🇦🇿 Azerbaijan
DovgaAzerbaijani yogurt soup
Azerbaijani yogurt soup thickened with flour and egg and cooked with rice, chickpeas and a large amount of fresh herbs (dill, coriander, mint, spinach), served hot in winter or chilled in summer.
Origin and history
Dovga is one of the best-known soups of Azerbaijan, a yogurt soup thickened with flour and egg and cooked with rice, chickpeas and a large quantity of fresh herbs. It is customarily served at weddings between courses of meat, and is also described as a national dish. It is eaten hot in winter and chilled in summer.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h
- Hands-on
- 40 min
Ingredients
- 750 g3 cups full-fat plain yogurt (qatıq), not strained Greek-style if you can avoid it
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 80 g1/3 cup medium-grain rice, rinsed
- 1 l4 cups water, plus more to thin
- 240 g1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas, canned is fine; drained and rinsed
- 100 g4 oz spinach, finely chopped
- 1 bunch dill, finely chopped
- 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
- 5 to 10 leaves fresh mint, chopped
- salt and black pepper, to taste, added at the end
Method
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1. Put the chopped herbs and spinach in a colander, let the green juice drain, then rinse with cold water without squeezing.
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2. In a large heavy pot off the heat, whisk the yogurt, egg and flour until completely smooth, then whisk in the water.
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3. Stir in the rice and set the pot over medium heat.
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4. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the soup comes to a gentle boil, about 10 to 15 minutes; this keeps the yogurt from splitting.
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5. Lower the heat and add the herbs and spinach. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until the rice is soft.
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6. Stir in the chickpeas and switch off the heat.
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7. Season with salt and pepper only now, and thin with a little cold water if the soup is too thick.
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8. Serve hot, or cool and chill for a cold soup.
Notes
- Dovga (dovğa) is traditionally a wedding soup, served between meat courses; it is eaten hot in winter and cold in summer, with the same recipe.
- Salt late and stir continuously until the first boil: the flour and egg help hold the yogurt together, but it can still split if left alone or salted early.
- The herb mix varies: some recipes add tarragon, chives, celery or garlic. Cabbage is added in the Qabala region, and meatballs are an optional addition in some versions.
- Abdug is a related soup popular in southern Azerbaijan and Iran, made without rice and served with ice in summer, sometimes with raisins, nuts, rose petals and toasted lavash. The Armenian spas is a neighbouring yogurt soup.
- If you cannot find qatıq, use plain unsweetened whole-milk yogurt; the soup will be a little less sour.
Adapted from Anna Ansari, Silk Roads (recipe published by olive magazine), 196 flavors, Azerbaijan: dovga, and SBS Food, Yoghurt and herb soup (dovga).
At the festivals
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