Tashreeb

Tashreeb

In Iraqi Arabic: تشريب, from the root sh-r-b — to soak up or to drink. In Hebrew it is written “תשריב” and also “טשריב”. The name describes exactly what happens in the bowl: dry bread is torn into pieces, arranged in the bottom, and a hot stew is ladled over it. The bread absorbs the liquid and becomes part of the dish.

This is one of the basic dishes of Iraqi cuisine, and it comes from the same large family of “bread and soup” dishes that exist across the region — the tilit that accompanies Iranian abgoosht, the Levantine fatteh, and also tashreeb made with bamia or with green beans (fasolia) in Iraq itself. The most common version, and the one here, is based on white beans with lamb.

Prep time: 20 minutes · Cook time: 2 hours · Total: about 2½ hours · Yield: 6 servings · Difficulty: easy

A dish built around stale bread

Tashreeb isn’t meant for fresh bread. It is built around yesterday’s dry samoon — bread that has lost its moisture and so soaks up liquid without immediately collapsing into mush. It is a dish of kitchen economy: it turns leftover bread and a little meat on the bone into a meal that feeds a family.

This pattern recurs in every cuisine on the site, and it is worth noticing: lahmacun with 35 grams of meat per flatbread, manti wrapping a little meat in dough, dolma dividing 400 grams of meat among eight diners. Traditional dishes were almost never built around a large piece of meat per person — that is a modern pattern.

Nutritionally, the combination of white beans, wheat bread and a little meat works well: the legume and the grain complement each other’s amino acids, and the result is a dish high in protein and fiber with a moderate amount of meat.

Ingredients (for 6 servings)

• 500 grams bone-in lamb (neck or shank), or cubes
• 1.5 cups dried white beans, soaked overnight
• 2 chopped onions
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 grated tomatoes + 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon baharat, 1 teaspoon paprika, salt and pepper
• 2 dried Persian limes (loomi), pierced — or 2–3 tablespoons lemon juice at the end
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1.8 liters water
• A handful of cilantro or parsley

To assemble: 3-4 dry samoon loaves or 2 dry laffa breads, torn into pieces.

Choosing ingredients and substitutes

Dried Persian lime is also sold under the name loomi. If you don’t have it, add 2–3 tablespoons of lemon juice at the end of cooking and taste. You can replace the samoon with two laffa breads or 3–4 pitas that have dried out a bit. Regular baharat works; for a homemade substitute for one teaspoon, mix half a teaspoon of cumin, a quarter teaspoon of allspice and a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon.

Method

1. Fry the base. Heat oil in a large pot and fry the onion until deeply golden — 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic, turmeric and baharat for half a minute.
2. Sear the meat. Add the meat and sear on all sides.
3. Add the tomatoes and paste and cook for 5 minutes until the color darkens.
4. Cook with the beans. Add the soaked beans, the water and the dried limes if using, bring to a boil, skim off the foam, and cook covered over low heat for 1.5-2 hours until the meat falls apart and the beans are completely tender.
5. Adjust. The stew should stay relatively liquid — it is going to be absorbed by the bread. Add hot water if it has reduced too much, and adjust the salt and acidity.
6. Assemble in the bowl. Tear the dry bread into bite-sized pieces and arrange them in the bottom of a wide bowl. Pour the hot stew with its liquid on top, and wait a minute for the bread to soak it up.
7. Serve with cilantro, raw onion and lemon, and eat immediately — tashreeb that sits turns to mush.

Nutrition facts and calorie estimate

The recommended serving is one-sixth of the pot — a bowl with about 60 grams of dry bread and about 500 ml of stew.

Ten grams of fiber per serving is a very high figure — about a third of the daily allowance — and it comes almost entirely from the white beans. Together with 31 grams of protein from two sources (legume and meat), this is an especially filling dish.

The point that needs attention is the bread: 60 grams of dry white bread is about 165 calories and carbohydrate with almost no fiber, and it is very easy to double the amount without noticing, because the bread disappears into the liquid. Anyone who wants a lighter dish can use only about 40 grams of bread — a saving of about 55 calories, and the stew itself is more filling than the bread.

Variations and tips

• Bamia or green bean tashreeb: exactly the same method, with bamia or with green beans instead of the white beans.
• Vegan version: skip the meat and double the beans. The dish drops to about 450 calories and stays high in protein and fiber.
• The bread: must be dry. Fresh bread falls apart into mush within seconds. You can dry slices in the oven at 150 degrees Celsius (300°F) for 10 minutes.
• Timing: assemble the bowls only at the moment of serving, not in advance.

Summary

Tashreeb is a bean and lamb stew served over dry bread, and its whole logic is that the bread soaks up the liquid and becomes part of the dish. About 620 calories per serving with 31 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber — one of the most filling dishes in the category. The bread used for it is samoon, and the Iranian dish built on the same idea is abgoosht. More recipes in Iraqi cuisine.