Afghanistan: vegan Kabuli Palau

Today on our vegan world food tour we make a stop in Afghanistan and make a delicious Afghan rice dish – Kabuli Palau, the country’s national dish. Read on to learn more about the Afghan kitchen and find a vegan Afghan recipe for Kabuli Palau.

Afghanistan lies in the eastern part of the Middle East, near Pakistan, India, and China. In historical times, the silk road -the trading route connecting Europe, the Middle East, and China, passed through the area. These influences can be clearly seen in the Afghan kitchen where middle eastern dishes like kebab, kofta, and magnificent rice dishes are served alongside pakora, dumplings, noodles, and qorma/korma (stews) packed with South Asian spices ​[1]–[5]​.

Rice and bread are two very important staples and are served alongside animals (lamb and chicken) and vegetables like onion, tomato, carrot and eggplant. Garnish includes nuts like almonds and pistachios and dried fruits like raisins and prunes. Spices are numerous and shows the South Asian influences with spices like cardamom, cloves, cumin, and coriander seeds.

Popular Afghan dishes

Popular Afghan dishes include those traditionally found in the region, such as kebab, kofta, and numerous rice dishes. Popular breads are nan which, just like its Indian namesake, is a yeast-based dough baked on the inside surface of a tandoor, and lavash a classic Arabic flatbread. Qorma (or korma) is a series of stews based on browned onion and tomato and featuring everything from animals to spinach, carrots, yogurt, chana dal, mung beans, and kidney beans ​[6]​.

Korma is eaten with chelow, white basmati rice which is soaked and then cooked in plenty of water, strained, and then returned to the pot and allowed to finish cooking through steaming ​[6]​. This rice cooking method is popular all across the region, not in the least in Iran where the rice can be left to burn in the pot, creating a tahdig.

Other popular dishes include leetee (a sweet, wheatbased porridge), ashak (leek filled dumplings) and mantu (meat dumplings served with youghurt and a tomatosauce).

On the dessert menu you can find baklava which I strongly associate with eastern Mediterranean cooking (Greece, Turkey) and jalebi, (deep-fried chickpea flour spirals in sugar syrup), something that brings India to my mind. Other popular desserts are sheer khurma – a date-sweetened milk soup with nuts, cardamom, and thin noodles ​[7]​ and fereni – a milk pudding with corn starch, saffron and rosewater ​[6]​.

Kabuli pilau – Aghanistan’s national dish

Pilau (pulau, palau, palaw, pilaf and other spelling variations exist) is a dish where rice is the hero. White basmati rice is steamed and then mixed with spices and other ingredients. In Afghanistan, popular combinations include spinach; apricots and mung beans; saffron, orange and pistachios; dill and raisins.

Kabuli (or Qabeli, Qaabuli), pilau is Afghanistan’s national dish ​[8], [9]​ and is a pilau with onion, carrots, raisins, and almonds. Traditionally it includes lamb or chicken but many vegan versions just omit these ​[10]–[13]​. Here I decided to substitute for jackfruit to create a vegan version of this Afghan dish.

Interesting ingredient

For this dish, I decided to replace the traditional lamb or chicken with jackfruit. Jackfruit is a giant, green fruit covered in what looks like dragon scales, similar to durian but less spiky (and without its infamous smell). It is used in South Asia and Southeast Asia where it can be eaten on its own ​[14]​. More often, the unripe fruit is harvested and cooked in different stews. A few years ago it was a big trend in the vegan/vegetarian community where its stringy texture is used to replicate meaty textures, notably in pulled pork (which was very trendy at the time). You can use it in mock tuna salads, crab cakes, tacos, pot pie and many other dishes ​[15]​.

You can find jackfruit fresh, often cut in pieces or canned in the Asian aisle or at Asian supermarkets. But beware, there is one version where the ripe fruit is canned in sugar syrup (as a dessert) and one where the immature (green) jackfruit is sold in brine. Buy the latter (green, brine) for savory dishes.

Conclusion

Kabuli pulau is a very tasty Afghan rice dish where the garam masala gives it a warm, rich flavour. This time, I made the dish on its own and toward the end of the meal, it did become a bit unfirom. Next time, I will serve it with some korma, like a carrot/chana dal korma from the Veggiestan cookbook or this kidney bean karahi (curry). I hope you enojyed this vegan recipe.

Did you try this recipe? What would you choose to showcase Afghan recipes for teh vegan community? Leave a comment below.

Vegan Afghan recipe

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Kabuli palau

Afghanistan's national dish is a savory rice dish with fried onion, carrots and raisins. Here, the traiditional lamb or chicken is repalced with jackfruit.

Course dinner, Main Course

Cuisine Afghani, Arabic, Middle Eastern

Keyword pilaf, pilau, rice, Rice dish

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 400 mL basmati rice
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 carrots, cut to matchsticks
• 1 can young jackfruit in brine Don't buy the one in syrup
• 100 mL raisins
• 100 mL slivered almonds
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt

Instructions

• Rinse rice a few times (until water runs clear). Soak for 1-2 h.
• Fry onions in oil for 5 minutes until they start to get some color.
• Add garlic and jackfruit continue frying for 15 min. The jackfruit should get cooked and the onion should develop a rich colour.

  While frying, use a spoon or two forks to tear the jackfruit to pieces.

  Add half the garam masala and set aside.
• Meanwhile, Bring a pot of water with salt to the boil.

  Strain the rice and add it to the boiling. Add rice to water adn boil for ~5 min. The outside should be soft but the centre should still be hard.

  Strain the rice.

  Return rice to the pot, one scoop at a time, and make holes down to the bottom.

  Set the burner to very low and let the rice finish cooking using steam. Add a dash of water if needed.
• Toast the almond slivers.
• Fry carrot matchsticks on low heat until they go soft. Add raisins for a few minutes until they puff up.

  Add the rest of the garam masala and set aside.
• When the rice is done, stir in the jackfruit and half the carrots, raisins and almonds. Taste and adjust with salt and garam masala.

  Place rice on a tray and top with the rest of the carrots, raisins and almonds.