Persian Herbed Rice with Fish
traditional Persian pew year dish!
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Persian Herbed Rice with Fish
Traditional Persian New Year Dish, Sabzi Polo Mahi
The Persian new year is such a big deal within the Persian community! You may have heard it called, Nowruz!
It always falls on the first day of spring. This year it will fall on March 20th.
Traditionally, it’s a time of year you get together with all of your family, and just enjoy life and its blessings!
Typically we set up a Haft-seen spread, which includes symbolic items such as…
apples (to represent health)
vinegar (to represent patience)
garlic (to represent cleansing of the body & environment)
It’s really similar to how thanksgiving is in America. How you eat turkey, mashed potatoes and Mac and cheese… For Nowruz, we eat a Persian herbed rice dish with a saffron fish. It’s pretty much at every single table that night.
It’s fun for me to share my culture with you! And this is a small glimpse of it.
You are MORE than welcome to join in on the Persian new year festivities. Invite some friends over, turn on all the lights in your house & think about anything you want to change moving into the next year. We always express gravitate and make sure we rid ourselves of anything that may be holding us back.
Let’s talk about the ingredients…
Long grain basmati rice: This is a MUST. If you make it with any other kind of rice, it turns out mushy. I recently learned we can grab it on Amazon! It’s a huge bag, it lasts me almost an entire year. But let me tell you, it makes every dish so much more delicious.
Fresh herbs: we use a combination of cilantro, parsley, dill and green onions! It really elevates the dish. Plus, there are so many healing capabilities in the herbs. For example, parsley contains iron, which helps transport oxygen to your cells!
Fish: There are no rules, typically we use a white fish. When we lived in Florida, my husband would catch grouper and snapper. Those worked really well. But when I lived in Indiana, we used bass! If you’re a salmon lover, use that! We typically veer away from tilapia.. but that’s only a personal choice since my husband knows the ins & outs of fish.
Saffron threads: saffron is a wonderful persian herb we use in almost all of our cooking. It has a floral flavor! I get mine from Sadaf, you want to make sure it’s really good quality. Then to use it, just mix the threads with water to form a liquid. You can pour it over the rice and the fish!
Let’s get to the Persian Herbed Rice with Fish recipe!
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Appliances & Cookware Needed
1x pan, for the rice with a flat bottom and a lid - heres the one I use
1x skillet for cooking the fish - heres the one I use
1x chefs knife
1x cutting board
Measuring cups and spoons