Persian Lamb Soup is a meal unto itself. The only other thing that is required is bread, and dessert.
The best parts are that my picky eater (Jean) will gleefully scarf it up, and that there are plenty of leftovers for the next day or two.
My recipe calls for quince preserves, which may be hard to find, or expensive. I suggest that two cups of cubed, firm and sweet apple, or a cup-and-a-half of applesauce, will make a good substitute.
We get our lamb from the farm across the street from us. We buy one lamb, slaughtered and dressed, every fall. For my soup, I use a shoulder or leg, which I bone-out and de-fat (saving the suet for our wild birds). The Iranians prefer to use bone-in lamb shanks for this soup, but the four shanks of one lamb are not enough.
1/4 cup oil (I use olive)
2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 tsp. ground turmeric
3 pounds of lamb meat (I cube mine, from a leg or shoulder)
10 cups of cold water
20—28 ounces of peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes (I use canned)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 cups dried lentils
1 scant Tbsp. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup quince preserves
• In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. In it, sauté the onions until they're transparent and soft. Stir in the turmeric. Then add the cubed lamb (or the chunked-up shanks) and brown it.
• Add the water, tomatoes, and cinnamon to the pot. Bring to a boil. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for about an hour-and-a-half.
• Add the lentils, salt, and pepper. Simmer for another 30 minutes, to cook the lentils.
• If you used shanks, remove them, shred-off the meat into the pot, and discard the bones.
• Now add the quince preserves, stir it in well, and let the soup simmer for a little while longer.
The Iranians often use chickpeas instead of lentils. They sometimes also use white beans. Instead of quince, and always with chickpeas, they will also use 4 or 5 diced apples and 1/2 cup of pitted, sour cherries, plus up to 3 Tbsp. sugar and 1 Tbsp. lemon juice.
