Recipe
🍰 DESSERT
Sholeh Zard
A fragrant saffron and rose rice pudding decorated with cinnamon, an Iranian dessert of celebration and charity.
Iranian · easy · serves 6
prep 15 min · cook 60 min
~425 cal · 6g protein · 82g carbs · 9g fat · 3g fiber · 52g sugars · 1g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Sholeh zard, meaning yellow flame, is a luminous rice pudding at the heart of Iranian tradition, made especially for religious occasions and as a votive dish cooked in large batches to share with neighbours and the needy. Its golden colour comes entirely from .
Rice is cooked down slowly in water until soft, then sweetened and perfumed with , rose water, and , and enriched with slivered almonds. Unlike a milky pudding, it is water-based and glossy, set into bowls and decorated on top with patterns of cinnamon, almonds, and pistachio. Cool, floral, and fragrant, it is as beautiful as it is meaningful.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
1 cup rice
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp , steeped
3 tbsp rose water
1 tsp ground
1/3 cup slivered almonds
2 tbsp slivered pistachios, to decorate
to finish ground cinnamon, to decorate
Instructions
1
Cook the rice in plenty of water, stirring often, until very soft and broken down.
2
Stir in the sugar, saffron, cardamom, and most of the almonds and cook until thick and glossy.
✎ Chef’s note
Keep cooking and stirring until it turns glossy and thick enough to hold a pattern; it firms further as it cools.
3
Add the rose water at the end, then pour into bowls.
4
Decorate the tops with lines of cinnamon and scatterings of the slivered pistachios and remaining almonds, and chill.
✎ Chef’s note
The classic sholeh zard crown is a tricolour of cinnamon, green pistachio, and pale almond piped and scattered into patterns over the set surface.
Iranian votive-dessert tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Tehran. Ghormeh sabzi is less purely Persian than its reputation suggests. The dried limes are limoo omani, developed in Oman, and ghormeh is a borrowed Ottoman Turkish word for an old method of preserving meat. What is not negotiable is dried fenugreek leaf, without which it becomes a different stew entirely.
🗺️
Iran. Sourness in Persian cooking usually comes dried. Limoo amani, limes boiled in brine and left to dry until they are hollow and black, are pierced and dropped whole into stews, and the same dried lime runs through Gulf cooking further south. The year turns on Nowruz, when the spring table calls for sabzi polo mahi, herb rice with fish.
🌍
Asia. Fermentation is the thread that runs the whole way across: soy sauce and miso, Korean doenjang and kimchi, Southeast Asian fish sauces, the soured batter behind an idli. Chilli is the newcomer among them, arriving only after 1500 with Portuguese and Spanish traders, which makes the heat in Sichuan, Thai and Korean cooking far younger than the fermenting underneath it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Iran
Ghormeh SabziIran’s beloved herb stew: mountains of sautéed greens, kidney beans, dried limes, and lamb over saffron rice.
AdasiA warming Persian lentil breakfast stew spiced with turmeric, cumin, and cinnamon.
Ash-e ReshtehOne of Iran’s best-loved thick soups: legumes and a mountain of herbs simmered with reshteh noodles, finished with tangy kashk, sizzled mint, and caramelized onion.
Browse all Iran recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Keep chilled and covered, and enjoy within 2 to 3 days.
Make it a Iran meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Sholeh Zard?
A fragrant saffron and rose rice pudding decorated with cinnamon, an Iranian dessert of celebration and charity.
Where does Sholeh Zard come from?
Sholeh Zard is a Iranian dish from Tehran, Iran.
Can Sholeh Zard be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sholeh Zard recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sholeh Zard safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Sholeh Zard take to make?
About 75 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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