Quick and easy Persian food is possible. By sparing yourself the trouble of using tens of ingredients, you can achieve great results while keeping things simple. By adapting the recipes I have cooked, eaten and enjoyed hundreds of times, I hope to pass them on to you so that you can cherish them too.
These recipes have been perfected through many repeated attempts, cooked at home, shared during workshops and in the test kitchen dozens of times. You can find about 50 recipes in my cookbook. I can guarantee that they will bring you neither disappointment nor discomfort and that not a single ingredient will be wasted.
All the recipes in this category have 5 major ingredients, carefully chosen to respect the original dishes on which they are based. This doesn’t mean the intricacies of the dishes containing indigenous ingredients aren’t achievable, nor would I ever discourage you from making them.
Healthy recipes, fresh and fast, with just 5 ingredients are quick-fix meals and after-work treats with minimum shopping fuss. Less is more - focus on true tastes by using fewer ingredients. Flavoursome and easy to prepare, these recipes will make weeknight dinners stress-free and delicious.
You can never have too much dessert but it is not always easy to find that perfect recipe that is both delicious and quick to prepare. So for the foodies with a sweet tooth, these delectable recipes are the perfect example of how sprucing up an old and traditional dessert recipe can work wonders and satisfy your family and friends' s hankering for dessert.
These 5-ingredient sweet recipes couldn’t be easier to prepare - but they can stand on their own among even the fanciest of sweets. A short ingredient list is a not-so-secret secret to the absolute easiest desserts. They are ridiculously easy to make and crazy delicious.
In 2012, when I first got settled in the Netherlands, my lovely Portuguese friend Livia advised me to start my day with "a glass of green smoothie". Back then green smoothies were a new so-called introduction to people's everyday diet. Fresh vegetable and fruit juices aside, a mix of milk and nuts with added spices have always been an absolute to-go-to in Iran as they are sold on every corner in little shops called "vitamin center".
In fact, heading to one of those corners was a midnight spree for me and my friends. After years of drinking all that healthy and exciting stuff and of course practicing to make them in my own kitchen, they are now the central element of my daily life, thrilled to share them with you.
Ask any Iranian mother and they’ll tell you ingredients of traditional recipes must never be substituted. As fond as I am of my mother and grandmother, when I moved to Holland, I had to stray from tradition. The methods I developed made cooking fast and simple, using few ingredients. Using tinned ingredients was highly frowned upon in our household, considered lazy and testifying a lack of taste.
But there is much more to life than spending hours in the kitchen preparing a single meal. And so I began breaking the rules of Persian cuisine. For the past years I have been experimenting, tweaking and developing recipes reflecting the simple Dutch approach to food, applied to the traditional Persian meals I grew up eating. This is a result of that journey: an easy-going, stripped-down take on Persian food using few ingredients and knowing when it is okay to stray from the rulebook. It is possible to cook, share and enjoy traditional Persian food with minimal effort.
If you’re still skipping breakfast every morning, you’re neglecting what is arguably the most important meal of the day. With your eyes still droopy and brain still foggy, what is more satisfying than a hearty and delicious breakfast to turn things around and pump you up for the whole day?
Iranian dishes are usually served with either rice or bread. Naan goes especially well with stews, kebabs and kukus. As a child, whenever it was my turn to pick up the bread from the bakery, my grandmother would hand me a red and white cloth to wrap it in. When the baker handed it to me, I would stow it away, swaddling it tightly in the cloth - but not before tearing off a share to munch on my way home. I’ve always been so fascinated by kneading the dough, dusting the surface and often myself with bread and watching the bubbles form once the dough hit the hot surface. If baked in the oven, I would sit in front of the oven staring at the dough scrutinizing every little and gentle rising.
What is better than starting off your meal with starters? Here's a wide range of Persian or Persian inspired sides from soups and salads to exotic and elegant vegetarian dips and spreads that are sure to impress.
Iran has long been renowned for its culture, architecture and its rich cuisine. But when it comes to "vegan Persian food", I am really not sure... Without a shadow of a doubt, Iranian dishes are unique and rich in flavor and of course, incomparable to any other type of cuisine. Having heard from my vegan foreign friends who traveled to Iran, I now understand their struggle to find a vegan dish in restaurants thereby perpetuating this idea.
Knowing tons of dishes from all around Iran inspired me to start creating my smallest share of impact here to bring to people's tables some of the authentic Persian vegan dishes. For some dishes in this category, I have only been inspired by those dishes adding a modern halo and contemporary appeal to replace those ingredients that are hard to come by. And some are completely non-Iranian vegan dishes that have been my healthy food staples for years.
