Recipe for Gheymeh stew

Cooking Steps for Persian Gheymeh

1. Fry onions with vegetable oil over a medium heat until they turn soft and golden brown, add turmeric and pepper to it.
2. Sauté the yellow split peas with the onions – you can also parboil them and add them at least 30 minutes before the stew is ready to be served. The cooking time might be different based on the kind of the yellow split peas. They should not be mushy or uncooked.
3. Add meat cubes and fry them until browned on all sides.
4. Tomato sauce should be fried with the mixture until it turns deep red; stir it frequently to prevent it from burning.
5. Add the brewed saffron to the contents of the pot and give it 2-3 minutes to work its magic.
6. Pour water into the pot to the extent that it submerges all ingredients and then keep the lid on to bring it to the boil. Afterward, turn down the heat to let it simmer.
7. Add the piece of cinnamon bark to the pot.
8. In the final one hour, the pierced dried limes can be added. They should maintain their ball-like shapes while being cooked.
9. Salt should be added toward the end of cooking to stop meat from toughening and prolonging the cooking time. If fresh meat is used, the cooking time will decrease as opposed to frozen meat. When the meat is cooked the pot can be taken off the heat. Do not forget to remove the bark. The stew should neither be watery nor too thick. If you are interested in adding rose water, you can spoon it in now.
10. Garnish the stew with fries and serve it with rice.

Supplementary Tips

Gheymeh stew is one of the most delicious Iranian dishes which is cooked in any city or province of Iran according to the taste and raw materials available with different recipes. The most famous types of khoresh Gheymeh in Iran are as follows:

Simple traditional stuffing

Simple traditional Gheymeh is cooked using red meat, tomato paste, fried onions, cobs and dried lime.

Eggplant Gheymeh

Eggplant Qeimeh is a stew that is served with eggplant instead of potatoes.

Gheymeh Rizeh of Isfahan

This food is similar to Tabrizi meatballs in appearance, but it has a completely different taste. Minced mutton, dried mint and grated tomatoes are other ingredients of this stew

Gheymeh Pichaq of Ardebil

Eggs, sliced almonds, hair leaves, saffron, rural butter and stew spices are the ingredients of this food. Lemon juice or juice is used instead of dried lime to sour Qeimeh Pichaq.

Yazdi Gheymeh or chickpea Gheymeh

This stew is cooked using chickpeas instead of cobs in the central and southern regions of Iran, especially in Yazd. Chickpea Gheymeh tastes like broth, and goat meat is usually used to cook the food.

Gheymeh Nesar of Qazvin

To cook this stew, red meat or chicken, special spices, sliced almonds, pistachios, barberry and sometimes sliced oranges are used. Gheymeh Nesar is not served with potatoes. They pour Gheymeh Nesar on the rice and then bring it to the table.

Quince Gheymeh

Quince Gheymeh is one of the delicious dishes of Isfahan in autumn. It is interesting to know that the taste of this stew is not sweet at all. Orange juice and stew spices are used instead of dried lime to cook Quince Gheymeh.

Bushehri Gheymeh

Bushehri Gheymeh is fundamentally different from stews of other cities. it is prepared by crushing the stew. The meat of this stew is completely crushed after cooking and the rest of the stew ingredients are added to it.

Grinded Gheymeh of Lahijan

Grinded Qiemeh of Lahijan is not much different from traditional type and minced mutton or mixed meat is used to prepare it.