Sholeh Mashhadi

As tradition built it

Serves 4. Legumes soaked overnight, then about 3 hours to cook.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup chickpeas, soaked separately overnight
• 1/3 cup white beans, soaked separately overnight
• 1/3 cup pinto beans, soaked separately overnight
• 1/3 cup mung beans, soaked separately overnight
• 200g lamb or beef, diced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• pinch a pinch of nutmeg
• to taste salt
• 1 spoonful oil
• for garnish fried dried onion (gheimeh), sangak bread, cheese and fresh herbs, to garnish

Method

1. The next day, simmer the diced meat with the chopped onion in plenty of water for thirty minutes.
2. Add the drained chickpeas, white beans, pinto beans and mung beans, soaked separately overnight, and continue simmering, two to three hours over low heat, until the meat has broken down and the legumes have softened toward a coarse mash.
3. Stir in the cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, nutmeg, salt and oil in the final twenty minutes.
4. Serve hot with a garnish of gheimeh, fried dried onion, sangak bread, cheese and fresh herbs alongside.

What a modern chef changes

Method

1. Cook the meat separately sous vide, low and slow, until tender, then shred rather than dissolve it into the legume mixture, for a dish with genuine textural definition between the meat and the beans rather than the traditional long simmer's uniform softness.
2. Toast the whole spices, cinnamon bark, cardamom, whole ginger, briefly before grinding fresh in a dedicated spice grinder, rather than relying on a pre-mixed, months-old spice tin.
3. Serve the fried onion garnish freshly made and still warm, rather than the shelf-stable, pre-fried version many households keep on hand, for a genuinely sharper contrast against the dish's long-cooked base.