Havij Polo Recipe, Delicious Persian Carrot Rice in 5 steps

Havij Polo is a beautiful fragrant Persian rice made with layers of carrots. This food is originally from Shiraz. Havij Polo or Persian carrot rice is a good option for ceremonies.

Cookery Magazine will tell you how to cook this fantastic food. It’s a delicious recipe that can either be served on its own as a side rice dish, or you can make it as a layered dish with minced beef. In this recipe, we’re going to prepare it with minced beef. This food smell and look divine.

This dish has a sweet taste like Albaloo Polo and it is cooked in different ways in every city and region of Iran. You can cook carrot pilaf with chicken or mutton or without meat.

We updated this article on 2023/11/06 according to the new cooking tips for Havij Polo.

Havij Polo Ingredients

rice	5 cups
ground lamb or beef	1/2 kg
carrots	1 kg
onion	1
turmeric powder	1 teaspoon
cinnamon powder	1 teaspoon
ground cardamom	1 teaspoon
saffron water	4 tablespoons
sugar	3 tablespoons
rose water	3 tablespoons
vegetable oil	as needed
sea salt	as needed
butter	100 g

Ground Beef in Havij Polo

For preparing the meat, pour some oil in the pan and add chopped onion to sauté it. When the onion is fried, add the meat. Then add Turmeric powder and combine them. Next season with cardamom powder, cinnamon, salt, and black pepper. Fry these for 5 minutes and set them aside.

How to make Carrots ready for Persian carrot and rice

The first step

Chop up the carrots into 1-inch length sticks with matchstick or mini French fry sizes. Then we have to sauté them, so add a bit of vegetable oil into your pan, add your carrots and sauté them on medium-low heat for about 7 to 10 minutes.

The second step

When the carrots have softened, at this point add sugar and saffron water and a bit of rose water. Combine and sauté them for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Now add your meat mixture. Give everything a nice stir. After about 5 minutes, turn off the heat and let the mixture sit on the side.

The third step

Here, we want to parboil the rice to make it ready for Havij Polo or carrot layers. Put the rice, which you’ve soaked in salt and water for at least 1 hour, into boiling water in a suitable size of the pot.

Once you start seeing that the rice is bubbling to the surface, drain the rice with a colander.

To layer the rice, pour some vegetable oil into a pot. Next, add some rice to the bottom of the pot. Then a layer of some of the carrot and meat mixture. Repeat the process again, but the last layer must be rice, and add 2 tablespoons of saffron water on the top.

The fourth step

Pour half a cup of water over the rice and small pieces of butter. In the end, cover the pot and let it cook on medium-low heat for about 45 to 60 minutes until the rice is fully cooked.

Serving Havij Polo

Your Havij Polo is ready, and it is the time to serve up. You can garnish it with barberries. For this, you have to sauté the barberries in vegetable oil and a bit of sugar.

After serving Havij Polo on a plate, add the fried barberries to the surface. Slivered Pistachios are another option for garnishing this dish.

I hope you enjoy this recipe😉 write for us your opinion about this food.

Tips for cooking Havij Polo or Persian Carrot Rice

It is better to use chicken thigh to cook Havij Polo.

We can make it according to our taste with saffron or cinnamon flavor.

You can chop the carrots in different sizes and shapes based on your taste.

Adding lemon juice to carrots prevents carrots from darkening during cooking.

Onion is really important for frying the meat. Also, Adding 1 clove of garlic will make it great.

Note that when you add barberry to the pan, you must stir the ingredients continuously Because barberry burns quickly.

The amount of sugar that can be used in this dish depends on your taste, and you can increase or decrease its amount.

This dish is very delicious, with various pickles like, Torshi Shoor, Torshi makhloot or Torshi Liteh and yogurt or Shirazi salad.

To make your carrot pilaf more delicious, you can pour a little melted butter or Kermanshahian oil on the rice at the last step of cooking.

If you are not a fan of sweet foods, you can add a little pomegranate paste to the preparation of Havij polo to make the food taste a little sour-sweet.

You can cook the rice separately to make your Havij polo more festive and then pour it into the desired serving dish and decorate it with the ingredients.

Havij polo is one of the old mixed rice dishes, which is usually cooked with carrots that have a darker orange color so that the pilaf looks more colorful and shiny.

Due to the fact that Havij polo has sugar juice and this juice is also transferred to the bottom of the pot, the possibility of burning this food is more than other mixed pilafs, So either reduce the heat to very low or use a spreader flame. Usually, about 3 quarters of an hour will be enough time to brew this pilaf

You can cook Havij Polo with chicken, too. You must cook the chicken with chopped onion in water for 45 minutes. Then shred the cooked chicken and pour some oil into the pan. When the onion is fried, add the meat. Then add Turmeric powder and combine them. Next season with cardamom powder, cinnamon, salt, and black pepper. Fry these for 5 minutes.

You can also use the yogurt Tahchin as the Tahdig of the Havij polo. For this, in a bowl, mix half a cup of yogurt, half a cup of boiling water, two egg yolks, and a little oil, and finally add a little brewed saffron. When the ingredients are well combined, add a small amount of drained rice to the ingredients and add the Tahchin ingredients to the pot. Wait for the Tahdig to settle a little, then pour the rest of the ingredients into the pot according to the instructions.

Advantages & Properties of Havij Polo

Carrots are rich in calcium, which is very effective in the strengthens, growth and repair of bones and healthy teeth in children and women.

Havij polo provides the energy needed for the day and Rice is a type of insoluble fiber that protects the body against cancer, especially colon cancer.

Havij polo is rich in vitamins and nutrients for the body and is recommended for all ages; its properties include, strengthening of the immune system and control of blood pressure.

Check list of properties of Havij polo

Conclusion

Thank you for being with us with this delicious recipe. We have put the recipe for Persian Carrot Rice completely and practically so that you, dear ones, can prepare the best recipe for Havij polo at home for your loved ones.

Dear ones, you must complete the work steps accurately to prepare and cook a Havij polo. Please share this article with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media. 🧡

Frequently asked questions about Persian Carrot Rice