پیاز

What it means

پیاز (piyâz) means “onion.” Native Persian word, attested in old Iranian languages, and the bedrock of Persian cooking. The yellow onion is the default; red and white versions exist but show up less in recipes.

How to use it

• پیاز رو خرد کن (piyâz ro khord kon) “chop the onion”
• پیاز داغ کن (piyâz dâgh kon) “saute the onion” (literally “make the onion hot”)
• یک کیلو پیاز بخر (yek kilo piyâz bekhar) “buy one kilo of onions”
• پیاز خام (piyâz-e khâm) “raw onion” (often served with kebab)

The first move in any stew

Most Iranian خورشت (khoresht, stews) start the same way: chop an onion, fry it in oil until golden and soft, then build from there. The instruction پیاز داغ کن is the opening line of countless recipes. Without that base, the stew lacks depth. Iranian cooks judge a خورشت قرمه‌سبزی (khoresht-e qormeh-sabzi) or قیمه (gheymeh) partly on the texture and color of the underlying onion. Some recipes specify the onion be cooked to translucent only; others demand a deep golden caramelization that takes twenty minutes of patient stirring. The choice shapes the final color of the stew.

Raw onion also has a fixed table role. Order کباب کوبیده (kabâb-e kubide) anywhere in Iran and a quartered raw onion arrives on the side, expected to be eaten with the meat. The bite of raw onion balances the kebab’s richness in the same logic as ماست and دوغ.

Onion in Persian metaphor

The word’s structure shows up in idioms. سرپیازی (sar-piyâzi), “top-of-the-onion,” describes something layered, peeling back into more layers. People talk about complicated problems or long family histories as اسر-پیاز thinking.

پیاز سر میدون (piyâz-e sar-e meydun), “the onion at the top of the square,” means the topic of gossip everyone in town is talking about. The image is of an onion sitting in plain view at the bazaar entrance: visible, talked about, picked up by everyone passing. When an Iranian says someone has become پیاز سر میدون, they mean that person’s name is in everyone’s mouth, usually in a way they would not have chosen.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab