Koofteh Tabrizi is very popular in Iran and it is cooked in almost all its regions in the style popular among the people of Tabriz. Different types of meatball foods are cooked in Iran, but Koofteh Tabrizi can be considered the most popular in Iran.

Ingredients for Four People

• Veal (minced): 500 grams

• Onion: one large or two medium size

• Split peas: half a cup

• Rice: one cup

• Potato: one

• Egg: one

Chopped spring onions and parsley: a quarter cup each

• Dry savory powder and dry tarragon powder: one tablespoon each

• Dry mint: half a tablespoon

• Saffron powder, salt, tomato paste, turmeric, black pepper, red chili, and oil: as per taste

The ingredients required for filling the meatballs

Eggs: two or three

Plums: six

Onion: one

Barberry: half a cup

Walnut kernels: one cup

The ingredients required for the sauce of Koofteh Tabrizi

Tomato paste: three tablespoons

Onion: one

Saffron powder, edible oil, salt, turmeric, and black pepper: as per taste

Recipe

Stage 1:

Grate the onion and put it aside.

Boil the split peas for half an hour, after having soaked them for at least two hours, and make sure it is half-cooked.

Cook the rice in the same way. Make sure not to add salt while half-cooking the rice.

Boil the potato before starting the cooking process.

Chop the chives and parsley as much as possible so that they are evenly distributed in the final texture of the food.

Take a very small amount of saffron powder, about the size of a teaspoon, and put a small piece of ice on it so that it gets wet gradually.

Stage 2:

Boil the eggs. If you don’t like the egg, you can leave it out.

Soak the barberries and the plums half an hour before the cooking process.

Finely chop the onion and fry until golden.

Stage 3:

Mix the half-cooked rice, split peas, and boiled potato well. Be careful not to mix these ingredients too much so they don’t turn into a paste. Add the eggs, vegetables, saffron powder, salt, turmeric powder, and pepper to this mixture and knead for 10 to 15 minutes. Before adding the egg, stir it, add the seasoning, add the aromatic herbs, stir the mixture, and place it in the refrigerator for at least an hour to set well.

Put the minced meat in a separate bowl, add the grated onion after you have extracted its juice well, and mix them well.

Chop the walnuts and roast them. Roast the barberry separately and set aside.

To prepare the sauce, fry the chopped onion with some turmeric on low heat until golden. Add the tomato paste, salt, and pepper to it and continue roasting. After five minutes, add hot water and increase the heat until it begins to boil. Then add saffron, reduce the heat, and let the mixture slowly boil and thicken.

Spread a fistful of mince on your palm. Place part of the ingredients you made for filling the meatball in the middle and turn the edges towards the center to form a ball. Then press it gently to make its texture firm.

In order not to let the mixture stick to your hand, put a container of cold water next to your hand and regularly wet your hand.

Gently place the meatballs in the sauce. If the heat under the pot is high, do not shake the meatballs and do not put them in the pot, otherwise the texture will break. After 30 minutes when the meatballs change color and harden, reduce the heat. Take a little of the sauce from the corners of the dish with a ladle, pour it on the meatballs, and place the lid of the pot on it in a half-open way. The ingredients should be cooked for an hour and a half in this way and with a very low flame.

How to Serve Koofteh Tabrizi?

Koofteh Tabrizi is usually eaten with or without bread. Using Sangak bread doubles the pleasure of this dish. Raw vegetables, raw onion, fresh lemon or lemon juice, various Iranian pickles, buttermilk, and yogurt are popular companions of Koofteh Tabrizi.

As the name suggests, Koofeh (meatball) Tabrizi is a delicious Iranian cuisine, mostly prepared by the people of Tabriz. It is very popular in Iran and it is cooked in almost all its regions in the style popular among the people of Tabriz.