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    Home » Travel & Lifestyle

    Persian Pantry Staples and Brands That I Buy

    Published: Jan 21, 2022 Modified: Jan 21, 2022 by Candice

    Woman in kitchen with packaged pantry foods with title text.

    The distinct, traditional flavors and ingredients in Persian cuisine make it a joy to learn about and enjoy. I learned how to cook Persian food from my mom and grandmother, and when I started cooking the dishes on my own, it was helpful to already know which pantry items I needed to have on hand and which brands to buy.

    Walking into a Persian or Middle Eastern grocery store can be overwhelming – the rice section alone can have 20+ options! Combining experience with my family’s preferences, I now have a list of pantry items and brands that I use regularly and think are the best. 

    I put together this guide to help make your trip that little bit easier!

    Woman in kitchen with packaged pantry foods.

    Important Note: I have found that these items are significantly less expensive to purchase if you make the trip to your local Middle-Eastern or Persian supermarket. I have linked to purchase these items online, but some are as much as 4x the prices at the store.

    This post contains affiliate links where I might receive a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!

    TABLE OF CONTENTS hide
    1 Key Items In My Pantry
    2 Basmati Rice
    3 Chickpea Flour
    4 Ghand & Nabat
    5 Herbs & Herb Mixes
    6 Kashk
    7 Limoo Amani - Dried Limes
    8 Pomegranate Molasses
    9 Reshteh
    10 Rose Water
    11 Saffron
    12 Spices & Herbs
    13 Tea
    14 Other Pantry Items That I Keep On Hand
    15 Become a Persian Recipe Expert!
    16 Beginner Guide to Persian Cooking

    Key Items In My Pantry

    There are many cornerstone pantry items that crop up again and again in Persian dishes, and it helps to have the knowledge of these down so you’re always stocked and ready to make your favorite Persian meal. 

    Basmati Rice

    Basmati rice is a staple to serve with all Persian stews or in the many different rice dishes. You will find 20+ kinds of basmati rice at the Middle-Eastern market from brown to par-boiled.

    Brand to Buy

    Dunar Elonga, Extra Long Basmati Rice

    Royal Authentic Basmati Rice

    Recipes

    • Persian Steamed Rice
    • Baghali Polo
    • Javaher Polo aka Morasa Polo
    Bag of rice on a shelf.

    Chickpea Flour

    This is a great item to keep in your pantry when making Gondi, and the prices are usually much better at a Middle Eastern market than at a regular grocery store.

    What to Buy

    You can either buy whole dried chickepeas like my grandma does and grind them yourself, or buy the Sadaf coarse chickpea flour.

    Note: This item is more expensive online than at the market.

    Recipes

    • Gondi
    Bag of chickpea flour.

    Ghand & Nabat

    Ghand are sugar cubes which you’ll see referred to as broken sugar, while Nabat is a kind of hard rock candy. These different forms of sugar have different melting rates.

    When serving tea, it is important to offer both kinds of sugar, so your guests can choose if they want to stir the Nabat into their tea (fast dissolving) or put a ghand cube in their mouth while taking small sips of hot tea (slow dissolving).

    My favorite kind of nabat has saffron in it. It is a clear, golden yellow, and you can even see some strands of saffron. This is also served with hot tea.

    When I have a stomach ache, my grandmother tells me to stir some nabat into hot water to help soothe my stomach.

    What To Buy

    Sadaf Rock Candy with Saffron

    Yellow rock candy in a bag.

    Herbs & Herb Mixes

    There are some Persian recipes that require a lot of fresh herbs, and I mean A LOT. Instead of finding and chopping all your fresh herbs, a great shortcut is to purchase the ready-made dried or frozen herb mixes at the Persian or Middle Eastern grocery store.

    For the recipes below, you can find fresh herb mixes ready-to-go in the freezer section or dried herb mixes in the spice aisle. I usually choose the frozen ones over the dried ones, but both are good.

    What to Buy

    Sadaf Ghormeh Sabzi Herb Mix

    Sadaf Sabzi Koufteh Mix

    Sadaf KooKoo Sabzi Mix

    Sadaf Sabzi Aash Mix

    Recipes

    • Ghormeh Sabzi
    • Ash Reshteh
    • Koufteh
    Containers with pictures of herbs.

    Kashk

    Kashk is a dairy product that is essentially a form of dried buttermilk. It has a tangy and sour flavor, like yogurt or sour cream.

    You can buy it in a dried, crumbled form or as a wet paste with a yogurt-like texture. I prefer the paste, but it’s nice to have the dried version on hand.

    What to Buy

    Sadaf Kashk (Wet) or Kashk (Dry)

    Note: These items are much more expensive online than at your local store. Also, I have not tried the linked brand for dried but cannot find the one in the photo online.

    Recipes

    • Ash Reshteh
    Jar of beige powder with sheep on the label.

    Limoo Amani - Dried Limes

    As the name suggests, these are limes that have been completely dried out until they become hard. Dried limes are a great way to add a tinge of sour to dishes, which is one element that creates the Persian umami flavor.

    They are shelf stable, and you can buy them online from Amazon, or easily find them at your local Middle Eastern grocery store.

    What to Buy

    I haven’t found a brand I don’t like, but these are the best priced dried limes I found online.

    Recipes

    • Ghormeh Sabzi
    • Khoresh Gheymeh
    Bag of dried limes with yellow label.

    Pomegranate Molasses

    I love cooking with pomegranate molasses. It’s such an incredible flavor and you'll find it often adding a tangy taste like tamarind to classic Persian dishes.

    You can make your own by simmering down pomegranate juice until it reaches a thick, syrupy consistency, or buy a bottle ready to use. 

    What to Buy

    Cortas Pomegranate Molasses, Sadaf brand is also OK

    Recipes

    • Khoresh e Beh (Quince and Plum Beef Stew)
    • Pomegranate Molasses Roasted Lamb
    • Pomegranate Miso Salad Dressing
    • Fesenjoon (Pomegranate Walnut Chicken Stew)
    • Pomegranate Molasses Roasted Chicken
    • Pomegranate Molasses Roasted Brussel Sprouts
    Bottles of molasses with blue labels and red caps.

    Reshteh

    Reshteh are Persian enriched flour noodles which are both vegetarian and kosher.

    The most common recipe that uses reshteh is Ash-e-Reshteh, which is a noodle soup with herbs and kashk.

    What to Buy

    Sadaf Reshteh Enriched Flour Noodles

    Recipes

    • Ash Reshteh
    Packages of noodles.

    Rose Water

    Rose water is a delicate flavored water made by distilling rose petals in water. You’ll find that some varieties are more strongly flavored than others. Some people may dislike the flavor of rose, but others may just dislike the artificially fragrant rose smell, or find it overpowering. 

    Adjusting the amount you use in a recipe can make all the difference. As always, I recommend adding a little at a time to a recipe and taste testing it until you get to your personal desired amount.

    What to Buy

    Cortas Rose Water, Sadaf brand is OK

    Recipes

    • Faloodeh (Persian Rose Granita with Vermicelli)
    • Bastani (Persian Saffron Rose Ice Cream)
    • Sekanjabin (Persian Shrub-Style Drink)
    • Matcha Rose Latte
    Bottles of rose water on a countertop.

    Saffron

    Saffron is a yellow spice that has a sweet, floral, light, and earthy taste. Unfortunately, the real stuff is expensive and you can't get around it – it’s actually the most expensive spice by weight, because the harvest of saffron is very small.

    Because it’s so expensive, some of my recipes that require saffron list it as an optional ingredient. 

    If you are going to use saffron, it’s important to buy the best saffron you can find. Be warned that there are many saffron impostors out there. If you can find it in person, you can easily tell if it’s real or synthetic – rub it between your fingers and if it’s real it will turn your fingers yellow.

    What to Buy

    If you're at the Middle-Eastern or Persian supermarket, ask the person at the register. They usually keep it there because it's expensive and they usually only have a couple options.

    If you're buying it in-person, it is likely that there is no English on the packaging. It is almost always in an acrylic container (rectangular or circular) with red background and gold writing.

    This saffron you can buy online is not the highest quality, but is unbeatable for the price.

    Recipes

    • Saffron Zoolbia
    • Bastani (Persian Saffron Rose Ice Cream)
    • Kabob Barg (Lamb Tenderloin)
    • Joojeh Kabob (Chicken)
    • Persian Steamed Rice
    • Baghali Polo (Dill Rice)
    • Khoresh Beh (Quince and Plum Stew with Beef)
    • Khoresh Bademjan (Eggplant Stew)
    Saffron in a plastic container with gold writing.

    Spices & Herbs

    Spices are really the backbone of Persian cooking, as they combine to create the unique and complex flavors that thread through all the best Persian dishes. 

    The key spices and herbs you should always have on hand are Cumin, Coriander, Fenugreek, Cardamom, Dill, Turmeric, and Sumac.

    I also like to keep Za’atar on hand even though it isn’t a Persian spice.

    These herbs and spices come in big bags or in bulk, and are usually less expensive than what you can find at the American grocery store.

    Brand to Buy

    Sadaf

    Need help translating from Farsi to English to make a family recipe?

    Check out this Farsi Cooking Terms guide.

    Bags of spices in a grocery store.

    Tea

    To brew traditional Persian tea, you need to brew loose leaf black tea with cardamom pods in a double boiler. The black tea is usually a loose leaf Ceylon, but Assam or Darjeeling work well, too.

    The key is to get a loose leaf tea with large leaves, not crumbled ones. This is a sign of a higher quality tea.

    I also buy borage, which is a blue star-shaped herb, to make gol gav zaban, a soothing herbal tea made by steeping borage in hot water. It’s really good with nabat and a squeeze of lemon.

    What to Buy

    Sadaf Special Tea Bags with Cardamom Flavor

    Ceylon, Assam, or Darjeeling Loose Leaf

    Whole Green Cardamom

    Borage

    Boxes of tea on a shelf.

    Other Pantry Items That I Keep On Hand

    These don’t need to be from a specific brand or have any special instructions, they’re just items it’s helpful to have easily accessible when you’re cooking.

    • Barberries
    • Barberry or sour cherry fruit leather
    • Turkish pistachio cotton candy
    • Canned dolmeh
    • Chickpeas and dried chickpeas
    • Dates
    • Dried chickpeas
    • Green lentils
    • Dried sour cherries
    • Kidney beans
    • Mulberries
    • Quince syrup or sharbat
    • Spicy cucumber pickles
    • Tomato sauce and tomato paste

    Become a Persian Recipe Expert!

    If you’re keen to delve deeper into Persian cooking, sign up for my 6-part email series, a Beginners Guide to Persian Cooking!

    Beginner Guide to Persian Cooking

    A 6-part email series from kabobs to sharbat so you can be successful and confident cooking Persian food.

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    Woman with a flower.

    Candice Walker

    On this blog, I get to share the food that I love, and get to enjoy in my own home. My heritage influences most of my recipes, and my travels inspire it. And I'm sure you'll notice my love for everything matcha. Welcome, and enjoy!

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