Mirza Ghassemi Recipe

Mirza Ghassemi (Mirza Gasemi, میرزا قاسمی) is one of the famous Iranian foods which has a vast community of fans in Iran and out of Iran. Everybody can make mirza ghasemi with a little effort and time consumption. Although you can make mirza ghasemi with the world’s most handful of ingredients, you can enjoy a flavor like the world’s most delicious meals.

This Iranian vegetarian food was first originated in the north of Iran in Gilan province. Mohammed GHASEM khan vali( محمد قاسم خان والی), Iran’s ambassador in Russia and the governer of Gilan province during the 1870s, invented this food and named it after himself.

Historical pieces of evidence show that he had an intense desire for cooking, and he invented this food under the influence of Russian dishes after he visited Saint-Petersburg.

What is Mirza Ghasemi?

Mirza Ghassemi is a Persian dish that contains smoked eggplants (aubergines), garlic, and tomato. Although most eggplants included Persian meals are served as appetizers, because of its delightful flavor, mirza ghasemi is also served as the main course with a dish of rice(polow,پلو, kate, کته). This alluring dish usually has a garnish of fried eggs on top of it, which makes a magical combination with smoked eggplant’s taste. This flavor persuades every single person to try mirza ghasemi for the second time.

Mirza Ghassemi Serving style:

You can serve mirza ghasemi with pieces of bread, especially Persian lavash bread (نان لواش) as an appetizer or brunch. You can also serve a dish of rice next to it (Polow, پلو, kate, کته) and serve it as a main course. The typical side dishes that Iranians serve along with mirza ghasemi are sir torshi (pickled garlic, سیر ترشی), salad Shirazi (سالاد شیرازی), and Zeitoun Parvardeh (filled olives, زیتون پرورده).

You can make a mirza ghasemi with almost zero calories!

Yes, it is true! Since all of the ingredients are vegetables and have such low calories, if you omit the yolk and smoke all the vegetables without adding any oil, you can cook food with almost no calories! So if you are on a low-calorie diet, you can enjoy this food as well.

Nutrition facts:

Mirza Ghassemi as a great source of fiber, iron, calcium, and magnesium. It also contains a notable amount of different vitamins like vitamins A, C, D, B12, and B6.

The garlic inside the dish is an excellent source of antibiotics and serves the body’s immune system.

Furthermore, eating mirza ghasemi can be helpful in high blood pressure control and high cholesterol control.

If you are a vegetarian.

Persian cuisine offers plenty of dishes to vegetarians. However, to be honest, none of them is as delicious as mirza ghasemi. Mirza gasemi originally is vegetarian food. You don’t have to change the recipe if you are a vegetarian. However, if you are a vegan, the food is still delicious without eggs.

Although the smoked vegetables make mirza ghasemi more tasteful, you can fry the vegetables if you do not want to smoke them. The only change you have to make to the recipe is that you have to peel the vegetables after washing and smash them. Then you can fry the crushed vegetables with oil and add the eggs at last.

These ingredients are adequate for four people, and preparation time is about 30 minutes. The estimated cooking time is 15 minutes.

What are the ingredients?

Mirza Ghasemi has simple and handful ingredients which you can find everywhere in the world. Tomatoes, eggplants(aubergines) and of course garlic since it is originally from the north of Iran. Northern Iranians usually add garlic to their recipes. The auxiliary ingredients are salt and oil. You also can use fried eggs as a topping or add battered eggs into the dish at the final step of cooking.

Cooking process:

Mirza Ghasemi’s cooking process can vary according to the changes we make to the vegetables. For example, we can smoke the vegetables and then peel them and squash them. Or we can peel them, cook them and fry the mashed vegetables. You can easily roast the vegetables by a skewer on the stove. If you are using an oven, you can grill the vegetables.

After you roast your vegetables, you squash all of them in a pan and saute them with some oil and salt. After they are cooked, you can add battered eggs to the combination. You also can add fried eggs as a topping.

If you are going to serve Mirzaghasemi with rice, you should cook a persin style rice such as Polow, Chelow or Kateh. in North of Iran the motherland of Mirzaghsemi they serve it with Kateh.

Moreover, if you are going to serve it with bread, Sangak and Lvash are the best choices. However, you can use any kind of bread if you couldn’t find any Iranian bread.