This basic Persian rice recipe with tahdeeg is your first step to mastering the art of cooking Persian rice. Once you understand the principles, you can move on to the other Persian rice recipes (see images below), whether on this site on in your favourite cookbook!
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
What is Tahdeeg, you might ask?
It’s that golden crunchy bottom rice layer, the crowning glory of all Persian rice dishes!
In Farsi (the Persian and Afghan language),
- tah = bottom
- dig = pot
Pronounced ta-deeg.
How to Cook Perfect Persian Rice
In Persian cooking, to achieve fluffy and perfect rice, it is first parboiled in plenty of salted water, very much like cooking pasta, drained then steamed until done.
The steaming here is not the traditional steaming method that you may be thinking. Instead, it’s more a case of finishing the rice off on the stove with a tight fitting lid and a tea towel, creating a whole lot of steam in the pot. Pretty much like cooking biryani.
- Chelo (chelow) is the name for Persian steamed white rice, or rice with saffron.
- Polo (polow), is when the rice is mixed with other ingredients like meat, vegetables and fruit, like Zereshk Polo (Barberry Rice), Morasa Polo (Jewelled Rice) and Sabzi Polo (Herbed Rice).
So for our very first in the Persian series, we are going to cook Chelo, Persian steamed rice, with Tahdig.
Best Rice?
Basmati is always a good choice. It’s not called King of Rice for nothing. Good quality Thai Jasmine rice is another good bet. Its naturally perfumed grains lend a wonderful aroma to your finished dish.
If you have access to Iranian rice, then by all means, use that instead.
To Soak Rice or Not to Soak?
EDIT MAY 2023: This depends completely on your rice. Going by my experience here in the UK, most (all?) of the basmati rice sold in our supermarkets cannot withstand soaking. The grains tend to fall apart upon cooking. Whatever the price range and brand.
If you buy your basmati from a South Asian grocer as I do now, it is “proper” aged basmati rice and will most certainly benefit from being soaked for 1 hour with 1 Tbsp of salt.
Traditionally, the rice is always soaked in salted water for at least a couple of hours before cooking. However, I have long dispensed with the soaking method, having found that I much prefer the final texture without.
Different types of Tahdig
You can make tahdeeg with all sorts of ingredients, whether with just the rice that you are cooking, or anystarch you fancy. Here are some examples.
- Rice Tahdig – a crispy base of rice (see below)
- Potato Tahdig – thinly sliced potatoes
- Bread Tahdig – layers of any old flat bread
- Spaghetti Tahdig – seriously! Of course other types of pasta are often also used
Rice Tahdeeg
There are 3 different types of plain rice tahdeeg. To get the perfect tahdig, you place a ladle or two full of the parboiled rice into hot fat before gradually adding the rest of the rice in.
- Just the rice into the hot fat
- A mixture of the rice, yoghurt and saffron into the hot fat
- A mixture of the rice, yoghurt, saffron & egg into the hot fat
My favourite is number 3 because it produces the richest and tastiest tahdeeg. My mum liked to use evaporated milk instead of yoghurt, now that was very good too!
What pot to Use?
You need a flat, heavy based pan with a close fitting lid and a tea towel. The pot has to be fairly deep, about 4″.
The tea towel is to absorb any excess moisture.
Liquid Saffron
When I use saffron, no matter what I’m cooking, I like to grind it, mix with hot water, then use the whole thing. This way, no part of the saffron is wasted and your rice and tahdeeg will be so much tastier for it.
And click here for the YouTube video. This is just your regular saffron crushed and soaked in water. Although it will last in the fridge for 2-3 days, I always make it fresh as I need it. How much saffron you use depends on what the recipe calls for.
Right then, ready to take your first step into the wonderful world of Persian Rice?
Easy Persian Saffron Rice
By popular demand, his is the cheat’s version, quick and easy, minus the tahdeeg.
Images by LinsFoodies
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And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Noushe jan | نوش جان
Lin xx
Persian Steamed Rice with Tahdig
Ingredients
The Rice
- 500 g (2 1/2 cups) Basmati rice, rinsed in cool water until the water runs clear
- a saucepan of water big enough to take the rice
- 1 tsp butter
- 1 Tbsp liquid saffron
- 3 Tbsp salt
The Tahdig
- 2 ladles of the parboiled rice above
- 1 Tbsp yoghurt
- 1 small egg lightly beaten
- 1 Tbsp liquid saffron
- 1 Tbsp butter
- ¼ tsp salt
Optional Topping
- 1 tsp rose water
- 1 Tbsp butter
Instructions
Parboiling the Rice
- Add the salt to the water, bring it to boil and add the rice. Bring it back to boil and cook for 7 minutes. Get a grain and bite it, it should be soft on the outside and just resistant on the inside, not raw solid but almost cooked solid.
- Drain the rice, rinse with cold tap water, drain again and set aside.
Steaming the Rice
- Wash out and dry the saucepan you used to parboil the rice, then place it on medium heat.
- For the tahdig, see proportions above. Mix the 2 ladles of rice rice, yoghurt, egg and salt in a small bowl. If not using yoghurt or egg, just move on to step 5.
- Mixed the saffron and fat of your choice and swirl it around in your saucepan for a few seconds.
- Add the rice or rice mix to the fat/saffron mix and flatten down. Leave to cook for a minute.
- Gradually add the rest of the rice, ladle by ladle, forming a conical shape. The reason for this is that traditional chelow pots were conical, giving you a wide base for your tahdig. Also given the long cooking time, whatever rice that touches the saucepan is going to crisp up slightly. So you want as much of the rice away from the edges as possible.
- Wrap the saucepan lid up with the towel and place on the saucepan, ensuring it’s a tight fit. The towel is there to absorb any excess moisture, preventing soggy rice. Make sure your tea towel is nowhere near the flame!
- Cook on that same medium heat for 5 minutes. This should be enough time for the steam to build up. My mum used to wet her fingers and touch the side of the saucepan and if it “sizzled” that meant there was enough steam.
- At this stage, lower the heat right down and let the rice steam away for 45 minutes. This will produce a golden tahdig, the way I like it. If you prefer a darker shade of brown, go for 60-90 minutes.
- At the end of the cooking time, take it off the heat, let rest for 5 minutes, then sprinkle the rose water and butter topping all over the rice, if you like, or skip this stage.
To Serve
- Ladle out all that beautiful, glistening rice onto a platter, lifting out the tahdig right at the end and serving that up separately, cut or broken up into pieces.
The tahdig sounds delicious enough to eat by itself, even without anything else! Is it better to have a non-stick pot to cook it in?
I have been blessed with having Persian friends who taught me to make Persian good. Tarot is one of them and so addictive. Once you make it you will never go back to making rice any other way! It rocks!
It certainly does. Lucky you!
Non stick pans will definitely help with the release of the rice.
Oh wow! I never knew there were other types of tahdig, Lin. That potato one sounds especially delicious. And those toppings of butter and rose water – I can’t stop salivating imagining the whole thing!
Crunchy rice from the bottom and yogurt sounds like a great combo!
When I was a kid, I remember camping out and had rice from a pot and the bottom was crunchy. It went well with curry!
It’s a yummy treat for sure. I can imagine how much fun eating that crunchy rice while one is camping out!
How do I make the spaghetti tahdig? have you got a post for it? Cheers.
Hi Mike, I don’t have a post with spaghetti tahdig. But here’s how you do it:
1. Cook a small amount of spaghetti, the usual way, maybe a small bowl size.
2. Mixed the saffron and fat of your choice and swirl it around in your saucepan for a few seconds.
3. Add the pasta, making sure it doesn’t come up to more than an inch high. Press down and cook for 2 minutes on medium heat.
4. Then follow with the rest of the recipe.
Any questions, just ask.
Hi, I am hosting a Noruz party for the first time ever, and really pleased to have found your site. This is a great. I’ve never cooked for more than 4 people before, so I am going to practise first. Planing to make this recipe on Friday. with your eshkeneh. It’s the prettiest eshkeneh I’ve seen! Thank you. Checking out your other recipes too and bookmarking them.
Hi Hasti, that’s so exciting! I’m so glad that you are finding the recipes here useful. There’ll be a couple more recipes for Nowruz over the next week or so, so be sure to check back. Any question, just ask.
Thank you for this tutorial. It’s a recipe I’ve wanted to try for a long, long time. I used to go out with an Iranian girl, and I used to love her cooking. Have saved to try soon.
Thanks Michael, let me know how it goes. Lots more Persian recipes on the Persian Masterclass: https://www.linsfood.com/persian-recipes-masterclass/
This is just so amazing, thank you. I love all your Persian recipes, planning to go through them all, one by one. LOL!
Thank you! I look forward to all your tries!
I love the detail of the recipe. I can’t get the background on it anywhere else. Thank you!
Thank you, Jayne.
Good to read your take on the soaking/ no soaking rice debate. My husband and I adore your posts. Keep it up
Thank you, I appreciate that.