This recipe comes from Persia and I have taken it from ‘Farah’s Persian Cuisine, pg 24.’ My workmate is from Persia and gave me the cookbook, it is simply gorgeous and the author has added a lot of interesting detail about the region in the book.
I have included soak time in this recipe. I would suggest using the tail end of your soaking time to prep everything. I would also do the frying parts of this meal whilst the pot is boiling.
Ingredients: [‘chickpeas’, ‘lentils’, ‘navy beans’, ‘wheat noodles’, ‘fresh coriander’, ‘fresh spinach’, ‘fresh chives’, ‘fresh dill’, ‘fresh parsley’, ‘oil’, ‘plain flour’, ‘buttermilk’, ‘sour cream’, ‘turmeric’, ‘ground black pepper’, ‘walnuts’, ‘dried mint’, ‘salt’, ‘onions’, ‘water’, ‘water’, ‘water’]
Quantity of Ingredients: [“100 g chickpeas”,”100 g lentils”,”100 g navy beans or 100 g kidney beans”,”250 g flat wheat noodles”,”1/2 cup closely packed fresh coriander, finely chopped “,”1/2 cup closely packed fresh spinach, finely chopped “,”1/2 cup closely packed fresh chives, finely chopped “,”1/2 cup closely packed fresh dill, finely chopped (tips)”,”1/2 cup closely packed fresh parsley, finely chopped “,”1/2 cup oil”,”3 tablespoons plain flour”,”1 cup buttermilk”,”2 tablespoons sour cream”,”1/2 teaspoon turmeric”,”1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, to taste “,”100 g walnuts (kernels)”,”1/4 cup crushed dried mint”,”1/2 tablespoon salt, to taste “,”4 medium onions”,”6 cups water”,”9 cups water”,”1/2 cup water”]
Number of Servings: 8
Steps: [‘Pick over, wash and soak the beans and chickpeas for about 2 hours. In a large pot cook for 40 minutes with 6 cups water. Add salt and pepper.’, ‘Pick over and wash the lentils and add to the pot and cook for an extra 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.’, ‘Wash the herbs, drain the water and gently dry with a tea towel, chop finely and put aside.’, ‘Chop and fry the onions in 1/4 cup of oil until golden. Put half aside for garnish. Add turmeric to the other half and stir-fry for a minute and add it to the soup pot.’, ‘Add 9 cups of water to the pot. When it boils add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes.’, ‘In a bowl, gradually add the flour to half a cup of water and blend well.’, ‘Add this paste and the herbs to the pot and simmer for another 40 minutes.’, ‘Mix the sour cream and buttermilk and add to the soup and stir. Cook for an extra 2 minutes.’, ‘Empty the contents of the pot into a soup dish.’, ‘Stir-fry the dried mint in 1/4 cup of oil for a minute and remove from heat.’, ‘Garnish with fried mint, walnuts and the remaining fried onions.’, ‘NOTE:’, ‘Dried herbs can be used if needed, 10g (3T) of dried herbs is approx equivelent of 100g fresh.’, ‘Farah included buttermilk and sour cream for this recipe, but in Iran they use whey (Kashk) instead. They dissolve the kashk to make a thick liquid which they then add to the soup.’]