Khoresh Alu Esfenaj — Spinach and Plum Stew with carrots
Khoresh Alu Esfenaj — Spinach and Plum Stew with carrots. Independently written modern Persian halal variation, with broad culinary inspiration from Najmieh Batmanglij, Joon: Persian Cooking Made…
- 550 g halal-certified lamb shoulder
- 25 ml olive oil
- 150 g onion
- 2 g ground turmeric
- 4 g salt
- 1 g black pepper
- 850 ml water
- 400 g fresh spinach
- 140 g pitted dried prunes
- 20 ml lemon juice
- 120 g carrots
- Cut lamb into 2 cm pieces and finely chop onion. Wash and roughly chop spinach. Add prunes and lemon juice at the start of the final simmer; add spinach during the last 10 minutes. Peel and cut the carrots into 1 cm pieces.
- Heat oil, soften onion for 6 minutes, then add lamb and brown for 6 minutes, turning. Add turmeric, pepper and water. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer gently for 60 minutes.
- Add the named stew ingredients and the variation ingredient. Cover and simmer another 30–45 minutes until the lamb and vegetables are tender; add a little hot water if needed. Add the measured salt near the end.
- Remove any whole dried limes before serving. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes to thicken if needed. Divide into four portions; rice is an optional accompaniment and is not included in this formula. Cool leftovers in shallow containers and refrigerate at 4 °C within 2 hours.
- Photo: E4024 — Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spinach_stew,_Turkish_style.jpg Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 Resized and converted to JPEG; no crop. A related spinach stew illustrates the leafy component; this Persian formula includes halal-certified lamb and dried plums.