Azerbaijani kufta bozbash – step by step recipe with photo

In the evening, rinse the chickpeas, pour it with cold water and leave to swell until morning.

In the morning we start preparing the broth.

We put lamb ribs in cold water, you can use beef, do not add salt or spices.

We cook the broth for 2 hours at a low boil.

While the broth is cooking, prepare the minced meat for the kyufta.

We pass beef and onions through a meat grinder.

Add washed round-grain rice, salt, dried basil, dried mint (if fresh, it is better to use fresh) to the minced meat, add chopped parsley, a little freshly ground black pepper and now knead the minced meat thoroughly.

So that our meatballs do not fall apart during the cooking process, beat the minced meat well on the bottom of the bowl, then it will become elastic.

We form a kufta.

In the palm of your hand, we make a mincemeat cake, put prunes in the middle (it is better to buy sweet and sour), wrap it in minced meat and roll it into a ball.

When the broth is cooked, remove the meat from it, filter through a sieve into a four-liter pan about 1 l -1.2 l of broth. We put the pot with the broth on the stove and wait for the broth to boil.

Drain the water from the chickpeas, rinse in cold water, lay in the broth.

We send kufta there.

When it boils, remove the foam and cook for 30 minutes over medium heat.

While the chickpeas with kyufta are being cooked, chop the onion, melt the fat tail fat in a deep frying pan (if there is no fat tail fat, you can fry it in vegetable oil), as soon as the fat is melted add saffron (if there is no saffron, you can replace it with turmeric) mix and add the onion and fry until golden .

Add fried onions and potatoes, cut into large pieces, into the pan.

Just now add salt, two bay leaves, cover with a lid and cook at a medium boil for another 20 minutes.

Then we taste, if there is not enough salt, add salt.

We remove the pan from the stove and let the soup brew for about 10 minutes. During this time, it just stops boiling and cools down a bit.

Squeeze the garlic into the soup through a garlic press, if you want you can chop it finely.

Cover with a lid and let stand for another 10 minutes.

That’s all. Fragrant Azerbaijani kyufta-bozbash is ready.

Bon appetit!