Beauty on the plate

Persian Cuisine

Persian cuisine remains surprisingly overlooked and underappreciated—perhaps for reasons that have little to do with the food itself. Otherwise, such an omission would be a true gastronomic sin. Few culinary traditions can claim a history spanning several millennia.

Our goal is to bring you closer to this rich and diverse cuisine and give you a taste of what you may have been missing. Persian cuisine varies across Iran and neighbouring regions, with roots stretching back more than 3,000 years.

We may never know exactly what ancient Persians ate, but we do know they valued food, gardens and hospitality. The magnificent gardens of the Achaemenid palaces, known as pardis, were so lush and carefully irrigated that the word eventually became associated with "paradise" in Western languages.

Iranian women sometimes joke: "Do you know why Iranian cuisine is so complicated? So women don't have too much time to think about politics." There may be some truth in it. Some dishes can take hours to prepare. But cooking in Iran is certainly not a woman's job alone. Iranian men often take great pride in cooking, particularly when it comes to grilling.

And grilling is serious business. Meat is usually marinated before being threaded onto long, thin skewers. Vegetables such as tomatoes, aubergines and hot peppers regularly meet the grill too. Iranians will grill almost anywhere—and perhaps those flat rooftops have more than one purpose.

The word kebab, often associated with fast-food wraps, actually comes from Persian and simply refers to grilled meat. But grilling is only one part of Persian cooking. Another essential technique is slow stewing. Persian khoresht combine meat, onions, herbs, legumes, nuts, vegetables and sometimes fruit, creating dozens of dishes with very different flavours and textures.

Persian meals are commonly served with flatbread or steamed basmati rice, often flavoured with saffron. Rice may be accompanied by raisins, barberries, almonds, pistachios or fresh herbs. Among the breads, lavash is particularly thin and delicate.

Persian cuisine also has an impressive variety of soups and hearty dishes. One of the best known is ash reshteh—a nourishing combination of herbs, lentils, chickpeas, beans and Persian noodles, topped with crispy fried onions, garlic, dried mint and kashk, a distinctive fermented whey.

Many Persian dishes are naturally gluten-free, and several can be prepared vegetarian or vegan.

Presentation matters too. Even simple dishes such as soup or an omelette are often carefully garnished. In Persian cooking, food is meant to be enjoyed with the eyes as well as the palate.

Persian cooking also reflects the influence of ancient medical traditions associated with scholars such as Avicenna and Razi. Their understanding of food included the concept of balancing "warming" and "cooling" ingredients—not their physical temperature, but their perceived effects on the body.

And then there is hospitality. Iranian hospitality is legendary, and Persian cooking certainly does not believe in sending guests home hungry. The abundance can be wonderful—and occasionally a serious challenge for the gallbladder.

Beef, lamb and chicken are common proteins, while fish and seafood are also important. Iran stretches from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, giving its cuisine access to everything from caviar to an enormous variety of seafood.

And despite what the cuisines of some neighbouring countries might lead you to expect, Persian food is not generally hot or heavily spiced. Saffron is the undisputed star. One of the world's most expensive spices, it appears in both savoury dishes and sweets, including Persian ice cream and pistachio and honey confections.

Iran is a vast and diverse country, and its cuisine reflects that. Thousands of years of history, different regions, abundant ingredients, patience, hospitality and a great deal of cooking have created a culinary tradition that deserves to be much better known.