One of my all-time favorite recipes is this one. My supervisor taught me how to make this while I was working at a real Italian restaurant. Since I’ve been making it for the past eight years, I can’t get enough of it!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 4 hrs 35 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
Ingredients
- 1 pound uncooked white rice
- 4 cups water, or as needed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups water, or more as needed
- salt to taste
- 2 cups dry lentils, rinsed
- ¼ cup vegetable oil, divided
- 2 large onions, thinly sliced
- ½ teaspoon saffron
- ⅓ cup hot water
- ¾ cup pitted, chopped dates
- ¾ cup raisins
Instructions
- Place rice in a bowl, and cover with water. Soak rice for about 3 hours, and drain off water. Bring rice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 4 cups water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until rice is partially cooked, about 10 minutes. Drain liquid from rice, and set rice aside.
- Bring 2 more cups of water and a pinch of salt to a boil in a saucepan, and stir in lentils. Bring to a boil, and cook over medium heat until tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and fry onions, frequently stirring, until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Set onions aside. Dissolve saffron in 1/3 cup of hot water, and set aside.
- In a large nonstick pot with deep sides, heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil until shimmering, and spoon in half of rice to cover the bottom of the pot. Top rice with lentils, and cover lentils with remaining rice. Reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and cook until rice is completely tender and there is a golden brown, crusty layer of rice on the bottom of the pot, about 20 minutes. Pour saffron water over rice and lentils, cover, and allow to cook until absorbed, about 10 more minutes.
- To serve, spoon polo into a serving dish, and peel off and place pieces of crusty rice layer on top of polo. Decorate polo with dates, raisins, and fried onions.
Reviews
My family loves it. We pair it with chicken breasts. To garnish, we add dates, pecans, dried cranberries, cherries, and golden raisins.
First time making this and loved it! Another website suggested adding fried eggs and I would like to try that next time.
To get the tahdig on top, use a serving platter and flip the rice on to it. That’s the way I always do it and the way my Iranian husband taught me. Rice won’t stick if there’s a little oil on the bottom and the temp is not too high.
Have made rice like this for some 30 years & have always loved it. But I’ve lost too many teeth now I can no longer eat the “tadigh” (crusty bottom part) so have had to switch to other versions. My ex-husband, an Iranian, taught me to prepare this application with his version of a spicy, wonderful version of chicken soup.
The taste was good, but this was a challenge to make! The rice stuck to the pan so the presentation was awkward! I loved having the dates, raisins and onions cover the portion of where the rice wasn’t!
i think in stage 3 after you fried unions,then add one cup or more ground red meat and little spice(such as Turmeric and black pepper powder),and stir union and meat together,till the colour of meat changed,then in little pan with 1 or 2 table spoon vegetable oil and low heat pour raisins,note:you should take raisins immidiatly before it fried and change its colours completely,and if you like add it to meat or add it to adas polow seprately,this will be more delicious . . .
6 Stars!!! This is one of my husband’s favorite foods! Good with some plain yogurt, too. The recipe takes practice, but pays off since the procedure is a common one for Persian Rice recipes. The tasty, crispy rice covering “bottom of the pot” is hard for anyone to resist. Thanks XXXX…..keep the recipes coming!
I love Persian rice dishes and have been experimenting for awhile with different recipes. The cooking technique for this dish is right on based upon my research. I do have a few tips, however. For best results use Basmati rice. In addition to soaking the rice I rinsed it gently until the water ran clear. Watch the rice carefully when you’re parboiling it. 8-9 minutes was plenty for me. For the final cooking stage with the lentils make sure you use a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid like a dutch oven. Finally, I cover the pot with a damp dish towel and then put the lid on. This helps to ensure the perfect individual grains that Persian rice is known for. As long as the heat is on low you can cook for more than the 30 minutes suggested. The key to this rice is a crispy layer at the bottom of the pan and this recipe doesn’t disappoint. The onions, dates and raisins are garnishes in my opinion, but don’t skimp on the saffron. Excellent. Thanks XXXX!
hey!!well i just wanna add you can omit the dates and raisins serve it with feta cheese or fried fish thats how the Rashties have it!