The national dish of Uzbekistan is Palov (here are some other spellings of basically the same dish: pilaf, pilav, pilau, pilafi, pulao, palaw, plov, polov, polo, and polu). The choice of recipe to represent the national dish of Uzbekistan fell on the wedding plov (tuy palovi). Perhaps you can try it out on September 1 when Uzbekistan celebrates their independence day. Here’s what our country chef Malika says about the national dish of Uzbekistan:
Plov is key dish in the Uzbek cuisine. There are about 200 different varieties of Plov. Depending on the variety you make, it is seen as everyday, special or occasional dish. The legend behind Plov: A prince fell in love with a beautiful woman from a poor family. Not being able to marry her, the prince started to fade away, refusing to eat. The king invited Abu Ali Ibn Sina, the great doctor, to heal the prince. He suggested that the prince needed to connect hearts of lovers and feed them with a calorie dish – “Palov Osh”, in order to heal. This explains the presence of this dish at Uzbek weddings. “Palov Osh” is made of 7 ingredients: P – piyoz (onion ), A – ayoz (carrots ) , L – Lahm (meat) , O– oliyo(fat) , V – veet (salt) , O – ob (water) , Sh – sholi ( rice).
Here you can find this recipe in swedish.
Recipe: The national dish of Uzbekistan - Tuy Palovi (Wedding plov)
Ingredients
- 200 ml oil
- 500 g lamb or beef
- 700 g carrots
- 2 onions
- 100 g chickpeas canned rinsed and drained. but if possible use dried that have been soaked in warm water for 8 hours
- water
- 150 g raisins
- 2 garlic heads unpeeled
- 500 g rice long-grained
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp coriander ground
- 2 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
Instructions
- Dice the onions, slice the carrots in long thin strips and cut the meat in big chunks
- On high heat, heat the oil in a big pot and add the meat until brown on all sides
- Add the onions, continue frying
- When the onions are light brown, add the carrots. Fry until carrots are half cooked
- Add 500 ml water together with the chickpeas
- Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, add in the garlic heads and let cook for 15 minutes.
- Add the raisins. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
- Add turmeric, cumin, coriander and salt, stir well.
- Take out garlic heads, add the rice; layer it evenly on top of the carrots, then place the garlic heads on top of the rice layer.
- Add enough water to cover the surface of rice for a little less than 2 cm.
- Set the heat on medium high and wait until all the water is soaked by rice, salt to taste
- Mix only the top of the rice and close the lid, reduce the heat on very low.
- After 15 minutes, open the lid and again mix only the top of the rice, close the lid and then cook for another 10 minutes.
- When rice is cooked, remove from the heat and gently mix all the ingredients together
- Serve in large flat plate, along with fresh salad.
About the Country Chef
Malika is from Uzbekistan. She is happily married and has a beautiful daughter who helps her in the kitchen. She runs the popular food blog: uzbekcooking.blogspot.com
Read more about IngredientMatcher’s Country Chefs in the Foodie section
Read more about national dishes and the ebook “National Dishes From Around The World”
Read more about other national dish recipes published on this blog
What is “5 dl of water”? Thanks! A friend just made for a big gathering and I’d like to try my hand at it. Looks like similar ingredients.
Google! Got it! 5dL=500mL ☺
Worst recipe directions! Huge serving size. Not enough guidance with size if pan/pot. Way too many steps for what could be a simple dish. Convoluted!
Thank you for feedback. I had just taken the recipe from Malika, but I can see you are right about a few things I have corrected now.
Increased time to reflect what it will actually take to make, added instructions about using a big pot. But these national dishes are rarely simple and quick dishes for beginners.
Is it possible to not use the chickpeas? Since thats the only thing I don’t have on hand..
And how many carrots is 700 g????
Well, how many carrots depend on the size of them.
A really small carrot could weigh like 35g
A medium sized carrot is probably around 70g
A large carrot could be 140g
So 700g carrot is 20 small carrots, or 10 medium carrots, or 5 large carrots
1.5 lbs
Sure you can try that Natalie since it is not part of the 7 main ingredients
Thank you for answering so quickly 🙂
Hello,
This dish sounds very interesting. I have never tried making any Uzbek dish, and I want to give it a try. I am from Australia with Indian origins. I have tried making a lot of different biryanis – its the closest thing to this dish, but i am use to marinating the meat overnight. How does flavour of the salt and other spices penetrate the meat once it is cooked, or is it the intention of having the meat in its original flavour and letting the rice get the spice flavour??
Please advice.
Thanks & regards
Ishan
Hello Ishan,
I am also used to at least season the meat with salt and pepper before frying. This is a recipe from Malika the food blogger from Uzbekistan so I guess it is the right way to do it 🙂
Good luck and please let us know how it went 🙂
Hi I’m from Australia but was born in Uzbekistan and for the first time in my life cooking traditional Uzbek plov❤️
Hi. Years ago I had an Uzbek flatmate who used to cook plov. It was fantastic and l’ve tried a few versions since so, l’m excited to try yours. He always served his with the tomato and onion salad l can see in the corner of your photo and would joke that his father would refuse to eat any more plov if the salad ran out. Trouble is, he was right and the salad is completely necessary. Unfortunately, l can’t remember how he used to make it and it’s so simple l can’t find a recipe. Could you please share how you make yours? Do you salt it and leave it or add oil…? Thank you so much.