Green Raisins (Sabz Kishmish)

Green raisins are dried grapes that keep a light olive to pistachio green colour instead of turning brown. They are longer and more slender than an ordinary raisin, tender to the bite, and the flavour is bright and slightly grassy, more like a dried green grape than like the toffee sweetness of a dark raisin.

Green is the least common colour in the raisin range and it is the point of this listing: where golden raisins are amber and sweet, and red and black raisins are dark and winey, these stay green and taste noticeably lighter and fresher. This is the standard green kishmish, the everyday grade, as opposed to our Shundul Khani, which is the longer and more selectively graded version of the same green style.

How to use them

They are most at home scattered over Kabuli pulao and qabili, where the green against the carrot and almond is half the appeal, and in Persian rice such as zereshk polo. Serve them plain with green tea, in a bowl of noql, or as part of a Nowruz and Eid dried fruit platter with pistachio and dried apricot. They also work in halwa and sheer payra, in ash, and in mainstream uses such as granola, oat cookies, couscous salads and a cheese board. Add them at the very end of a hot dish so the colour survives.

Details

Also known as

Afghan green raisins, green kishmish, sabz kishmish, dried green grapes, green sultanas, passas verdes, raisins verts