Description
The green almond is the unripe form of the almond. The entire pod is edible and is slightly sour. In this Persian stew, it compliments beautifully with the mint & parsley.
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 cups, packed (8 oz) American parsley
- 3/4 tsp turmeric
- 1 cup, packed (2 oz) fresh spinach
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup (2 oz) lemon juice
- 1 cup, packed (2 oz) fresh mint
- 2 TBS extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/4 tsp saffron, ground
- 2 cup (16.5 oz) beef broth
- 1 1/2 lb (.7 kg) green almonds
- 2 lb (.9 kg) beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 onion, chopped (approx. 1 cup)
- 2 limes, dried, quartered
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix together the stew meat with 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp turmeric & 2 tsp flour until meat is coated evenly.
- Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat and add 1 TBS olive oil.
- When oil is hot, sauté the chopped onions. Cook until onions start to soften, approximately 7 minutes
- Stir into the onions 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, & 1/2 tsp turmeric.
- Cook for 2 minutes, then raise the heat to medium-high, add stew meat and brown all sides, approximately 7 minutes.
- Stir in beef broth & lemon juice.
- Using a wooden spoon, scrape up browned bits of meat from the bottom of the pot.
- Stir in the dried limes.
- Reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer for 2 hours, stirring the stew every 30 minutes.
- Using a food processor (or chop finely with a knife) chop parsley, mint & spinach.
- Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 TBS olive oil.
- Sauté chopped greens for 5 mins then add to the meat mixture, along with the saffron.
- Cook stew covered over low heat for another 30 minutes.
- Cut in half and remove the inner seed from the green almonds.
- Stir in halved green almonds into the stew, cover pot and cook for 30 mins.
- Serve hot with basmati rice.
Notes
The inner seed is removed because it can turn bitter during the cooking process. Some people skip this step and use the whole pod in the stew. This is one of those dishes that tastes even better the next day.
This dish can also be made vegetarian by omitting the meat and by using vegetable broth.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 3 hours 20 mins