Ash Reshteh

Ash Reshteh

In Persian: آش رشته, literally “noodle soup.” In Hebrew it is written “אש רשתה” and also appears as “אש רשטה”. Ash is a whole category of thick soups in Persian cuisine — so thick that they are served as a main course rather than a starter — and reshteh are flat, slightly salty wheat noodles made especially for this soup.

What sets the dish apart is the density of its ingredients: three different legumes, an amount of herbs reminiscent of ghormeh sabzi, and noodles — all in one pot. Three toppings that are an inseparable part of the dish are poured over it: kashk (fermented, dried whey with a tart-salty taste), mint fried in oil, and onion fried until browned.

Prep time: 30 minutes · Cooking time: about two hours · Total: about two and a half hours · Yield: 8 servings · Difficulty: medium

A soup that marks the beginning of spring

Ash reshteh is closely tied to Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which falls on the spring equinox. The soup is served in the days before and after it, and according to folk tradition its noodles — the long, unbroken strands — symbolize the threads of fate, and eating them at the start of the year is considered a sign that things will “work out.” In Iran it is also customary to make it as nazri, food cooked in large quantities and handed out to neighbors and passersby in fulfillment of a vow.

Nutritionally, this is one of the most impressive soups there is: three different legumes and a large amount of herbs in one bowl. The amino acids of the legumes and of the grain in the noodles complement each other — legumes are low in methionine and rich in lysine, and wheat is the reverse — so the dish provides complete plant protein without any animal product, apart from the yogurt or kashk, which can be left out.

Ingredients (for 8 servings)

• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, 1/2 cup white beans, 1/2 cup brown lentils
• 250 grams reshteh noodles (or broken linguine as a substitute)
• 300 grams parsley, 200 grams cilantro, 200 grams dill, 300 grams spinach, 200 grams leek or scallions — chopped
• 2 large onions
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons dried mint
• 1 teaspoon turmeric, salt and black pepper
• 6 tablespoons oil (2 for the pot, 4 for the three toppings)
• 250 grams thick yogurt + 1 tablespoon lemon juice, as a substitute for kashk — or 150 grams ready-to-use liquid kashk
• 2.5 liters water

Choosing ingredients and substitutes

Reshteh noodles and kashk are not shelf items in every supermarket. You can use 250 grams of broken linguine and cook it according to the package time, until soft in the soup. Instead of kashk, use 250 grams of thick yogurt with a tablespoon of lemon juice; add it to the bowl when serving. The herb weights refer to the cleaned parts, without thick stems. Frozen spinach can be substituted by weight after thawing and squeezing.

Method

1. Soak and cook the legumes. Soak the chickpeas and white beans overnight. Cook them in water for about an hour until almost soft, add the lentils and cook for another 20 minutes.
2. Fry the onion. Fry one onion in 2 tablespoons of oil until deep golden, add the turmeric and return to the pot of legumes.
3. Add the herbs. Add all the chopped herbs and the spinach and cook for 30-40 minutes, until the soup darkens and the herbs melt into it.
4. Add the noodles. Break the noodles into the pot and cook according to the package time until soft. From this point on stir often — the noodles release starch and the soup sticks to the bottom.
5. Make the three toppings. In separate oil: the second onion fried to a deep brown; crushed garlic fried for a minute; and dried mint tossed into hot oil off the heat — over a live flame it burns and turns bitter within seconds.
6. Serve. Mix the yogurt with the lemon juice, or prepare the kashk according to the package instructions, and drizzle over the soup in the bowl, topped with the onion, garlic and mint. Stir in the bowl only just before eating, to keep the look.

Nutrition facts and calorie estimate

The recommended serving is a bowl of about 500 ml, one eighth of the pot.

Twelve grams of fiber in one bowl is an unusual figure — about half the recommended daily amount, and more than in most full meals. It comes from the combination of legumes and herbs, which is why the dish keeps you full for a long time relative to its 420 calories.

Two caveats: first, the soup is rich in plant iron, which is poorly absorbed — a squeeze of lemon into the bowl improves absorption significantly thanks to the vitamin C. Second, kashk is very salty, and together with the cooking salt the dish can reach 900 mg of sodium or more. Replacing it with yogurt saves about half of the sodium.

Variations and tips

• Vegan version: replace the yogurt or kashk with plain unsweetened soy yogurt and lemon juice, or simply leave it out and add more lemon. The rest of the soup is fully vegan.
• Without reshteh noodles: broken linguine or fettuccine work well. The only difference is that reshteh is slightly salty to begin with, so with regular pasta you need to add salt.
• Thickness: ash reshteh should be very thick — a spoon should stand up in it. If it is too runny, mash some of the legumes with a spoon and stir them back in.
• Making ahead: it improves on the second day, but the noodles keep absorbing liquid. Add hot water when reheating.

Summary

Ash reshteh is the soup that shows why legumes and grains work well together in the same bowl: 19 grams of plant protein, 12 grams of fiber and 420 calories. It demands lengthy chopping rather than skill, and it improves the next day. This Persian soup is similar in idea to Turkish lentil soup, though it is much thicker and more complex. More recipes in Persian cuisine.