A sparkly bonfire night cake and a traditional English sausage and mash were both on offer in October’s edition of Sainsbury’s Magazine. More prominent than this seasonal fare, though, was a bold attempt to broaden readers’ horizons: a front-page photo of a “golden Persian curry”, tagged as “the dinner party dish you HAVE to try”.

But the magazine’s fusion adventure has now backfired. Its editors stand accused of “lazy, casual racism” because, according to Iranian readers, chefs and fans of Persian cookery, the ingredients bear little or no relation to the region’s authentic cuisine.

The culinary controversy soon spilled on to the pages of the journal’s Twitter feed and Instagram account, where accusations of sloppy “cultural appropriation” abounded, although they have since been taken down by the magazine. Reader Pooneh Arrondelle wrote: “This is NOT a Persian recipe, it can’t even be said to be inspired by Persian cuisine. No Persian/Iranian would ever mix these ingredients. You think sprinkling a few pomegranate seeds on to something makes it Persian?”

British Iranian Banafsheh Hay was stirred to write directly to Sainsbury’s chief executive, Mike Coupe, asking for an apology, and she remains angered by the lack of care taken. “To treat Iranian and Indian cuisines as virtually indistinguishable, despite knowing in reality they are very different, in order to save their readers the effort to learn about a new Iranian cuisine which the magazine wants to promote on its front cover smacks of lazy, casual racism and is abhorrent,” she told the Observer.

The words “Halloween horror”, also on the front page, had taken on an awful new meaning by the time the editor, Helena Lang, was forced to respond. Sainsbury’s “Persian curry” was merely “inspired” by Persian cuisine, she explained to Arrondelle in an email. It was based on “two traditional stews – khoresh and fesenjan”, Lang added. But the explanation only served to escalate the row.

Arrondelle returned to Instagram to point out “khoresh” is not a traditional Persian dish, but merely the Farsi word for “stew”.

To underline her point, the reader posted a suggestion: “For your next edition, I’d suggest you celebrate British food – 350g of beef, cubed, cooked with roast parsnip, boiled cabbage, dash of baked beans, mix it [sic] a bit of Marmite and an Oxo cube, sprinkle with bacon bits, rosemary, sage, roast onions. Serve with a crumpet and call it a British Sunday roast.”

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The row comes in the wake of the resignation of Waitrose Magazine’s editor William Sitwell, who upset his publishers last week when news reached them of his “ill-judged joke” about “killing” the growing ranks of vegan eaters, “one by one”.

Sainsbury’s Magazine, published by Seven, has issued an apology for any offence caused: “We love developing exciting recipes for Sainsbury’s customers and our inspiration comes from different cuisines around the world,” it reads. “We wanted to introduce Persian flavours to readers who may not have enjoyed them before, and so we created a recipe which is inspired by the traditional Persian dish Fesenjan, fused with an Indian-style curry.”

And not everyone was disappointed by the recipe. Several readers have posted their approval, including Hayley Davies, who described the lamb curry she made as “delicious”.

Nevertheless, Farshid Ziafat, owner of Hafez, one of London’s oldest Iranian restaurants, is clear no dish resembling Sainsbury’s stew exists in Iran. “Persian cuisine does not use any combination of dried spices remotely like curry powder in any recipe,” he said, denying that Fesenjan, his restaurant’s signature dish, could have provided inspiration, as it must contain pomegranate molasses and walnuts. It is a key traditional dish, brought out at weddings and celebrations as far back as the Persian empire.

“It is not the first time that Sainsbury’s food writers have created a ‘Persian’-themed recipe and poorly researched the apparent ‘inspiration’; anyone with knowledge of our cuisine will spot the glaring error in this confused mash-up,” Ziafat said.

Ali Bidarbakht, owner of popular Iranian restaurant Galleria in London’s Marylebone, agrees that Sainsbury’s “Persian Curry” front cover was badly conceived.

“Sainsbury’s has taken an Indian or an Asian dish, and tried to link it to Persian cuisine, which is a big mistake,” he said.

The rapid rise of the world food trend has led to other recent allegations of cultural appropriation or misrepresentation. When Jamie Oliver was accused of exploiting Jamaican heritage with his jerk rice dish, he argued he had been influenced by the cuisine, and was not copying it.

Tamsin Burnett-Hall, Sainsbury’s Magazine’s food editor, took the same line on the disputed curry in a comment posted on her public Instagram.

“As most recipe writers do, I often take inspiration from cuisines around the world and mix them with other ideas, to create new and exciting recipes,” she wrote. “Although we know ‘curry’ isn’t authentically Persian, we did feel the word went some way towards explaining what this delicious spiced dish might taste like, to British readers very used to eating Indian-style curries.”

Hay said Burnett-Hall’s use of the phrase “British readers” was particularly annoying. “How do they define their ‘British readers’?” she asked. “Do they have a chart for all those readers who will be able to cope with a curry-free new cuisine and those that won’t? Sainsbury’s needs to get a grip and give its magazine’s readers more credit.”

Sainsbury’s Magazine has replied: “We regret if the reference we made to ‘British readers’ has been misunderstood. This recipe was designed to encourage our readers to embrace a range of flavours from around the world and try new combinations they may not have tried before.”

For Ziafat, the recipe’s worst crime was its treatment of saffron. “Instead of adding it at the end of cooking, you put it in at the start, thereby destroying its subtle aromatic flavour by stewing it for 90 minutes! This is the real sacrilege,” he said.