Ghormeh sabzi (Persian herb stew)

Back in the lockdown days of COVID-19, I bought a box of meal bases and ingredients from Exotic Bazaar, an Australian company specialising in Middle Eastern feasts you can make at home. I tried (and enjoyed) all five of their savoury meal bases and have also baked some of their cake mixes. All good. Over the subsequent three years the comapny has grown and branched out – which is great! – and even had some of their products adopted by a major supermarket chain. Unfortunately, in doing so, they reduced their range of meal bases and deleted my favourite: ghormeh sabzi or Persian herb stew. Apparently it may be reintroduced, if supermarket sales take off, but in the meantime I've taught myself how to make ghormeh sabzi as I missed it. My recipe, recorded here so I have permanent access to it, involved web searching, improvisation, and trial and error ...

First: in a large saucepan, fry together one brown onion, some cooking oil, salt, turmeric, pepper, vegetable stock (powder or cube) and fenugreek seeds. 

Next: when the fried mixture is fragrant, add 400 grams baby spinach, one bunch of coriander and one bunch of curly parsley. Cook until mushy. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, cool, and blend until smooth.

The mixture above makes enough of the meal base to serve four people, so I split it into two portions (one for now and one for the freezer).

When dinner time comes, fry 180 grams haloumi till crispy, and combine the herby mixture with the haloumi and one can (400 grams) of red kidney beans, heat through, and serve on a bed of pearl couscous.

Nom nom! You can't see the haloumi in the photo (it's buried under the herby stew) but this is a delightful combination of flavours :-)