Sadaf – Frozen Persian Rice Meals

I grew up visiting middle eastern markets in California with my mom and I thought I had seen it all… until recently. Sadaf (a beloved brand of Persian products) has started producing frozen Persian rice dishes. When I spotted these products in the freezer aisle of Kalustyan’s in NYC I thought hell had frozen over (ha!) but I was very pleasantly surprised. The line includes:

– Baghali polo with kookoo (fava bean rice with herb frittata)
– Kalam polo (cabbage rice)
– Chelo sefid (plain white rice)
– Loobia polo (green bean rice)
– Adas polo (lentil rice)
– Albaloo polo (sour cherry rice)
– Piaz dagh (fried onions)
– Bademjan sorkh shodeh (fried eggplants)

6$ a pop seems expensive, but each container yielded 3-4 servings

So far I’ve tried the kalam and baghali polo – and they were surprisingly delicious! If you’ve ever attempted to make Persian dishes, you know how laborious they can be. These ready-made rice dishes are a wonderful alternative for when you don’t have the time (or expertise!) to make them. Bonus: all of the rice dishes are vegetarian so friendly for all and you can add your own protein if desired.

Note: Sadaf also has a line of ready-made frozen ground chicken and ground beef kabob (kabob koobideh) that are great to have on hand in the freezer.

The Sadaf website at www.sadaf.com was recently overhauled and their online storefront is now much easier to use – I’ve ordered through their site many times and always been pleased.