This Persian Celery Stew (khoresh karafs) is made with a fragrant base of mint and parsley, tender beef, and slow-simmered celery. A touch of rhubarb adds a tangy twist to this beloved Persian comfort dish, served to perfection over fluffy basmati rice.
Stews are the staple of Persian cuisine. Everyone loves ground beef kabob (kabob koobideh) and chicken kabob (joojeh kabob), but those meals are not served everyday. Stews, rice and soups are a central part of the daily Persian family meal.
For most Americans, when you mention a stew, you think of chunks of beef, potatoes and carrots in a thick beef sauce. Persian stews are quite different, but something very special.
Almost all of them feature a vegetable like eggplant (khoresh bademjan), herbs (gormeh sabzi), okra (khoresh bamieh), squash (khoresh kadoo) and of course, celery.
And one my family’s favorites is Persian Celery Stew (Khoresh Karafs). Don’t be surprised that a stew heavily laden with vegetables would be a favorite among kids and adults. It is a very delicious and fragrant stew.
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Recipe highlights
- Unexpected Twist: While khoresh karafs is traditionally made with celery and herbs, this version includes a touch of rhubarb to enhance its tangy depth. You can also it with artichoke hearts for a bold, delicious variation.
- Family Favorite: This isn’t just a comfort food classic—it’s a dish that’s been passed down and beloved in my family for generations. And yes, even kids devour bowls filled with bright herbs and tender veggies!
- Bright and Bold Flavor: With just the right crunch from celery, tang from rhubarb and dried limes, and melt-in-your-mouth stew meat, every bite is layered and satisfying. Spoon it over fluffy basmati rice for the full experience.
- Fresh Herbs, Big Flavor: Fragrant parsley and mint are the heart of this stew, giving it an aromatic, herby backbone that sets it apart from your typical slow-cooked dish.
Ingredients you need
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- Beef stew meat: For stew meat, you can use London broil or chuck roast if you cannot find stew meat at your butcher. If you want a bone-in option, you can also use beef or lamp shanks. If using bone-in meat, approximately 4 shanks should work in this recipe.
- Celery: You will use both the greens and the stalks of the celery in this stew.
- Rhubarb: Traditional khoresht karafs does not use rhubarb. The addition of rhubarb adds some more sour flavor. Read more about this in the next section of this post.
- Onion: The base of every Persian stew starts with a brown onion.
- Beef broth: I simmer my stews in beef broth for more flavor. Many people just add water instead.
- Lemon juice: So much sourness in this recipe! Lemon juice add a different kind of sour as compared to the rhubarb or dried limes.
- Dried limes: Persian dried limes (limoo omani) are very distinct in flavor. You can purchase them at middle eastern markets or online. You pierce the whole limes or chop them before adding to the stew. You can also use ground dried lime. If you do not have dried limes, substitute with more lemon juice.
- Fresh herbs: parsley and mint
- Ground saffron: Khoresht karafs is simmered with a bit of saffron. If you use high quality saffron you will need less as it is more aromatic than lower quality saffron.
- Flour: I use a little bit of flour when I brown my stew meat. This is totally optional. You substitute with rice flour if you want a gluten free option, or skip altogether.
- Pantry staples: Extra virgin olive oil (or any vegetable oil), turmeric, salt and pepper.
Step-by-step directions
- Sauté the onions. Sauté chopped onions in hot oil until softened then season with salt, pepper, and turmeric.
- Brown the meat. Mix together stew meat salt, pepper, turmeric and flour until meat is coated evenly. Add stew meat to onions and brown it all over.
- Simmer the meat. Stir in beef broth and lemon juice, scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add dried limes to the stew, reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer for 2 hours.
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- Prep the herbs. Wash the herbs, remove the thick stems and spin dry in a salad spinner. Add herbs to a food processor and process until finely chopped.
- Sauté the celery. Sauté chopped celery in hot oil until it starts to sweat. Add chopped herbs and sauté until they darken.
- Simmer the stew. Add vegetables to the stew and stir in saffron. Simmer stew for 45 minutes. If using rhubarb, stir in chopped rhubarb during the last 20 minutes of cooking.
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQs
About rhubarb. Rhubarb melts quickly as it cooks, so when you need to add it during the cooking process depends on your preference of texture. We like to bite into the individual pieces of sour rhubarb, so I add it in the last 20 minutes of cooking.
You can cook it longer for it to melt more into the stew, distributing its sour flavor throughout the dish more evenly. It’s all up to you.
More greens. When I am making the herb based Persian stews, I like to sneak in some healthy greens for my family to eat, like spinach or kale. You do not want to use too much though, because you want the herbs to shine in this dish. You also do not want to use any strong flavored or bitter greens as they can alter how the stew tastes.
Serving suggestion. And of course, when it comes to serving any Persian stew, it is always over steamed Persian rice. Along with rice you can also add some sabzi khordan, Persian pickled vegetables (torshi) yogurt with cucumbers (mast o khiar) or even tomato cucumber salad (shirazi salad).
If you love the flavors in this dish, you will love my recipe for Persian green plum stew (khoresh gojeh sabz) or my khoresh chaghaleh badoom (Persian green almond stew). Both use the same herb base as this celery stew recipe.
Storing/Freezing Instructions
TO STORE: Store any leftover stew in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 4 days.
TO FREEZE: You can also freeze leftovers. Transfer to a resealable bag or freezer safe container and freeze for up to 4 months.
Yes, you CAN make khoresh karafs days before you are going to serve it. In fact, Persian stews taste even better the next day. I don’t usually serve this stew the same day that I prepare it. I spend one day cleaning de-stemming the herbs, then a second day cooking everything just to serve it on the third day. So worth it!
Traditionally this stew is make with just celery. Some people add rhubarb for additional sour flavor. Another
Another way to serve khoresh karafs is with artichoke hearts, not the oily marinated variety. Once the stew is done, transfer it into 9×13 oven safe dish and top with the artichoke hearts. Let it bake for 20-30 minutes at 350ºF and then serve.
Persian Celery Stew
Ingredients
- 2 lb beef stew meat cut into 1-inch cubes
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¾ teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoon all-purpose flour optional
- 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion chopped (approximately 1 cup)
- 2 cup beef broth
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2 dried limes quartered
- 3 cup parsley packed
- ¾ cup fresh mint packed
- 2 bunches celery chopped into ¼-inch slices (about 11 cups)
- 2 stalks of rhubarb chopped into ¼-inch slices (optional)
- ½ teaspoon ground saffron
Instructions
- In a large bowl mix together stew meat ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, ¼ teaspoon turmeric and 2 teaspoon flour until meat is coated evenly.
- Heat a large dutch oven over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. When oil is hot, add chopped onions. Cook until onions start to soften, approximately 7 minutes and add ½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon pepper, ½ teaspoon turmeric.
- Cook for a 2 minutes, then raise the heat to medium-high, add stew meat and brown all sides, approximately 7 minutes.
- Stir in beef broth and lemon juice. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up browned bits of meat from the bottom of the pot.
- Add dried limes to the stew, reduce heat to low, cover pot and simmer for 2 hours, stirring the stew every 30 minutes.
- Using a food processor (or chop finely with a knife) chop parsley, mint and spinach.
- Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil.
- Sauté chopped greens for 5 minutes then add to the meat mixture
- Add another 1 tablespoon olive oil to the hot skillet and sauté the chopped celery.
- Season celery with ½ teaspoon salt then add to the stew, along with ground saffron.
- Cook stew covered over low heat for another 45 minutes.
- If using rhubarb, stir in chopped rhubarb during the last 20 minutes of cooking.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
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Written by Laura Bashar
Hi, I’m Laura, a certified professional cook and cookbook author living in San Diego. I have been sharing my family’s favorite recipes inspired from all over the world since 2008. Let’s cook up something fun!
This is an awesome dish! Never had a celery-heavy stew, but I like the idea. And I LOVE the idea of the rhubarb! Honestly, I think I might skip the meat entirely — everything else in this dish sounds so good. Thanks!
Hi and thank you!
I just ran across your site when looking up “dehydrating chard”. I am intrigued by many recipes; so many that I am now “following” you on pinterest. I can’t wait to try the blueberry cream cheese brownies!
Can this stew be made in a crockpot?
I am a preschool teacher and an Avon Lady (https://nhoyt.avonrepresentative.com/) and am not home to “stir the pot” in step 9… but could do the rest when home. Do you think this would work?
Hi Nancy,
Thanks for stopping by! Yes, you can definitely cook the meat and herbs in the crockpot. But I would not put the celery or rhubarb in to cook all day as it would turn to mush. The celery needs about an hour of cooking (for cooked celery but with a crunch) and the rhubarb (again depending on texture preference) about 20 minutes.
Do let me know how you like it!
Laura
Hi Laura, I subscribe and read to your blog, intrigued by the content. Thank-you for the “new to me” ideas of sprucing up my mundane North American heritage generated menu with a Persian flair (actually Canadian but still N. America). Just one thing got me thinking in this recipe,in step “15. Cook stew covered over low heat for another 45 minutes.” wouldn’t the celery be all mushy and gross? When I’m making a stew I generally stew with celery,onions and carrots in and add more vegetables near the end so their is a saucy stew with a firm veggie body.… Read more »
Hi John! I love mundane North American heritage generated foods! ha ha! The celery does not turn to mush if you have sliced it about 1-cm thick, which is my preference in size. I also stir the pot up a couple times during this process so all of the celery can evenly cook. I’ll add that to the recipe directions, too. We do prefer a crisper celery, but not a raw celery, so you can cook it for less time. The key is for all the flavors to meld together. Rhubarb, though, definitely melts when cooked. Do let me know… Read more »
Thanks, Laura. This is exactly the kind of practical information I was looking for! I recently discovered that they don’t even carry saffron in the supermarket here. I plan to make an order from Sadaf which will include saffron, the omani limes, and pomegranate concentrate or paste. Are there any other specialty items you would recommend for the pantry? Thank you so much and happy creating,
Alisa
For a Persian pantry? Also add sumac, turmeric, dried fenugreek, dried shallots (if you like maast-o mooseer).You can get dried herbs anywhere, but add that to list, too!
Hi Laura. Thank you so much for sharing your tantalizing recipes. I would like to know about these dried limes. I am not Persian and do not live in a Persian neighborhood, so I suspect I will have to make my own or special order them. I have done a bit of searching on the internet for instructions, but have come up with contradictory results, so thought better to ask you directly.
Best wishes,
Alisa
Hi Alisa!
Thank you for your sweet words! My mother-in-law dries her own limes, so that’s one option. You can use those small Mexican limes. But you can also order them on amazon here. Sadaf is a brand that I like and use all the time. They have their own website, too, where you can order from. Let me know what you think after you make this!