“Koofteh Hooloo” Shirazi
Peach Shaped Chickpea Meatballs
This week we travel to the historic and beautiful city of Shiraz to visit the founder of the Persian Culinary Tours cooking school, Ava Izadpanah, in her beautiful and charming garden and kitchen.
Today Ava teaches us about a delicious unique and traditional Shirazi recipe known as "Koofteh Hooloo" (Peach Shaped Meatballs). This traditional meatball dish features chickpea flour, fried crispy onions, and fresh carrots.
Ava Izadpanah
Instagram @persianculinarytours
Serves: 8
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 400 grams minced beef
- 1 onion
- 2 tbsp chickpea flour
- 3 carrots, grated
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 1-1/2 tsp pepper
Soup
- 1 cup crispy onions
- 1/2 cup of rice
- 2 carrots, grated
- 3 tbsp dried mint
- 1/3 cup lime juice
- 1 tsp salt
- 1-1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 2 tbsps bloomed saffron
- Oil
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix the minced beef, grated onion, chickpea flour, egg, turmeric, salt, and pepper.
- Add the grated carrots to the mixture and combine it well. If the mixture is too sticky add a bit more of the chickpea flour.
- Take enough of the meat mixture to make a meatball the size of a peach. With your fingers, create a hole in the middle of your meatballs. Put some crispy onions inside and carefully seal the hole.
- Refrigerate the meatballs for at least 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a pot, cook the rice with 3 cups of water and 2 tbsp of crispy onions. When the rice grains are softened, add the 2 grated carrots with salt, pepper, sugar, and lime juice.
- Fry the meatballs in some oil until they are golden on all sides.
- Add the meatballs to the sauce and let them simmer.
- In a small pan, heat up some oil and fry the dried mints for 3 minutes. Add fired mints to the pot.
- Add the bloomed saffron and let your meatballs and the soup cook together for 20 more minutes.
