Dalaar - Persian Green Salt

Dalaar is a salty Persian herbal paste, that’s often referred to as green salt. It comes from northern Iran and serves as a seasoning for different fruits, such as oranges, cucumbers, kumquats, loquats and goje sabz (greengage). The seasoned fruits make a refreshing snack! Since goje sabz season has begun, I thought it was the perfect time to share my Dalaar recipe with you. It contains lots of salt so that it can be stored in the fridge for quite a long time. I don’t know how long exactly, because it never lasts longer than 2 days. :D

Please note, this is not the original Northern Iranian recipe. To make Dalaar accessible for everyone I only used herbs that are easily available here in the UK and in other countries that you - my readers - live in. In Iran (or anywhere that it’s available) chochaagh and other herbs may be used to make Dalar. I know, I know, this is not THE Dalaar, but let’s focus on sharing our beautiful food with the whole world, shall we? :)

Cook the most popular Persian dishes at home with the help of my e-book.

Ingredients

60g / 2.1 oz coriander/cilantro

30g / 1.1oz mint

20g / 0.7oz basil

20g / 0.7oz salt

Time

5 to 15 minutes (without washing herbs)

Method for preparing Dalaar

Wash the Herbs

Remove the basil and mint leaves from their stems. The coriander stems can be used - they actually taste great! Wash the herbs and spread them out on a clean kitchen towel to let most of the water drain away.

Make the paste

You can either combine all the ingredients in a food processor or crush everything into a paste using a pestle and mortar.

Time to serve

Your delicious Dalar is now ready! Serve it with refreshing oranges, kumquats, loquats, greengages (goje sabz), cucumbers or apples!  Enjoy!