Lamb Plov with Apples and Chickpeas
Anna Voloshyna
8
10 hours
1.5 hours
Lamb Plov with Apples and Chickpeas | Баранячий плов з яблуками та нутом
"Some dishes are meant for celebrations, laughter, and the warmth of shared company. Throughout my childhood, my mom would make plov for family gatherings, birthdays, and New Year’s Eve celebrations, so I pretty much grew up eating this wonderful lamb pilaf often. But this particular plov recipe is not hers. It is instead the handiwork of the generous and thoughtful Crimean Tatar chef Lerane Haibylaeva, a quiet woman with a powerful fire of fight and resilience burning inside her. Lerane welcomed me into her home and spent an entire day sharing stories of her homeland and the flavors and customs of Crimean cuisine, which she lovingly transported to her Lviv kitchen after fleeing the occupied peninsula. (As an active member of the resistance to the Russian occupation, it was no longer safe for her to remain in Crimea.) She told me that plov became part of Crimean Tatar cuisine after the Soviets forcibly deported her people to Central Asia in the mid-twentieth century. There, amidst hardship, they fell in love with the rich flavors, fragrant spices, and comforting warmth of plov and eventually brought the dish back with them to Ukraine after decades of exile.
The evening of my visit with Lerane, we cooked, talked, laughed, and cried. A platter of plov topped with seared apples and halved quail eggs was once again at the center of the celebration, just as it was in my childhood. We sat with friends and toasted to a future where Crimea finds its way back home to Ukraine, and we can see its magnificent landscapes. Despite the ongoing war and the bitter memories that lingered over us all, that night we found happiness in one another’s company and the beautiful food of the Ukrainian Tatar diaspora.
Serve the plov with flatbread, herbed suzme (page 220), and Vegetable Salad with Sunflower Dressing (page 287)."
Excerpted from UKRAÏNE: Recipes and Stories from Kyiv to the Black Sea by Anna Voloshyna. Copyright ©2026. Excerpted with permission from Chronicle Books. Photo by Jason Perry.
Ingredients
½ cup (90 g) dried chickpeas
2 lb (910 g) boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 3 in (7.5 cm) cubes
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 ¼ cups (450 g) basmati rice
8 quail eggs
½ cup (120 ml) sunflower or other neutral oil
2 small Golden Delicious apples (about 4 ½ oz [130 g] each), halved, cored, and each half cut into 6 wedges
2 large carrots (about 10 ½ oz [300 g]), peeled and cut into batons 2 in [5 cm] long and 1/3 in [8.5 mm] thick
1 ½ tsp dried barberries
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp cumin seeds
¾ tsp ground turmeric
5 to 7 saffron threads
3 garlic heads, loose, papery outer layers removed
Directions
Pick over the beans, discarding any grit or other debris. Rinse the beans under cold running water, transfer to a medium bowl, and add water to cover generously. Let soak for at least 10 hours or up to overnight. Drain just before cooking.
Pat the lamb dry with paper towels and season generously with salt and pepper, then let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes to allow the seasonings to be absorbed. Put the rice into a large fine-mesh sieve, rinse under cold running water until the water runs clear, and set aside.
Meanwhile, fill a large bowl with ice and water. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Carefully lower the eggs into the water and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Using a large slotted spoon, fish the eggs out of the boiling water and lower them into the ice water. Let the eggs cool completely, about 10 minutes, then peel and halve lengthwise.
In a large cast-iron wok or deep sauté pan over high heat, warm the oil. When the oil is shimmering, add the apples and fry, turning as needed to color evenly, until they are golden and caramelized but still retain their texture, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the apples to a bowl and set aside.
Add the meat to the hot oil and fry, turning as needed to color evenly, until golden on all sides and fragrant, about 2 minutes on each side. Then add the carrots and drained chickpeas, lower the heat to medium-high, and simmer, stirring once or twice, until the carrots have softened and taken on some color and the room is filled with a sweet-savory aroma, 10 to 15 minutes. Season liberally with salt, then add the barberries, coriander, cumin, turmeric, and saffron and mix well. Nestle the garlic heads among the lamb chunks. Evenly distribute the rice over the meat and garlic. Do not stir at this point. Carefully pour in water in a thin stream to cover the rice by about ¼ in (6 mm).
Turn down the heat to low, cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid (if you do not have a lid, a large sheet pan works well), and cook until the meat is tender and the rice and beans are cooked, 45 to 60 minutes.
Remove the pot from the heat and let the plov rest, covered, for 15 minutes before serving. Then gently transfer to a large serving platter, top with the seared apple wedges and halved quail eggs, and serve.