Baghali Polo

An update to my previous post on one of my favorite dishes, Persian green rice (baghali polo). My friend read the post and shared her recipe with me. She also clarified that baghali polo is the rice dish with dill and fava beans and sabzi polo is a rice dish that is prepared with a variety of herbs (including parsley, cilantro, dill, green onion stems or chives, and mint among many others) and is usually served with fish.

Here's the baghali polo recipe she sent:

First, prepare the rice.
• Soak rice in salted water for a few hours prior to cooking [check the rice package to determine amount you need; she uses brown basmati rice]
• Boil salted water in pot you are going to cook your rice [the amount of water doesn't need to be an exact amount since the rice won't be soaking up all of the water as is typical when you cook rice]
• Once water boils, drain previously soaking rice and add rice to boiling water
• Check in about 5 minutes, the consistency of the rice should be soft on the outside, but hard in the core/middle - I guess you could call it "Persian" al dente for rice. If rice kernel is soft, you have gone to far and rice will turn out mushy
• Drain rice and pour water from tap on top of rice and drain again
• In your pot, add 1 to 2 tablespoon of oil (canola, olive, enova, butter, etc...choose your fat). Also, add enough water to have it cover the bottom of the pot about 1/4". You can also use a saffron and water mixture instead of plain water (saffron-infused water prepared by grinding up saffron threads in hot water and left to infuse). Depending on how much saffron you add to the water, the saffron/water mixture can be burgundy to yellow in color. I prefer it on the burgundy side, which means more saffron. The combination used on the bottom of the rice pot can vary greatly. Optional: You can add potatoes in the bottom, or bread, onions, so you get that in the bottom in addition to the rice. [I prefer just rice and fava beans.]
• Add drained rice

To make the baghali polo, alternate dried dill [because it is stronger in flavor than fresh dill] and [cooked] fava beans [or lima beans] in between layers of rice. Then cook on medium heat for about 12 minutes and then on low for 45 minutes and then you should have tadeek (the crunchy rice on the bottom) and cooked rice.

When serving make sure you mix up the dill and fava beans and enjoy....

Reading the recipe makes it sound a little on the labor-intensive side for me, but it's very much worth the effort. It can be a main dish or side dish.