Oct 25

Aash Sabzi

By Persian Recipes Aash & Soup 3 Comments »

This is a favorite Aash in Shiraz…and even though it is called Aash e Sabzi it actually has only two types of greens in it with a bunch of other things! The name Aash-e Sabzi refers to a  soup of greens, but like I said it only has two things that are considered green vegetables in it. The amount of Aash-e Sabzi based on the ingredients below is for a large pot, which can serve and fill up at least 10 people.

Aash-e Sabzi

Aash-e Sabzi

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs Lamb meat — I bought lamb arm chops, but supposedly the best meat to use is the neck meat from the neck area
1 medium onion
1 cup garbanzo beans –you can use dry or from a can (make sure you drain the water and rinse if you use from a can)
1 cup black eye peas
1 cup lentils
3 cups rice
150 grams Tareh –in place of Tareh I used the ends of green onions (the green parts) …you will need 150 grams of the green parts
80 - 100 grams Tarragon (Tarkhoon) –if you put too much it might become bitter
turmeric
salt/pepper
3 tablespoons fried onion (piaz dagh)
2 tablespoons fried dry mint (nana dagh)

Directions:
In a pot, place the meat, the chopped up onion, turmeric, salt, pepper, and cover with water. Place on stove on medium temperature and allow the meat to fully cook. Once the meat is cooked put it aside and allow it to cool (keep the water in the pot for later use). When the meat is cooled down you can remove any bones and then throw it in the food processor for it to become shredded. If you prefer you can use ground up meat to not have to use a food processor. Add some of the onions to the food processor as well (onions from the pot you made the meat in).

In a separate pot pour in your three cups dry rice and cover with water and allow it to cook on a medium temperature.

In a large pot (the pot you plan on making the aash Sabzi in) pour in the garbanzo beans, lentils, and black eye peas and cover with water. Allow the beans to cook on a medium temperature. Place the lid on the pot and allow the contents to cook.Once the garbanzo beans are soft take out at least half of them (or as much as possible) and mash them up a bit with a spoon and then return them to the pot.

The rice should now be fully cooked and may have lost some of its shape/form. Add the rice to the large pot with beans in it and stir. You may need to add more water at this time. Take the lamb meat you have shredded in the food processor (or blender) and add it to the soup (Aash). Add as much of the meat broth you like to the soup. Place the lid back on the pot and allow all contents to cook. If needed add more water.

Clean your green onion ends (green parts) and tarragon and then use the food processor to chop them up a bit. After about 2 hours of the Aash boiling and cooking add in the sabzi (green vegetables) and a bit of salt to taste. You don’t want to add the pepper now, you typically add that at the end for the aroma. Add more water if needed, stir contents, and then place the lid back on top.

After another hour of the Aash-e Sabzi cooking you may want to pour half the contents in a blender and puree (or in a food processor). Return the contents to the pot and stir together. Allow the soup to then cook for another hour until it is fully prepared and then add some pepper at least 30 minutes prior to serving. If you plan on serving at a later time, make sure you heat up the Aash at least 1 hour prior to serving. In the event that you are reheating the contents of the pot you may need to add a tad bit of water so it is not too thick.

Decorate with the fried onion (to a golden brown color) and mint and place pepper on the table for anyone who wishes to add more (many people add loads of black pepper to this Aash-e Sabzi…must be a shirazi thing ;) ).

Enjoy!

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Sep 30

This is a aash (soup) one of my friends recently made for a gathering. It is from the Kurdish regions of Iran, and is basically a local Kurdish soup called Dokhawa.

Aash Dokhawa

Aash Dokhawa

The ingredients below are enough for a large pot.

Ingredients:
1 package parsley
2 packages cilantro
1 package dill (shevid), or half a cup dried dill (shevid khoshk)
.5 litre (16 oz) plain yogurt
1/2 cup rice
1/2 cup Barley (jo) –this should most likely be a pearl barley or other quick-cooking barley. I couldn’t find the exact meaning of balghooreh jo, but I assume its a more processed form of Barley (i.e, pearl Barley)
1 egg yolk
6-7 cups water
salt

Directions:
First whip the yogurt with the egg yolk so that chunks will not be formed when you mix it with the water. Add the egg yolk and yogurt you have whipped to the water and then add all three contents (egg yolk/yogurt/water mixture) to the pot you plan on using. Wash your greens (mentioned above) and chop them up only a little bit, do not chop them up too much cause they need to be fairly large. Add the greens, some salt, the rice, and the barley to the pot. Then allow the contents in the pot to come to a boil. After it boils bring the temperature down to a medium / medium-low and allow the contents to cook for 30-40 minutes.

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Aug 30

There are a few different techniques one can use to make Aash Reshteh, but I have chosen a combination of one or two methods to prepare this Persian recipe.

aashe-reshteh

Aasheh Reshteh

Ingredients:

1 can nokhod (chickapeas) or 1 cup dry nokhod (chickapeas/garbanzo)
1 cup adas (lentils)
1 cup lobiya ghermez (red beans or red kidney beans)
1/4 cup navy beans (optional)
1 package Reshteh (noodle)
1 medium Onion - chopped
Kashk
chopped garlic
dry mint
salt/pepper (desired amount)
turmeric (optional)
2 table spoons flour (optional)

Sabzi (greens) for the Aash (soup) include: parsley, cilantro, spinach, green onions, shevid (dill)
I used fresh greens (except for the shevid), but some people do buy the dried sabzi (typically pre-packaged and sold at a Persian grocery store).

3 packages Fresh parsley
2 packages Fresh cilantro
1 large bundle (or bag) of spinach or 2 smaller bundles (bag)
2 packages green onions
Shevid (dry dill) - approximately 4 spoonfuls

ashe reshte

Now I chose to soak my red beans and lentils the day of cooking, instead of overnight. In fact with the beans I had bought, I didn’t soak them too long since they would probably go really soft. It completely depends on the quality of the beans whether you should soak them for a long amount of time or just for a short amount of time (in my opinion). While my beans were soaking I went ahead and cleaned my parsley, cilantro, spinach, and green onions. After soaking them in water to make sure no mud was left behind (then rinsing them thoroughly) I chopped them up in a food processor. Make sure you don’t over chop the greens! Also, I only bought 1 package for my spinach, so I decided to use a chopped frozen package of spinach as well.

For the aash it is best to use a very large pot. I placed some water in the pot and brought it to a boil, then after draining the beans (only the red beans, navy beans, and lentils) I allowed them to boil in the water for approximately 10 - 15 minutes. Once again I drained the beans and placed a little bit of my chopped onions (with some oil) in the pot. I added the beans back into the pot after the onions were sautéed a bit. If you would like you can add some turmeric powder to the beans. After this step I added water to the pot (note: the temperature for the stove top should be somewhere close to medium). Since I used a can of garbanzo beans, I did not add the beans at the beginning and waited until later to add them.

After this step I added all the greens I prepared, plus dried shevid (dill). At this time I added the frozen package of spinach I mentioned above as well. Make sure to stir constantly to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot and everything is cooking evenly. After adding the greens I added a little bit more water. At the end Aash reshteh is not a very watery soup, so , make sure you don’t add too much water because you will need it to evaporate. Make sure you add enough salt and pepper for the taste as well (of course this depends on your taste buds).

Now I added a little bit of sautéed mint, onions (lightly browned), and garlic (lightly browned) to the aash reshteh. I also kept a little of each aside to decorate the end product. Then I took the flour and added a little cold water to mix it into a paste. I added the flour paste to the pot and stirred it in. This is an optional step that some use when making this Persian dish. Afterwards, I added some kashk into the pot as well and stirred. Finally, I added the garbanzo beans (after rinsing them perfectly). Now I let this pot cook for a few hours (approximately 3-4 hours), while stirring occasionally.

The last thing to add is the reshteh. I waited until 20 minutes before I wanted to serve the aash to add the reshteh. Make sure you stir it well and they don’t get stuck together. Once I served the aash I decorated it with the sautéed mint, onions, and garlic, along with some kashk. Personally, I add some kashk to my aash even when eating it, so you may want to put some kashk in a side dish for anyone you would like to add more.

Note: My pot was not large enough for this amount of aash, so I had to pour some of it into another pot to make sure there was enough room to add the reshteh.

ash reshte

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