What it means
سیر (sir) is the everyday Persian word for garlic. It comes from Middle Persian and has roots in Old Iranian, making it one of the language’s genuinely ancient food words. It refers to the bulb used raw, roasted, fried, or pickled in Persian cuisine. A related but different word is پیاز (piyaz), which means onion. The two appear together constantly in recipes.
How to use it
- من سیر زیاد دوست دارم. (Man sir ziad dust daram.) “I really like garlic.”
- یه حبه سیر توش بنداز. (Ye habbe sir tush bendaz.) “Throw a clove of garlic in it.”
- این غذا بوی سیر میده. (In ghaza buye sir mide.) “This food smells like garlic.”
- سیر رو له کن. (Sir ro le kon.) “Crush the garlic.”
Cultural note
Garlic is one of the most important aromatics in Iranian cooking. It appears in almost every savory dish, from khoresh and ash to torshi (pickles) and mast-o-khiar. Iranians also have a long tradition of using garlic as a home remedy, believing it supports digestion and wards off illness. سیر is also one of the seven items on the Haft Sin table at Nowruz, the Persian New Year, where each item begins with the letter س (sin).