🇮🇷 Iran · made in Gilan, Azerbaijan, Shiraz and elsewhere; a Yalda night soup
Ash-e anarPersian pomegranate soup
A Persian ash, a thick soup of rice or bulgur, legumes such as split peas, soup herbs, pomegranate juice, seeds and paste, tart-sweet, with meat in some regional forms.
Origin and history
Surf Iran says ash-e anar holds a special place on Yalda night, the winter solstice, in Iran. In Persian cooking an ash is a thick soup of grains, legumes and herbs, and in this one pomegranate gives the sour-sweet taste. The sources read give no date or single province of origin; Gilan, Azerbaijan, Shiraz and Yazd each have their own form.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 2 h 15 min
- Hands-on
- 50 min
Ingredients
- 100 g1/2 cup brown or green lentils, soaked 2 to 3 hours
- 50 g1/4 cup yellow split peas (lapeh), soaked 2 to 3 hours
- 200 g1 cup rice, rinsed
- 3 onions, 2 sliced thin for frying, 1 grated if making meatballs
- 500 g1.1 lb chopped ash herbs (sabzi-ye ash), a fresh or frozen mix, such as parsley, coriander and spring onion
- 1 liter4 cups pomegranate juice
- 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses (rob-e anar, pomegranate paste)
- 150 g1 cup pomegranate seeds
- 2.5 liters2.5 quarts water
- 200 g7 oz ground beef or lamb, optional, for small meatballs (Shiraz style)
- 3 tbsp dried mint, for the topping
- oil, salt, black pepper and turmeric, to taste
Method
-
1. Fry the sliced onions in oil until deep golden, then stir in turmeric, salt and pepper. Set aside a third of the onions for the topping.
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2. Drain the lentils and split peas and put them in a large pot with the water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 30 minutes, until half tender.
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3. Add the rice and cook for another 30 minutes, stirring now and then, until the rice opens and the soup thickens.
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4. If making meatballs, knead the grated onion with the ground meat, salt, pepper and turmeric, roll into hazelnut-size balls and drop them into the simmering pot, cooking until they are cooked through.
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5. Add the herbs and the fried onions (except those set aside) and cook for 20 minutes.
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6. Stir in the pomegranate juice and the molasses, adjust the salt and sourness, and simmer gently for 15 minutes, adding the pomegranate seeds in the last 5 minutes.
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7. Heat a little oil, take it off the heat, stir the dried mint into it for a few seconds, and pour it over the soup together with the reserved onions. Serve hot.
Notes
- Ingredient proportions follow Digikala Mag's Shirazi version (half a cup of lentils, a quarter cup of split peas, 1 cup of rice, 3 onions, 200 g mince, 1 litre of pomegranate juice, 3 tbsp paste, a glass of seeds, 500 g of ash herbs), with its 'cup' read as 200 ml. Digikala gives no water amount or timings for it: its beetroot version for 10 bowls cooks 1 cup of rice in 3 litres of boiling water, and we use 2.5 litres here for 6; the times in the steps are our estimates, so judge by the rice and legumes being soft and the soup thick, and add hot water if it gets too thick.
- Regional forms differ: Digikala says the Shirazi and Azerbaijani soups are usually made with meat, while the Gilan one is meat-free, made with top-quality pomegranate paste and aromatic herbs, and the Yazd one is meat-free; Surf Iran adds that Azerbaijan mixes broth or ground meat in and Shiraz uses tiny meatballs. Some cooks use bulgur and various legumes instead of split peas. Digikala's northern version, for two, uses half-milled rice, red beans, lentils, bulgur or barley and garlic, and simmers for 1 to 2 hours.
- Digikala's third version adds three boiled beetroots and dried mint, and is meat-free.
- Without pomegranate paste, add more juice and reduce it; the balance of sour and sweet depends on the juice and paste you use.
- Surf Iran lists it among the dishes of Yalda night, the winter solstice.
- Keeps for 3 days in the fridge; thin with water when reheating.
Adapted from Digikala Mag, Pomegranate ash (Ash-e anar) recipe and Surf Iran, 17 Traditional Persian Foods for Yalda Night.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.