One of the easiest and most delicious Persian dishes is Khoresh Karafs. Karafs or celery is the primary component of this tarty dish. So if you are looking for a filling dish that will give you a lot of energy but keeps your waistline in check, look no further.
Ingredients:
- 1-2 heads of celery
- 1.5 cups of water
- 1.5 cups of chopped parsley
- 1-2 cans of chickpeas
- 1 tbsp 7 spice
- 3-4 small dried lemons (lemo almany)
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
My two favorite ways to cook this are on the stove or in a slow cooker. This is one of those dishes that it doesn’t come out well in a pressure cooker. Normally, this dish would call for sautéed onions with turmeric, but I am still staying away from onion and garlic. To give that similar flavor of onion, I typically add 1/2 tsp of ginger. But since we are using 7 spice no need to add the ginger.
To start, wash and chop the celery into 1-1.5cm pieces; for this step, I try to keep the celery closer to 1.5cm because it keeps the crunch. Next, coarsely chop enough parsley for 1.5 cups. The last bit to prep is add 3-4 small dried lemons into a nutribullet with your 7 spice mix and salt and pepper. Then grind until it becomes a fine powder.
In your pot or slow cooker add 1.5-2 cups of water and all of your ingredients. I found that placing everything in the slow cooker for 1 hour is perfect. After everything is in the slow cooker, mix the above ingredients and leave your slow cooker set at high. I am using an electric pressure cooker that has a slow cooker option. The temperature is well regulated.
The trick to the dish is to balance the cooking time so that the celery is crunchy and hasn’t started to go soft. Also, the water level should only file halfway to the contents in the slow cooker. As everything starts to cook the celery will lose water, and with the use of canned chickpeas, much water will not be lost.
At the 45-minute mark, I will typically check the stew to see how the flavors are meshing and make sure that the celery still has a crunch. Depending on your taste, if you would like the dish to be a little tartier, squeeze half of the lemon around now and check to see if a little more salt is needed.
All that is left is plating the khorest on your favorite type of rice.
