Vegetarian Travelers to Iran

(At this post we will introduce vegetarian foods in Iran and specifically we will point the restaurants and shops where you can find the food in Qazvin and Alamut Valley. The pronunciation of the key words are written with phonetic alphabet in /xxx/ form.)

Being a vegetarian in Iran is quite new and we can say the infrastructure for it is not yet ready. But we are doing our best to make your trip to Iran as easy as possible in terms of food. The good news is that Iran is a vegetables-rich country. Due to the different climate conditions in the country, we have fresh vegetables during the year. Not all of the meals can be found in restaurants and most of them are home-made but you can show the Farsi name and the picture of the meals to ask the restaurants if they have any of these meals. Talare Shahr Restaurant also offers some green meals.

Caution: Please always ask the restaurant or the home which prepared the meal for you if they added any meat inside of the dish, because sometimes they do with no reason!

Iran is one of the richest countries in the region in terms of vegetables and fruits. Almost all of the fruits and vegetables you buy in Iran are from Iran except for the tropical ones.

the bazaar of vegetables with cucumber, carrot and ... — Qazvin Vegetables Bazaar

the bazaar with garlic, peas and ... — Qazvin Vegetables and Fruit Bazaar

lentils with a decoration of some herbs and some onions. — Lentils

The first and one of the cheapest meals in Iran is the one with lentils: Adasi (عدسی - /ædæsi/). This meal is served with bread (different types) and the main ingredients are lentils and onions. The restaurants which serve lentils are mostly special ones for breakfast and evening meal (صبحانه و عصرانه).

beans or loobia as a green meal — Beans (Loobia)

We have a tasty meal in Iran called Loobia (لوبیا - /luːbɪɒ/). It is almost exactly the same as the canned beans. Kind of soup with beans and onions and some spice in it.

There are some different types of food made by eggs. First you should know the Farsi word for egg: Tokhm-e-Morgh (تخم مرغ >>/tɔːkhm-e-mɔːrɡ/. Tokhm is egg and Morgh/Morq is hen or chicken. Nimroo (نیمرو -/niːmruː/) is as a very common dish everywhere in the world is the first and easiest dish available by eggs.

eggs as nimroo a vegetarian dish in iran — Nimroo

Omelet (املت - /ɔːmlet/) for us in Iran can come in two main options. One is with tomato and the other is with tomato paste.

eggs and tomato with a little fried onions inside — Tomato Omelet

eggs and tomato paste and some spices inside. — Tomato Paste Omelet

Omelet: the same pronunciation in Farsi Tomato: Gojeh /gɔːdʒɜː/ Tomato Paste: Rob /rɔːb/ The spices we use in the food meals in Iran both inside the meals or as decoration are tumeric, pepper,mint, cinnamon, garlic powder and so on.

Iran produces it`s own potato, so if you walk in a bazaar in Iran, you will see a lot of fresh vegetables and potatoes. We have some different meals with potato.

potato and pizza cheese — Potato+Pizza Cheese

This meal is new in our cuisine in Iran and actually no specific name for it! Fried potato plus some pizza / Mozzarella Cheese with some spices and that`s it! (One of my own favorites! :-)) But let`s define a name for it for the moment: Sibzamini va Panir Pitza (سیب زمینی و پنیر پیتزا - /siːb - zæmiːniː - væ - pæniːr - piːtzɑː/). This name phrase means potato and pizza cheese.

fried grated potato with eggs — Potato Koo-Koo

This meal is called Koo-Koo Sib Zamini. (کوکو سیب زمینی - /kuːkuː - siːb - zæmiːniː/). Koo-koo is a type of food that you fry a mixture of potato or vegetables with eggs in oil. Sib Zamini is potato. As a default procedure, for Koo-koo sib zamini, you only have grated potatos, onions and eggs, all mixed and fried. But sometimes people add a little barberry, walnut or herbs.

koo-koo of sabzi which is some sliced vegetables plus eggs and some barberry decorations — Koo-Koo Sabzi

We already went through koo-koo in general. Koo-Koo Sabzi (کوکو سبزی - /kuːkuː - sæbziː /) is a fried mixture of sliced vegetables (sabzi) and some onions, eggs and maybe decorations of barberry.

Eggplant is used in making some tasty dishes in Iran.

kashke bademjan is a green food with eggplants garlic onion and a white sauce. — Kashke-Bademjan

Kashk-e-Bademjan (کشک بادمجان - /kæʃk -e- bɒdemdʒɑːn /) is a meal with eggplant (bademjan), onion, garlic and a white sauce called Kashk. Eggplants can be cooked or barbecued on fire. The dish in the picture comes with a decoration of mint and some walnut.

A local Alamooti woman is preparing bademjan for cooking Kashke Bademjan for the tourists. Mrs. Shahraki is one the best cooks in the region!

mirza ghasemi a meal with eggplant,, garlic and tomato with a little onion — Mirza-Ghasem

Mirza Ghasemi (میرزاقاسمی - /miːrzɑː - gɑːsemiː /) can be a meal from the same family with Kashke bademjan. This time you have tomato in the meal in addition to the ingredients of Kashke Bademjan.

Dolmeh with Bell pepper with ingredients of rice and some herbs. — Dolme

Dolme (دلمه - /dɔːlmɜː /) is a general word for a meal which can be made with bell pepper, eggplant or grape leaves. We first cook a mixture of rice, split pea and some herbs, then stuff the bell peppers with them and then steam cook the stuffed peppers.

Dimaj (دیماج- /diːmɑːdʒ/) is a dish from Northwest Iran. It can be very simple by crushed bread pieces, vegetables and cucumber or you can have it more luxurious by adding fried potato, walnut, raisin, tomato and even apple.

aash is a kind of soup with big noodles and beans and peas inside. — Aash

Aash (آش - /ɑːʃ/) a green dish in the form of a soup with big noodles, peas, beans and different vegetables. Almost at every region in Iran, there is more than one type of Aash and the default form is the ones without meat.

felafel a food from peas with decorations with vegetables and tomatos — Falafel

No need to explain about Falafel (فلافل - /fælɑːfel/) . It is almost the same everywhere in the world and I personally did not have any experience of Falafel in Iran with meat. This meal can be found at every fast food shop at every town in Iran.

a dish with fried flour, some sugar or grape juice — Halva

Halva (حلوا- /hælvɑː/) is actually coming from the Arabic word Halva and Halaviyat meaning sweets. In Iran, Arabic countries and Turkey, this form of Halva is made of fried flour, some sugar or grape syrup, rose water and maybe some saffron being decorated with almond and pistachios. Culturally, halva is being served in Sad ceremonies specially when someone dies.

a cold soup with cucumber, bread pieces and different vegetables — Abdoogh-Khiar (cold soup)

In Iran in total we have very hot summers. Even people who are not vegetarians, tend to eat less meat during hot days. One of the most popular meals in summer time in Iran is a cold soup called Abdoogh-khiar (آبدوغ خیار- /ɑbduːg - khɪɒr/). Abdoogh is the same as Doogh in Iran. The white drink very similar to milk but it`s actually the mixture of yogurt, water and salt. Abdoogh-khiar is the dish with doogh, bread, cucumber, vegetables, and maybe even with apple pieces and raisin.

barbari is the thickest bread in iran. — Barbari Bread

After introducing some meals with bread, now we are introducing some green food with rice. The picture is of Barbari (بربری- /bærbæriː/), the thickest and one of the tastiest breads in Iran.

You should know all of the green meals with rice can also include meat, in other words, please ask the home or the restaurant if they did not add any meat to the meal or even worse, if they did not do the creepy job of picking meat pieces from the meal after they have cooked the meal! This dish is called Adas Polo (عدس پلو- /ædæs - pɔːlɔː/). Adas is lentils and polo is rice. Sometime raisin can also be added to the dish.

the food with pumpkin and rice and onions — Kadoo Polo (Pumpkin and rice)

Kadoo-Polo (کدوپلو- /kæduː - pɔːlɔː/) is one of the local dishes of Alamut Valley. Kadoo is pumpkin and Polo is rice. It also includes onions and some spices. The food tends to be a little sweet but very tasty and it is more of Autumn and Winter food.

This list will grow during the time when we get to know more green meals in Iran.

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