Khoresh-e Karafs – Lamb Celery Stew

Khoresh-e Karafs is a hearty lamb and herb stew with celery. Fresh lemon juice allows you to add sourness to your liking. It’s one of those dishes, that I didn’t like as a kid and I cannot tell you how much I regret that!

The great thing about Khoresh-e Karafs is, that celery is available all year round. While rhubarb is in season, you might want to take advantage and prepare its sister dish Khoresh-e Rivas.

Ingredients (serving 4)

500g / 1.1 lbs lamb leg or shoulder

500ml / 2 cups water 

300g / 10.6oz celery (about 5 long stalks)

250g / 8.8oz parsley (chopped, without stalks)

60g / 2.1oz mint (chopped, without stalks)

1 onion

8 tbsp vegetable oil

4 tbsp fresh lemon juice (or to taste)

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp black pepper

Salt to taste

Time

Prep: 20 min

Cook: 1 h 50 min

Total: 2 h 10 min

Method of cooking Khoresh-e Karafs

Wash the herbs. Make sure to keep the parsley and mint separate. The reason for this is, that the parsley needs to be fried much longer than the mint. That’s because parsley has a higher water content than mint and therefore takes longer to fry. If the mint is fried for too long, it tastes bitter.

Cut the meat into chunky pieces. If the meat you have is on the bone, don’t throw the bone away. It will give your stew amazing flavour.

Finely chop the onion.

Fry the meat in 3 tbsp of vegetable oil until golden brown from each side. Remove the meat from the pan and gently fry the chopped onions in the same oil for about 10 minutes.

Return the meat to the pan or transfer both, meat and onions, plus bones, if you have them, to the pan you want to cook your stew in. Boil 0.5 litre ( 2 cups) of water and add it to the meat. Add the tomato paste, turmeric, black pepper and salt, put on the lid and let the meat simmer over low to medium heat for 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Finely chop the parsley and mint (keeping them separate).

Fry the chopped parsley in 3 tbsp of veg oil for about 8 minutes. Remove it from the pan. Then fry the mint in 1 tbsp veg oil for only 30 seconds. Add the herbs to the stew and let it continue simmering.

If you’re planning on making aabkesh rice, start making it now. If you want to serve the Khoresh-e Karafs with kateh rice, start about 50 minutes towards the end of the cooking time of the stew.

Once the rice is steaming, wash the celery stalks. Chop one of them in about 1″/ 3cm long pieces. If you find that the outer fibres are difficult to chop, you might want to peel the lower third of the celery stalks with a potato peeler. Then chop all the celery.

Fry the celery in a tbsp of vegetable oil for about 5 minutes. Add them to the stew about 20 minutes towards the end of the cooking time.

Once your stew is ready, juice a lemon and season the Khoresh-e Karafs to your liking. I added about 4 tbsp of lemon juice. The stew is meant to be quite sour, but of course you can adjust it to your taste.

Serve your Khoresh-e Karafs with aromatic rice, red onions, salad, yoghurt and/or fresh herbs. Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! If you have any questions please let me know in the comments, I’m always happy to help. I’d love to see your Khoresh-e Karafs! Feel free to tag me with @igotitfrommymaman on Facebook or Insta so I can take a look and give you a thumbs up!

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Looking for more Persian recipes? Here are my Persian classics!

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Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your meal!