Koofteh Sabzi Shirazi Recipe _ Persian Vegetables Meatballs
Koofteh sabzi Shirazi is one of the traditional and old dishes of Shiraz city in Iran. As the name suggests, this dish is prepared from local vegetables.
This Persian vegetable meatball is prepared from a combination of rice, chickpeas, special vegetables, and minced meat, which is filled with internal ingredients such as Bukhara plums and walnuts and cooked in a special soup.
This dish comes with very important points that if you don’t follow, the meatballs will fall apart and won’t have the necessary stickiness.
But don’t worry, in this recipe, I will tell you all the necessary tips to have excellent vegetable meatballs. All the basic ingredients of this dish are the same as Ashe sabzi Shirazi and the only difference is the minced meat.
Koofteh sabzi Shirazi Ingredient:
| Vegetables: leek, parsley, tarragon and dill | one kilo |
| Hot onion | 150 grams |
| Raisins | one cup |
| Bukhara plums | 7 pcs |
| Walnut kernels | 7 pcs |
| Half-grain rice | one and a half cups |
| Peas | one and a half cups |
| Minced meat | 300 grams |
| Black pepper | one teaspoon |
| Red pepper | one teaspoon |
| Salt | two teaspoons |
| Turmeric | two teaspoons |
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time : 2 hours
for: 4 serving
Instruction:
1. In the first step, you should know these points we soak the chickpeas the night before to eliminate their bloating. Be sure to change the chickpea water several times to completely remove the swelling.
Then you have to soak the half-grain rice for about 2 to 2 hours, depending on the type of rice you have.
2. Wash the vegetables and place them on a cloth to drain their water. Then chop them enough. You can put the vegetables in the food processor and chop them.
3. Grind all the ingredients, including peas and rice, in a food processor. Then pour the ingredients into a large steel or Pyrex container.
We pour chopped vegetables with chopped peas, half-grain rice, and necessary spices.
4. In this step, we knead all the ingredients by hand until they are completely mixed together.
5. Then add minced meat then we put all the ingredients again in the meat grinder or food processor until they are completely mixed together.
Pay attention that the ingredients are not crushed too much and do not become soft. Crushing should be medium like in the picture.
Note that we will leave one-third of these ingredients for the meatball soup that we will explain below.
6. Then take a little of the material and put it in the palm of your hand and press the inside of the material with your thumb.
Add steamed plums, raisins, or walnuts in the middle. After that, we round the ingredients to the size of a small orange and put them in a container.
Make sure that the meatballs are completely uniform and there are no holes or seams on their surface.
7. Then we go to make meatball soup. To prepare meatball soup, boil half of a pot of water until it boils. Then put the meatballs that you have already set aside into the water.
Pour hot onion, a little oil, and salt into the soup and stir until mixed.
8. When the ash starts to boil, slowly put the meatballs into the pot one by one. Spread the meatballs all over the pot so that they don’t touch each other.
9. After two to three minutes, the meatballs will rise to the top of the cooking surface. If the meatballs are stuck to the bottom of the pot, gently remove them from the bottom of the pot with a spoon.
Put the lid on the pot and then lower the flame and let the meatballs cook and settle for 2 hours.
10. After two hours, when the meatballs are fully cooked, take a large bowl and first put some meatballs and then the meatballs in it.
You can decorate the food with hot onions and walnuts. You can eat and enjoy Shirazi vegetable meatballs with lavash Bread or fresh Nan sangak.
What is this food served with?
- You can use mast o khiar and torshi haft bijar in addition to this delicious Shirazi meatball.
- Also, this dish should be served with fresh Iranian bread.
- Finally, you can use Iranian doogh as a drink after this meal.
- Another Shirazi dish that is served to the guests next to this dish is Kalam polo Shirazi.
Koofteh Shirazi Important Notes:
- Be sure to soak bloated ingredients like peas the night before.
- Use fresh vegetables to make it tasty.
- Shirazi meatballs should not be too hard and not too soft to fall apart
- If you put the meatballs in the soup and the meatballs go away, you can use a few spoons of wheat flour in the ingredients for better adhesion.
- Pay attention to drain the vegetables completely so that the ingredients do not loosen.
The benefits of Shirazi Vegetables meatballs
Due to the presence of meat and peas in this meatball, there is high protein and fiber. Also, due to having fresh vegetables, this food has a lot of vitamins.
Parsley’s vitamin K is important because it helps blood to clot in addition to contributing to bone health. Parsley is rich in vitamin C and other antioxidants, which help reduce the risk of serious health conditions like diabetes, stroke, heart disease and cancer. It’s also an excellent source of: Vitamin A.
Sourced: webmd
FAQ
1. What is the difference between Tabrizi and Shirazi meatballs?
Local vegetables are used in Koofteh Shirazi, while no vegetables are used in Koofteh Tabrizi, and the sauce of Tabrizi meatballs is very different from this sauce.
2. What vegetables are used in Shirazi meatballs?
Leeks, parsley, tarragon, and dill are used in this dish.
3. Is this meatball suitable for vegans?
If we remove minced meat, yes, it is suitable for vegans.
