Sholeh Zard (Persian Rice Pudding) Recipe (2024)

Can ordinary cardamom be used as a substitute for black cardamom?

I live in Austin and eat at Nixta almost weekly. This is the best rice pudding I’ve ever had. Can’t wait to try making it myself. Wish you had more of their recipes. Best tacos in town and that’s a high bar.

Had no freeze-dried strawberries, but did have freeze-dried raspberry powder. Works great!

This looks amazing. Anybody have suggestions for a vegan version? Maybe it’s not possible to come close.

This looks good, but it’s far from sholeh zard. I see a few people asked about vegan/no egg options? Traditional sholeh zard doesn’t have any dairy or eggs. jasmine rice, salt, sugar, saffron, unsalted butter, cardamom, rose water, ground cinnamon and slivered almonds for topping. You can Google the recipe - so yummy and a more traditional texture (this one looks soupy).

I think the description freely admits it's a "take on sholeh zard" that borrows some Mexican influence and replaces the traditional ingredients with others. I'm sure both versions are delicious.

If I use rosewater instead of the strawberries, how much should I use?

Black cardamom is very different from green cardamom. Alton Brown describes the flavor as “Like somebody put a menthol cigarette out in a cup of dark, sweet coffee into which one drop of pine resin had fallen, and some dirt...only in a good way.” That said, subbing in green cardamom would likely be good. Just different.

Wow this was great! Due to my location and pandemic-related supply shortages, I could not find the black cardamom or the strawberry powder so that got left out. But incredibly I found fresh turmeric root, so I trimmed a knob of it and let it infuse along with the cinnamon stick. Like another, I had raspberry powder on hand, which worked wonderfully. I prepared layers of the rice pudding, raspberry powder, and chopped pistachios in a tall slender glass and it looked so lovely.

FYI, butter is a dairy product

This sounds delicious. The instructions don't indicate when the cinnamon stick and black cardamom pod are removed. Before the rice is added to the milk or does it all cook together and only removed before serving? I guess if the pod doesn't open up and release the seeds when cooking, it could be either.

Quite delicious, but:It doesn’t matter in how many cups of water you cook the rice.Use different/any pot for the rice while you start Step 2 in Dutch oven. No reason to use the same pot for two steps and make the whole procedure lengthier.Use more milk, more heavy cream and more sugar!Black cardamon? No, just cardamom. Even ground one is delicious.Strawberries powder: not great. I’ll use only cinnamon next time. Much tastier after refrigeration. Rice pudding ought to be eaten cold.

Hello,First of all, this looks delicious. Second, Arroz con Leche is not exclusively Mexican, I'm Venezuelan and I grew up eating it too and it is because it is a Hispanic recipe, and the original recipe is from Spain and France, it arrived to The Americas during the Colony.

Many rice puddings are made without the addition of eggs, egg yolks, or cornstarch. If the liquid is cooked down enough, and 45 minutes should certainly accomplish that, then I think you can leave out the egg yolks. They are probably mainly for richness and not a thickener.

I’m persian and for those asking yes you can use tapioca or barley or regular basmati (that’s been soaked). No eggs, the sugar and starch will set the pudding. You can use black or green cardamom. Every family makes Sholeh Zaard differently but the base concept is the same. And yes I get this is a riff. Always slivered almonds and pistachio dust on top with some cinnamon (light dusting).

WOW this was good. Amazing texture and flavors. Although the ingredients were a bit of an investment, now we have enough to make this again a few times more. It was perfect to make for guests - the rice cooked while we ate dinner, and by the time it was cooled and assembled everyone was ready for dessert.

One of my all time favourites. Surprised to see you recommend it. So little of our unique cuisine is known, since the Ayatollah Regime made Iran a pariah state.

Greetings and thanks to Mrs. Mardanbeigi for the recipe for the sholeh zard. I am an Iranian living in the city of Parand near Tehran. It's been a long time since I've eaten sholeh zard, you know it's very delicious, whether you want to eat it plain or add cinnamon or saffron to it, it's enjoyable and very delicious. I hope that one day I will be able to make sholeh zard because everyone's cooking is very different. hope to see another recipe from you in the New York Times. I wish you success.

I have made this many times and love it. Two notes: 1. I divide it into 8 servings. It is rich and flavorful and 1/8th of this is plenty satisfying.2. Tried it with coconut milk instead of milk/cream for a friend who can't have dairy. Left out the butter (coconut milk has plenty of fat) and it was delicious. Not as coconutty tasting as I thought it might be.

I don't think should be called sholeh zard, but rather given its own name (or even just called a rice pudding) given it's only similarity is some base ingredients. Sholeh zard is a very specific dish, and this is far from it.

Strawberries? No, hard no. I grew up with this delicious pudding, and you need a dusting of cinnamon. Strawberry will change the flavor profile of this cardamom, saffron, rose water delight.

This was amazing. Eggs didn’t seem entirely necessary but did make the pudding slightly more velvety. I could not tell from the recipe whether this should be served slightly warm or if it should be refrigerated and served cold.

The rice pudding is well worth it alone; and I would do much less of the strawberry and pistachios; I did 50% less on strawberry and it was still over powering the rice. While it wont look as pretty; maybe an alternative is to let people spoon on the toppings to their liking.

This is a wonderful recipe. Omitted the eggs and used coconut mike instead of cream. Chef’s kiss!

what is strawberry powder ? how is it made. Thanks

This dish absolutely has nothing to do with what Iranians call Sholeh Zard, All it has in common with the Persian recipe is the name and almost nothing else. I don’t think it is right to use the name of a foreign dish then complexly butcher it .

OMG, if you use ANY Turmeric, forget about a whole tablespoon of it, you have to throw the whole thing out. I would be very interested to know who has tried it with turmeric and found it edible.

Can one use vegan substitutions accordingly such as vegan butter and "yolks"?

My husband loves rice pudding as a result I have made many different versions of it (Thai is the house fave). Tried this tonight and loved it! Definitely going into the rotation, also adding whole dried strawberries next time.

Made this as written and it was delicious, but next till I’ll halve the amount of sugar.