Gheymeh Stew – Khoresh-e Gheymeh

Gheymeh Stew is one of the classic Persian dishes! This lamb stew with yellow split peas, topped up with crispy homemade potato fries is high up on most Iranians’ list of favourite foods. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend you do. I’m sure you’ll love it!

I’m certain that I’m not the only one who has memories of family dinners revolving around Khoreshe Gheymeh. Usually we would all storm the kitchen as soon as the enticing smell of homemade fries hitting the hot oil would reach our bedrooms. Needless to say, few of the fries lasted until it was time to serve. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Share your childhood memory about Gheymeh in the comments below!

In Iran it is common for people to prepare large quantities of food to share it with people in need. This custom is referred to as Nazri. A popular dish for this is Khoresh-e Gheymeh . Sometimes people gather to help each other with the preparation and cook the khoresh in a large pan. They then transfer it to ‘take away’ containers to hand out wherever it is needed most.

Time

Prep: 30 min

Cook: 1h 30 min

Total: 2 hours

Ingredients for 4 portions of Gheymeh Stew

500g / 1.1 lbs lamb leg

115g / 1/2 cup yellow split peas

2 large potatoes (for chips / fries, e.g. Maris Piper)

1 medium onion

4 cloves garlic

5 dried limes

4 tbsp tomato paste

250ml / 1 cup vegetable oil (less if you’re baking the fries)

1 cinnamon stick

2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp black pepper

Salt to taste

Method

Prep the ingredients

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Cut the lamb into 2.5cm / 1 inch cubes. If you bought the lamb on the bone, keep the bone to cook in the stew for extra flavour.

Heat 4 tbsp vegetable oil in a frying pan and brown the lamb cubes from each side. Transfer them into the pot you’re going to cook the stew in. If you have the bone, add it to the pot as well.

Now gently brown the chopped onions in the same oil over medium heat, stirring regularly. After about 10 minutes add the garlic to the pan and gently sauté both together for 2 more minutes.

Bring 470ml / 2 cups of water to boil. Add tomato paste, turmeric and black pepper to the frying pan and briefly sauté everything together. Then add the freshly boiled water to it. Stir to combine and let the mixture simmer for 5 minutes.

Get your Gheymeh stew cooking

Add the mixture to the meat in the pot. Bring it to boil, then reduce the temperature to low. Poke the dried limes with a fork, so that the stew can absorb their flavour. Add the cinnamon stick, dried limes and salt to taste to the stew.

I you use an Iranian or Middle Eastern brand of yellow split peas they will take time to cook and so you can add them to the stew now. The yellow split peas you find in regular supermarkets here in the UK take a lot less time to cook though. If you are unsure of how long they need to cook, boil them separately until soft but not mushy, rinse them with cool water and add them to the stew in the end.

Put on the lid and let the Gheymeh stew simmer for 1.5 hours. Check regularly if the stew has enough water and taste once in a while to see if it needs more salt.

Prep your homemade fries

Wash and cut the potatoes into skinny fries. I recommend cutting off a slice of the potato. Then turn this flat surface facing down on the chopping board. This way you can cut it into 0.5 cm / 0.2″ slices safely, without the potato moving. Then cut these slices into 0.5 cm / 0.2″ thin chips / fries. Transfer them into a bowl with cold water until you’re ready to fry them. This will prevent them from changing colour.

Start making the rice

If you want to prepare Aabkesh rice, start approx. 1 hour before the stew is ready. For Kateh rice begin 45 minutes before.

Bake the fries

If you prefer preparing potato fries in the oven, you can do so of course. Start 30 minutes before serving. Drain and dry the fries with a paper towel, then coat them with a little vegetable oil and season them with salt. Bake them at 220C / 430F / Gas 7 for 20 to 30 minutes. Turn them once after half the baking time to ensure even baking.

Or fry the potato fries

20 minutes toward the end of the cooking time heat the remaining vegetable oil in a frying pan. Remove the chips / fries from the water and dab them dry with a paper towel. Fry them from both sides until golden brown. The temperature should be high enough to get them crispy, but not too high, so that they cook through before burning on the outside. Once fried, remove them from the pan and transfer them on a paper towel, so any excess oil will be absorbed. Season with salt.

Add split peas and serve

If you cooked the yellow split peas separately add them to the Gheymeh 5 minutes toward the end of the cooking time.

Serve the Gheymeh stew with fries on top, together with rice.

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 Khoreshe Gheymeh! 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 recipes? Here are my other Persian classics!

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