This is my mother’s family recipe and I have found a way to make it vegan. It is the ultimate comfort food without any of the guilt. Once you taste the amazing flavors in this soup, you will not believe that it is made with zero processed foods, zero oil, zero sugar and very little salt. Please don’t let the items that may be new to you discourage you. You can skip these ingredients but why? Both the dried person lemons (limo amani) and unripe sour grapes (ghooreh) can be found online and in many regular grocery stores. Ghooreh can be found frozen and even fresh when it is in season. When it is off season, you can also find it in jar versions.
Vegan Persian Obgoosht
1 onion – cut into 4 chunks
3 cups of grape tomatoes or cut tomatoes – washed and made liquid in the food processor
3 cups of small potatoes or cut potatoes – washed
1 Teaspoon Turmic
4 dried Persian lemons (Limo Amani) – soaked in hot water until soft
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 Teaspoon Salt
3/4 cup pinto beans
1/2 cup white beans
1/4 cup garbanzo beans
1/2 cup unripe grapes (Ghooreh) – optional
6-7 cups water
- Soak all of the beans in water overnight
- Empty the water from the beans and rinse, add 6 cups water to the beans and cook in a crock pot for 8 hours.
- Transfer the beans and water it cooked in into a stainless steel pot and bring to a boil.
- Soak the dried Persian lemons in hot water by placing another bowl on top so the lemons stay in the water. Once soft, cut the lemons in half and remove seeds. (demonstrated in the video)
- Add the liquid tomatoes from the food processor and all of the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce hit to a simmer – on my stove, it is medium low.
- Cover and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. check every 15 minutes to make sure you don’t need to add some boiling water. It needs to remain a soup consistency so if it becomes a bit thick, add 1 cup boiling water.
- Serve hot with lavash bread and raw onions.
- If you have extra soup, you can freeze it for a rainy day.