Herbed Rice with Salmon (Sabzi Polo baa Maahi)

Although this dish is prepared all throughout the year in my home, traditionally sabzi polo baa maahi is prepared on the Persian New Year, which occurs with the start of Spring. It’s full of delicious green herbs and garlic, making the rice so fragrant and fresh. You can eat this rice with practically any protein you like, but when I prepare it fresh I love to pair it with salmon. Then the leftover rice is great with scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or a good quality canned tuna in oil.

Original sabzi polo baa maahi recipes call for whitefish, which in Iran is freshly caught from the Caspian Sea. But salmon is such an easy find here in the States and as an oily fish it delivers vitamins A, D, and E, as well as omega-3 fatty acids, which benefit our brain function! I feel like I’m really doing my body good when I cook and eat this dish.

Persian rice is definitely a culture all its own within the domain of Persian cuisine. It’s a BIG deal for us Persians and typically needs some practice to get right. Or maybe not if you’re lucky—but that wasn’t me! But let me just say, it’s worth it and will change the way you view rice forever. At least that’s what I believe!

Persian rice starts and ends quite differently than any other kind of rice. It’s a very long-grain basmati rice that is rinsed many times until the water starts to run clear. It’s less starchy than other types of rice, so when it’s cooked every grain of rice is separate and anything but sticky.

We Persians love making tahdig (crisped rice, bread, or sliced potatoes at the bottom of the rice pot) when cooking rice. It makes for a nice and crunchy, golden treat to eat alongside the meal. You can see the crispy tahdig sitting right on top of the rice in the photo of the finished dish. So yum! I’ll include the way I prepare tahdig in this recipe as well.

In this particular recipe I will add herbs to the rice, but plain Persian rice would have that step left out. For example, when I make Persian chicken and rice, I make the rice the same way, just without the herbs. Then I’d pair it with the chicken. Please don’t be afraid to try cooking Persian rice in your own home. Honestly, I believe it is its own art form, but that doesn’t mean it’s difficult by any means either. Again, not hard, just needs some lovin’ and you’ll definitely get it.

I hope you try this dish out and love it as much as we do at home. It’s garlicky, full of herb goodness, fresh, but at the same time, beautifully rich. This dish is just so fragrant and tasty. Here’s my family recipe and let me know how it goes for you if you try it! And as we say in Farsi, nooshe jaan, or nourishment for the soul!

Print

Herbed Rice with Salmon (Sabzi Polo baa Maahi)

Course Entree

Cuisine Persian

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 3

Calories 458kcal

Author Honest and Tasty

Ingredients

Rice:

• 3 cups basmati rice rinsed under cold water until water runs clear (approximately 5 times)
• 2 large bunches of chopped fresh dill or 1 cup dried dill
• 1 large bunch of chopped fresh fenugreek or ½ cup dried fenugreek All Persian markets should have fenugreek. You can also check Indian markets.
• 1 bunch of chopped fresh cilantro or ⅓ cup dried cilantro
• 1 bunch of chopped fresh parsley or ⅓ cup dried parsley
• 1 bunch fresh chives or the green portion from 1 bunch of fresh green onion chopped
• salt for boiling water
• 1 head of garlic with cloves peeled and chopped
• enough olive oil to just cover the bottom of your rice dish plus 2-3 tbsp melted butter/olive oil to top rice
• ⅓ tsp of ground saffron mixed into ¼ cup of hot water

Salmon:

• 3 salmon fillets skin removed (ask your fish guy to do this for you unless you prefer the skin left on)
• 1/2 tbsp dried dill or a handful of fresh dill
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp butter used to top fillets
• olive oil to brush the baking dish
• 1 small lemon or half of a large lemon juiced

Instructions

Rice:

Boil water in a large pot and add plenty of salt (just as you would if you were cooking pasta) and 3 cups rinsed rice. Put stove on med-high heat. Don’t let it over-boil. When the rice is just hard in the middle and soft on the outside (al dente rice!), turn off the burner and rinse the rice using a colander and cold water so that the rice stops cooking through. Then mix in all the herbs and garlic right in the colander. Add olive oil to the large pot to cover the bottom of it and put on low-med heat. Add rice to the pot, poke some holes with the back of a spatula almost to the bottom of the pot to release steam, and cover. When steam rises to the lid of the pot (this is easy to tell with a clear lid, otherwise wait about 5 minutes) remove the lid and drizzle 2-3 tbsp of melted butter/oil along with saffron-water mixture. Replace the lid with a large folded napkin or kitchen towel placed directly and tightly underneath it to catch the steam. Put on med-low heat for ~30 min or until the pot sizzles when you splash a couple drops of water on side of it—whichever happens last. You can either carefully flip the rice over onto a serving platter so that you can see the beautifully crisp tahdig or just serve yourself directly out of the pot, but make sure to dig for some tahdig at the bottom!

Salmon:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Brush oil on the bottom of a pyrex baking dish. Add dill, salt, and pepper to the salmon and put on the baking dish. Place a small pad of butter atop each fillet of salmon. Cook salmon uncovered for 20 min. Squeeze some lemon on top and serve alongside the herbed rice.

Notes

Rice will feed 6 people. I usually eat the leftover rice with fried eggs, tuna that's packed in oil, or canned sardines for a quick and delicious lunch the next day.

Nutrition

Calories: 458kcal | Carbohydrates: 74g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 47mg | Sodium: 42mg | Potassium: 523mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 34IU | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 1mg