled cucumbers, and it is eaten in a sandwich. Chicken, Egg.
• Samanu, sourced from Iran. There is no sugar in it at all: the sweetness comes entirely from sprouted wheat. vegan.
• Sangak, sourced from Iran. It is baked straight onto a bed of hot river pebbles and then thrown down hard to knock them off. vegan.
• Sharbat, sourced from Iran. It is made as a concentrate thick enough to eat with a spoon, and diluted at the glass. vegan.
• Sheermal, sourced from Iran. Warm sweetened milk replaces the water in the dough entirely, with saffron and cardamom in it. vegetarian.
• Shirazi Salad, sourced from Iran. Everything is diced very fine and dressed with verjuice, then left to sit for an hour. vegan.
• Shirin Polo, sourced from Iran. The fruit and nuts go on after the steaming, never during it. vegetarian.
• Sholezard, sourced from Iran. There is no milk or cream in it: the rice is cooked in water until it goes creamy by itself. vegetarian.
• Sirabij, sourced from Iran. It is made with garlic leaves rather than cloves, fried first, with the eggs scrambled into them. Egg, vegetarian.
• Sohan, sourced from Iran. It is thickened with wheat sprout and egg yolk, which is what makes it a brittle rather than a caramel. Egg, vegetarian.
• Sohan Asali, sourced from Iran. It is built on honey with no cereal in it at all, and sets hard enough to shatter into shards. vegetarian.
• Sosis Bandari, sourced from Iran. The sausage is already cooked, so what you are making is a thick chilli and onion stew around it.
• Tabriz Meatballs, sourced from Iran. One enormous meatball a person, built around a core of boiled egg, walnut, fried onion and dried apricot. Beef, Egg.
• Tabrizi Lovuez, sourced from Iran. There is no baking at all: the syrup is beaten until it loses its gloss and then almond is worked in. vegan.
• Taftan, sourced from Iran. The dough is enriched with milk, yoghurt and eggs, which is what sets it apart from the plain flatbreads. Egg, vegetarian.
• Tahchin, sourced from Iran. The rice is bound with yogurt and egg so the base sets into a slab you can cut. Chicken, Lamb, Egg.
• Tahdig, sourced from Iran. The fat goes into the empty pot first and a separate layer is laid on it, so that layer crisps instead of the rice. Lamb, Egg.
• Yazdi Cake, sourced from Iran. It is raised with yogurt and three separate raising agents, which is what makes it so open. Egg, vegetarian.
• Yazdi Coffee, sourced from Iran. A hot coal is dropped into the pot, and the coffee is then strained through silk. vegan.
• Zereshk Polo, sourced from Iran. The barberries are warmed for under a minute with sugar and saffron water, because they scorch. Chicken.
• Zeytoon Parvardeh, sourced from Iran. The olives are dressed with pomegranate molasses and ground walnuts and served cold. vegan.

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