Persian lamb stew with red beans, dried limes, fresh citrus juice and aromatic herbs give this lamb dish of traditional Persian cuisine a unique flavour, which is worth trying!

Ingredients

Main course For 4 people

250 g of dried kidney beans

rapeseed oil for cooking

800 g of lamb stew

2 bunches of spring onions

2 teaspoons of salt

1 teaspoon of turmeric

pepper

4 l of water

150 g of spinach

2 bunches of parsley

1 bunch of dill

1 bunch of cilantro

3 tablespoons of dried fenugreek leaves from Asian speciality stores

3 dried limes, in Middle Eastern speciality shops

2 limes

How to proceed

Preparation:

approx. 40 minutes

Brazing:

approx. 90 minutes

Soaking:

approx. 12 hours

Total time:

14 h 10 min

Prepare in advance: soak the beans in cold water for 12 hours or overnight.

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Brown the stew for approx. 5 minutes. Cut the spring onions into strips, add them to the meat and continue cooking for approx. 5 minutes. Season with salt, turmeric and pepper. Drain the bean soaking water, add them to the meat along with the freshwater.

Coarsely chop the spinach and all the aromatic herbs. Set aside some for garnish. Heat a little oil in a pan and let the chopped spinach and herbs and fenugreek dry for approx. 5 minutes. Make a hole in each dried lime and squeeze half of the fresh limes. Add the chopped herbs, dried limes and lime juice to the meat. Cover and cook the meat for approx. 1.5 hours on low heat. Serve the stew with lime wedges and garnish with the herbs set aside. Serve with rice. You may be interested to read the orange risotto recipe/ greek cake mantovana recipe/ Pork stew with carrots recipe.

Useful tips

You can replace the 3 tablespoons of fenugreek leaves (Trigonella) with 50 g of spinach.

You can substitute dried limes and flavour the meat with lime juice before serving.

Kidney beans can be substituted for black beans or pinto beans (such as pinto beans).