Adas Polo Recipe

Adas polo (Adas Polow,عدس پلو) is one of the most famous polos in Persian cuisine. There are two main styles of rice cooking in Persian cuisine. Polo and Chelo. Polo is the rice mixed with some other vegetables, meats or nuts. However, Chelow is plain rice served beside stews.
Adas polow is a more straightforward dish for cooking compare to similar recipes, and it has a very delightful taste.
Iranians cook adas polo all over Iran as the main course. It is recommended to serve it for lunch. Moreover, Adas polo has exceptional value in Iranian’s ritual ceremonies catering.
What is Adas Polo?
Adas is the Persian term for lentils and polo is a kind of rice cooking style. Adas polo includes polo style made rice, lentils, raisin, ground meat and some other ingredients. It is a precious food, nutrition wisely and can be very supportive for the body if added to the weekly diet.
Serving style
Adas Polo is usually served as the main course with yoghurt and salad next to it. Salad Shirazi is the best fellow of Adas Polow, like all other polos. Other side dishes which add to adas polo’s pleasant taste are Sabzi khordan, Torshi(ترشی) and Dough (دوغ, Persian yoghurt drink).
Adas Polo Nutrition facts
Rice is an excellent source for carbohydrates and lentils are an excellent vegetarian source for protein. Therefore, adas polow can provide the body’s needed carbs and protein. Each 100 gr of Adas polo contains 31 gr of carbs and 7 gr of protein. It is a good source of vitamins, especially vitamin E and vitamin B. Moreover, adas polow contains a notable amount of some essential minerals such as calcium and iron—about 16 mg calcium per 100 gr and 2 gr iron per 100 gr.
That ‘s why specialists suggest it as a supportive food for children’s growth. Furthermore, it is very supportive in preventing and curing amenia.
Adas polow has 204 kcal of calories which is a considerable amount for people who want to gain weight.This recipe is adequate for four people. The preparation time is about is 20 minutes (with soaked rice and lentil). The cooking time is about 1 hour in low heat.
Vegetarian tips
Typically, adas polow contains ground meat which is the only non-vegetarian ingredient inside it. However, in some regions of Iran, it is typical to cook it with chicken (adas polow ba morgh) or to cook Adas Polow with no meat at all. Therefore, it is easy to make vegetarian Adas Polow by simply omitting the meat.
What are the ingredients?
Rice is the main ingredient of any Polo in Persian cuisine, and when we are discussing a Polow’s main ingredients, we mean the items we add to the rice. In Adas Polo, the primary ingredient after the rice is lentils. Another main ingredient is ground meat, but you can find Adas Polo with unraveled lamb or beef or with no meat at all.
As most of the Persian foods, onion is one of the main ingredients in Adas Polow, too.
You may need potatoes or bread (Persian Lavash is recommended) to use as the crust(Tahdig, ته دیگ).
Cooking process:
For better cooking, soak the lentils for an average time of five hours and rinse them and resoak them for 2 or 3 times. Add a pinch of caraway seed or cumin to prevent bloating. Be careful about adding caraways, more than a pinch can result in a full caraway flavor in the dish.
To cook ground meat, you should saute them with onion, oil, and some spices such as turmeric and saffron. The next step is mixing lentils and the ground meat sauce. Finally, you saute some raisins with melted butter and add it to the combination. This level is optional, and you can omit it if you do not like a sweet taste in a meal. Like Polo making natural process, you add a layer of boiled rinsed Polo and a layer of lentil and ground meat sauce. You may use some bread and oil at the bottom of the pot as a crust.

Adas polo
Ingredients
- 250 gr ground meat (beef or lamb)
- 2 cups Persian rice or Basmati rice
- 1 cup lentils (soaked for a minimum of 2 hours)
- 1 onion
- ¼ teaspoon saffron or ½cup brewed saffron
- ¼ tablespoon turmeric
- Salt to your favor
- ¼ teaspoon caraway or cumin seed
- 25 gr butter or 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ½ cup raisin
Instructions
- Clean and wash and soak the rice.
- Cook the rice in Polow style.There is a complete guide available in uniqop's polo recipe.
- Rinse the lentils.
- Fill half of a pot with water and pout lentils into it.
- This helps to prevent lentils bloating effectAdd the caraway seeds
- Dice the onions
- Pour half of the oil into a pan and start sauteing diced onions.
- Add ground meat and saute it with onion and oil
- Add turmeric and salt
- Brew saffron and add half of it at this point
- Add the cooked lentils to the composition
- Strimm the raisins with butter
- Add the raisins to the structure after the meat is thoroughly cooked.
- Note: you may add tahdig before adding the rice and lentil sauce.After you rinse the boiled rice, pout a layer of the rice(¼ polo) into a dry pot, then a layer (¼ )of the lentils and ground meat mixture (lentil sauce). Continue this process until the rice and sauce are finished
- Cook your Adas polo for about an hour.
- You can use saffroned rice and fried sliced onion for topping.
Notes
Uniqop's advice:
- Rinsing the lentils for 2 or 3 times during soaking helps to reduce their bloating.
- Adding caraway seed is optional, but it is powerfully effective in bloat reduction
- For tahdig, you would better use lavash bread
- Cover your pot’s lid with a cloth in step 14