Iran is the land of Ash, according to Wikipedia, there are 50 varieties of Ash in Iran. Ash Reshteh is not an easy recipe, it’s so laborious. Every time I cook, it takes 3 hours. Because i make everything from scratch. If all the ingredients like Reshteh, Kashk (or yogurt’s cream) & legumes are ready, it takes much less but we can’t fast forward the cooking time of Ash because its flavors should be settled. (جا بیوفته)

Ingredients | 4-5 servings

• 130g/4.5oz mix of beans (pinto, white, red)
• 40g/2.1oz Chickpeas
• 80g/2.8oz Lentils
• 2 Onions
• 100g/3.5oz chopped Coriander
• 200g/7oz chopped Parsley
• 200g/7oz chopped Chives or Leek
• 250g/8oz chopped Spinach
• 1 teaspoon Turmeric
• 2 tsp Cumin
• 3tbsp dried Mint
• 3 clove of Garlic
• 4-5 tbsp Kashk
• 300g/10.5oz fresh or 150g/5.3oz dried Reshteh (noodles)
• Pinch of Saffron (optional: for decoration)
• 3tbs Clarified Butter or oil

Reshteh: if Homemade 250g/9oz, if Packed/industrial 100g/3.5oz

Preparation of ingredients

Legumes:

– Better to soak them overnight (except lentils). In the day after you can cook them in 1 hour. If not, in a pressure cooker they will take 45 minutes to cook (with loads of water).

Reshteh (noodles) you can either:

1- Iranian supermarkets sells Reshteh or you can use pasta (spaghetti shape)

2- Make it yourself: Mix 3 times flour more than water, (like: 70g/2.5oz water, 200g/7oz flour) knead till you have a very dry dough. Let it rest for 1-2 hours then extend the dough to have a sheet of 3 mm of thickness and cut it in strips of 10-12 cm.

➡️ for more details check out reshteh recipe: reshteh

Kashk (the white sauce) you can either:

– If you find buy it from Iranian supermarkets or online shops.

– Homemade Kashk: On low heat, mix 500g/17.6 sour sheep yogurt (preferable) with 1tbsp of salt. Stir gently till it reduces in less than half. I use a blender to make it creamy. (and add some water if it needs) ✅

➡️ The homemade Kashk will not taste the same as the one in Iran, because in that case the yogurt goes through aging process and acquires a pungent taste which is the main characteristic of Kashk. We can’t do that at home because it needs some special conditions that if not respected pathogenic bacteria may grow and are very dangerous.

Final pot

– Chop 1 onion in a big pot (will be the pot of Ash) stir fry, when they become slightly golden add turmeric, cumin, and 1 chopped clove of garlic.

– Stir fry for some seconds.

– Add herbs, spinach and lentils.

– Pour 1.5L of boiling water.

⏳ Put the lid on and simmer for 1 hour.

– Add the cooked beans. Add half of the dried mint & 3-4 tbsp of Kashk and mix well.

⏳ Add Reshteh and simmer the Ash. If Reshteh is fresh 5-7 minutes, if not it +12 minutes.

Since the reshteh absorbs so much water, watch the density of the ash, If it gets too dense add a bit of boiling water.

(optional) Mix 1tbp of flour in a 1/3 glass of cold water. Pour it in and simmer for ⏳ 5 minutes.

– Turn off the heat. Adjust the seasoning, avoid adding too much salt because, we’ll serve Ash with extra Kashk on top which is already salty.

– Let Ash Reshteh rests for 20 minutes. It is essential to serve Ash Reshteh warm not very hot.

Meanwhile prepare the 5 toppings:

– Fried onion: slice onion very tiny, fry till they become golden brown.

– Fried garlic: chop the garlic into slices, fry till they gain golden color and becomes like small chips.

– Mint oil: heat half cup of extra virgin olive oil on medium heat, when it becomes slightly hot, turn off the heat, crush the dried mint between your fingers and sprinkle in pan and it’s done!

– Saffron water: pour in 1/4 cup of boiling water in glass and add a pinch of ground saffron. Leave it for ⏳5 minutes to release all its color to water.

– Kashk: If it’s very dense, dilute it with a bit of water when it becomes creamy it’s ready.

Decorate the serving bowl with the toppings: kashk, fried garlic and onion, saffron and mint oil

Final word: pat your shoulders and call yourself: “Ashpaz“, the one who can cook Ash, which is the word used for “Cook/Chef” in Persian. (it is not a recipe that everyone can do ☺️)

Good luck with cooking your Ash Reshteh 😆

The post Ash Reshteh – Persian dense soup with legumes, herbs, and noodles appeared first on Foodcraftz.

This recipe shows how to make reshteh for the soup. Make sure you have a wide working space for the dough. You’ll need a rolling pin, durum and/or rice flour to prevent the sheets of dough stick to each other while we are cutting the reshteh.

Ingredients | 5 servings

• 300g/10.5oz Flour
• 100g/3.5oz Water
• 6g/0.2oz of Salt

Preparation

– In a bowl mix flour and salt.

– Pour a bit of water, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined.

– Knead the pieces of dough together.

⏳ Let it rest for 10 mins. This helps the dough to relax.

– Knead it again. This time working the dough becomes slightly easier.

– Repeat this for other 2 times, with the intervals of 10mins. Then cover the dough with a foil and let it rest for 1 hour.

Making Reshteh

– On a wide working board, sprinkle flour and with a rolling pin flatten the dough and create a circle.

– The thickness should be around 2-3mm/0.11inch.

– Cut the dough in half (horizontally) the noodles should be short (12 cm / 5.1inch approximately)

– Sprinkle flour (better use durum or rice flour) on the surface and fold the dough on itself and cut it, (circa 3mm/0.11inch of width), with a very sharp knife.

The reshteh is done!

The result:

How to use Reshteh

The freshly made reshteh, cooks in 10 minutes. Unlike Italian pasta they shouldn’t be “al dente” but overcooked.

Notes

• Having the rice flour or durum flour comes handy. When we are cutting reshteh, they helps to separate the sheets of dough because of their very dry nature.
• You can store reshteh up to 3 days in fridge.

With this noodles you can cook Ash reshteh one of the famous Iranian soups:

Good luck ☺️

The post Reshteh recipe – Persian noodles appeared first on Foodcraftz.