Sar Gonjeshki

Sar Gonjeshki is a tasty food originally from Tehran. Tourists coming to Tehran for visiting and fun, can’t wait to try and enjoy the most delicious Sar Gonjeshki in the capital. Sar Gonjeshki is a traditional popular Iranian food which is cooked with various ingredients. This delicious meal has different recipes and those who don’t eat red meat can cook it with chicken. It is also called Kale Gonjeshki and Koofteh Qhelgheli (meat ball), because there are meatballs in size of a walnut in this food. It is so popular in many cities of Iran because it is nutritious, tasty and easy to cook. The ingredients are: ground beef or chicken, potato, onion, chickpea flour, tomato paste, tomato, salt, black pepper, turmeric, and oil.

Before start preparing this delicious food with chicken, first mince the chicken in the same amount as if it was beef. Then, mix the chicken and other ingredients according to the recipe below and make chicken meatballs.

Step 1

First grate onions and put it into a proper bowl. Then add ground beef or chicken, chickpea flour, some turmeric, salt, and black pepper to the onions and knead them until it becomes even and cohesive.

Step 2

Now make walnut-size meatballs of this mixture. Smaller meatballs will be cooked better, so it is better to make sure that the meatballs are not bigger than a walnut. Then put a proper pan on the heat and pour some oil in it. Then fry the meatballs well and put them aside.

Step 3

In this step, dice potatoes in cubical pieces and rinse them to remove the extra starch. Now add a little oil to the same pan and fry cubical potatoes.

Step 4

Now dice the remaining onion in small cubes and sauté them in the pan until they become light. Then, add some turmeric and black pepper to the onions and continue sautéing until they fully mix.

Step 5

Now add the tomato paste and sauté. Next, peel the tomatoes, chop and add them into the pan. Continue sautéing tomatoes until it become oily.

Step 6

After sautéing the tomatoes, add meatballs and potatoes to the pan. The amount of water depends on you. If you like your meal to be juicy, add 1 glass of water, and if you want it less juicy add half a glass of water.

Step 7

Now put the pan lid and let it cook well. For better taste, you can add some lemon or verjuice. At the end, you can serve it with either rice or bread.