Our family recipe for Vegan Persian Lubia Polo (green bean-and-rice pilaf) is hearty, healthy and comforting. It is one of our favorite Persian dishes, and we’re sure once you try it, it’ll be one of yours!
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A pilaf of summer staples, Lubia Polo belongs in the repertoire of every self-respecting Persian cook. Green beans, tomatoes, onions, cubed beef and basmati rice combine to create one of the most popular dishes in Iran.
Our vegan recipe was inspired by Mani’s uncle. He came up with the ingenious idea of swapping the cubed beef with mushrooms, for that meaty bite and touch of umami. Our recipe is similar to the one Mani grew up eating, but without the beef.
🇮🇷 WHAT IS LUBIA POLO?
Seasoned with warm spices like cinnamon and turmeric, Lubia Polo is a Persian pilaf consisting of green beans, tomatoes, onions and cubed or ground beef. We veganized our recipe by swapping out the beef with mushrooms. It’s a little sweet from the tomatoes, richly aromatic, and hearty without being heavy. It’s also one of our go-to Persian dishes.
Lubia is the Persian word for green beans. Polo is a specific preparation of rice which results in a super fluffy pilaf and a crispy crust at the bottom of the pot—the much coveted tahdig.
If there is one thing you should know about Persians, it’s that we’re very serious about our rice. So serious that we have different names for the contrasting preparations of the same long-grain white basmati. The one you’re probably most familiar with is Kateh. Or the dump-and-simmer method. Polo is slightly more involved, but the end result will haunt your dreams. So if you’re looking for a sure-fire way to impress your next Persian dinner guest, we highly recommend getting your Polo technique down.
🍚 WHAT IS A PILAF?
A pilaf is a rice dish, whose preparation involves cooking the rice in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some technique for achieving cooked grains that do not adhere to each other. This is different than, say, making fried rice, which involves cooking the rice and mix-ins separately, then combining.
📝 INGREDIENTS
- Rice: the main ingredient in our polo.
- Mushrooms: our meat substitute, which adds a meaty bite and a healthy dose of umami.
- Tomatoes: the base of our vegetable filling.
- Green Beans: the star of our vegetable filling.
- Onion and Garlic: aromatics
- Cinnamon: adds warm flavor and aroma to our polo.
- Turmeric: adds a lovely yellow hue and earthy flavor to our polo.
- Saffron: the queen of all spices, which adds beautiful golden color and a sweet, floral flavor to our polo.
- Salt and Black Pepper: to season our polo.
🔪 STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
- Rinse and soak the rice.
- Fry the green beans.
- Cook the mushrooms and aromatics.
- Make the vegetable filling (i.e. the khoresh). Combine the mushroom mixture with the tomatoes, spices and seasonings and cook on low for 45 minutes.
- Layer mixture with par-boiled rice and make Polo.
💡RECIPE TIPS
- Perfecting Persian polo can take a bit of work. Follow our exact steps and we’re sure you’ll nail it. And if it doesn’t turn out as fluffy as you’d hoped for, or if your tahdig isn’t perfect, eat your mistakes and try again! Believe us, it took us several tries to get it right.
- For an extra kick of umami, you can add a tiny splash of soy sauce to the mushrooms as you’re initially cooking them.
💕 MORE VEGAN PERSIAN RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE
DID YOU MAKE OUR VEGAN PERSIAN LUBIA POLO?
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👩🏽🍳 RECIPE
VEGAN PERSIAN LUBIA POLO
Ingredients
- Equipment: large bowl 2 medium pots (1 with a lid), 1 colander, 1 pan, 1 ladle, paper towels
Ingredients:
- 4 cups basmati rice
- Water
- ¼ cup salt divided
- 5 Tbsp olive oil divided
- 4 lbs green beans trimmed and chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 1 large onion chopped
- 3 lbs mushrooms sliced
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon turmeric
- 8 large tomatoes chopped
- 1 24-oz tomato sauce
- 2 teaspoon ground saffron
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter
- 1 small Russet potato peeled and sliced into thin discs
Instructions
- Rinse and soak rice: Rinse rice until water is clear. Add rice to a large bowl and add enough water to cover the rice by 2 inches. Mix in 3 tablespoon of salt. Cover and soak rice for at least 20 minutes (the longer the better).
- Fry the green beans: In a medium pot, heat ¼ cup of olive oil on medium-high heat. Add green beans and fry them for 15 minutes.
- Par-boil rice: Bring a pot of water to boil. Then drain rice, add to boiling water, and parboil for 3 minutes. You want the rice to be al dente (but not fully cooked). Drain rice and set aside.
- Cook the mushrooms and aromatics: In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 1 minute. Add mushroom and garlic and cook until mushrooms become golden brown and their liquid has evaporated, around 15 minutes. Add turmeric and cook 1 minute.
- Make the vegetable filling (i.e. the khoresh, or stew): Add mushroom mixture to the pot. Add tomato and tomato sauce, saffron, cinnamon, 1 tablespoon salt and black pepper. Cook 45 minutes on low-medium heat. Adjust seasoning, to taste.
- Assemble the Lubia Polo: In a separate medium pot, heat the vegan butter butter and water over medium heat. Add sliced potatoes to cover bottom of pot in a single layer. Add thin alternating layers of par-boiled of rice with the khoresh. Cover pot with a double layer of paper towels. Then place a lid over the paper towels. Cook on medium-low for 30 minutes. Enjoy
Notes
- Perfecting Persian polo can take a bit of work. Follow our exact steps and we’re sure you’ll nail it. And if it doesn’t turn out as fluffy as you’d hoped for, or if your tahdig isn’t perfect, eat your mistakes and try again! Believe us, it took us several tries to get it right.
- For an extra kick of umami, you can add a tiny splash of soy sauce to the mushrooms as you’re initially cooking them.
Parsa
So good. Please post more Iranian recipes. Thank you.
Ali
The mushrooms were a yummy meat substitute in this polo.