Khoresh Karafs Recipe | Persian Celery and beef stew

Khoresh Karafs Recipe

Khoresh Karafs (Celery stew) is one of Iran’s traditional and ancient dishes. This dish combines beef, celery, parsley, mint, and onion.

Ingredients for four people
Beef	400 g
large onion	1
head of celery	1
fresh parsley	1 cup
fresh mint	½ cup
lemon juice	2-3 tbsp
turmeric	1 tsp
Dried lemon (optional)	4
Salt	1 tsp
Vegetable oil	⅔ cup
Black pepper	½ tsp

Khoresh Karafs Instructions

Step 1

Finely chop the onion, place a large pot over medium heat and add two tablespoons of vegetable oil.

Step 2

Put the onion in a pot and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown. Meanwhile, chop the beef into 2 cm cubes and add the meat with turmeric.

Step 3

sauté the beef for 5 minutes, then add the black pepper. Pour 2 to 3 glasses of boiling water into the pot and put the lid on to cook the meat for 1 hour.

Step 4

Meanwhile, finely chop the parsley and mint, then cut the celery into 2 to 3 cm pieces. Pour the remaining vegetable oil into a pan and put it on medium heat.

Step 5

Add celery to the pan and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes until soft, then parsley. Add the mint to the pan and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes.

Step 6

Add the fried vegetables to the pot and let the stew stay on the heat for another hour until ready.

Step 7

If you want to use dried lemons, remove the seeds (because they make the taste of the stew bitter)

Step 8

In the last 15 minutes of cooking (i.e., after 1 hour and 45 minutes), add the dried lemon, lemon juice, and salt.

Step 9

Once the stew is ready, pour it into the desired dish and serve with rice. (This stew should have very little water at the end of cooking)

Khoresh Karafs Notes

Khoresh Karafs with chicken

If you want to cook this stew with chicken, use boneless chicken breast instead of beef. This food’s cooking method is no different from chicken; chicken meat’s cooking time is about one hour less than beef.

Flavorings

One of the essential flavorings of celery stew is lemon juice, which is usually used in celery stew. Celery stew does not contain Omani lemon, but you can use it if you like.

reference: Khoresh Karafs in Persian