Albaloo Polo(Sour Cherry Rice With Meatballs) is one of the most famous Persian dishes, which is very tasty, vibrant, and nutritious. This dish is perfect for a spring/summer meal because you can easily find sour cherries in these seasons. Of course, you can freeze sour cherries to enjoy this dish all year! You can also use frozen sour cherries to make sour cherry jam or sour cherry syrup. Red cherries, along with saffron rice and meatballs, are really unmatched by anything else. I guarantee this Albaloo Polo recipe will become a staple in your household!
About This Recipe
Rice is one of the main items of Iranian cuisine. Fluffy Persian rice is either served with stew or cooked in the form of mixed rice (Loobiya Polo, Baghali Polo, Sabzi Polo, or Albaloo Polo). Sour cherry rice is nothing but a combination of Persian saffron rice, sour cherries, and meatballs. You can remove the meatballs from this recipe and have a delicious and vibrant vegan plate. You can also replace meatballs with chicken. All three versions of this dish are very tasty.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Easy to Make: You don’t need to have a lot of experience in Persian cuisine to cook a delicious Albaloo Polo. Following a few tips when cooking Albaloo Polo you will have a flavorful rice dish for special occasions.
- Loaded with flavors: This food is loaded with saffron and sour cherries.
What You Will Need to Make Albaloo Polo Recipe
- Sour cherries: Whether the Albaloo Polo is sweet or sour depends on your taste. If the sour cherries are ripe and sweeter, you can add less sugar. You can also add 50 to 100 grams more sugar to sweeten the rice.
- Meatballs: Made with a mix of pepper, salt, onion, and ground beef. Super easy to come together and tastes incredible!
- Rice: To make Persian dishes, It is better to use high-quality Iranian rice. Be sure to serve Albaloo Polo with saffron rice.
- Bloomed saffron: When rice is cooked you can mix a few tablespoons of rice with bloomed saffron and use it as the topping.
Instructions
- Rinse rice until the water went clear. Soak rice in water and salt for at least 1 hour before cooking.
- Place rice in a large pan filled with boiling water. After 6 to 8 minutes when it begins to rise to the top and the water comes back to a boil. Check the rice is cooked at the end by trying a grain. Break one grain in half. Rice should be soft on the outside but hard in the middle. Pour rice into the colander to drain; then set aside.
- Wash and pit fresh or frozen sour cherries. Put the sour cherries in a saucepan and sprinkle sugar on them and put on gentle heat for a few minutes to soften. Once softened, remove from heat and strain into a bowl. Put the excess cherry syrup back on the heat to thicken slightly. To prevent discoloration of sour cherries, use a copper, enamel, or stainless steel pot.
- In a bowl, mix the grated onion, minced meat, salt, and pepper. Then make small meatballs. Saute meatballs for about 5 minutes until nicely browned.
- Scoop one-third of the rice into the pot. Layer with one-third of the cooked sour cherries. Repeat until you’re out of rice and filling and shape it into a pyramid. Cover the pot and cook until the rice begins to steam. Then lower the heat. In the middle of cooking, mix 1 small glass of sour cherry syrup with some butter or hot oil and pour it on the rice. If you want to have nice pink-colored rice, do not add sour cherry syrup in the middle of the cooking and wait until fully cooked.
- Mix a few tablespoons of rice with bloomed saffron.
- Serve with meatballs, some cooked sour cherries, and saffron rice.
Albaloo Polo With Chicken
As I said before, you can also use fillet or chicken breast to cook Albaloo Polo. Fry the chicken fillets with saffron and seasoning in oil or some butter. After frying both sides of the fillets, cut the onions into rings in a saucepan and saute a little. Now place the chicken pieces on the onions and pour 2 glasses of water on them. Let the chicken pieces cook over medium heat. Serve cooked chicken fillet with Albaloo Polo.
Pro Tips To Make Albaloo Polo Recipe
- To prevent discoloration of sour cherries, use a copper, enamel, or stainless steel pot.
- Do not place the pot on high heat, as the bottom layer will burn easily.
- Using cinnamon, saffron, red pepper, and cardamom will make rice more delicious.
- Another way to cook this delicious dish is to cook the rice and sour cherries separately and mix them together when serving.
- If using slivered pistachios and almonds, soak them for at least an hour and saute for 3 to 4 minutes.
- The amount of sour cherry juice should not be too much because you have to boil it a lot and in this case, the color of the cherries will change and darken.
- You can add sour cherry syrup to the rice after cooking. Mix a little rice with thickened sour cherry syrup in a small bowl and use this mixture for garnish.
- Set aside a small bowl of cooked cherries to garnish the rice when serving.
Did you like the Albaloo Polo recipe? Leave your comment below and If you make this recipe, be sure to tag your photos #yummynotes 
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Ingredients
- 4 cups rice
- 500 g sour cherries
- 500 g minced meat
- 1 large yellow onion
- Bloomed saffron and butter as needed
- 250 g of sugar
- salt and pepper
Instructions
Step 1
Rinse rice until the water went clear. Soak rice in water and salt for at least 1 hour before cooking.
Step 2
Place rice in a large pan filled with boiling water. After 6 to 8 minutes when it begins to rise to the top and the water comes back to a boil. Check the rice is cooked at the end by trying a grain. Break one grain in half. Rice should be soft on the outside but hard in the middle. Pour rice into the colander to drain; then set aside.
Step 3
Wash and pit fresh or frozen sour cherries.
Step 4
Put the sour cherries in a saucepan and sprinkle sugar on them and put on a gentle heat for a few minutes to soften. Once softened, remove from heat and strain. Put the excess syrup back on the heat to thicken slightly.
Step 5
In a bowl, mix the grated onion, minced meat, salt, and pepper. Then make small meatballs. Saute meatballs for about 5 minutes until nicely browned.
Step 6
Pour oil into the bottom of the pot and place the lavash bread.
Step 7
Scoop one-third of the rice into the pot. Layer with one-third of the cooked sour cherries. Repeat until you're out of rice and filling and shape it into a pyramid. Cover the pot and cook until rice begins to steam. Then lower the heat. In the middle of cooking, mix 1 small glass of sour cherry syrup with some butter or hot oil and pour it on the rice. If you want to have nice pink-colored rice, do not add sour cherry syrup in the middle of the cooking and wait until fully cooked.
Step 8
Mix a few tablespoons of rice with bloomed saffron. serve with meatballs, some cooked sour cherries, and saffron rice.
