Persian Āsh by Jacqueline Touba, Ph.D.

Soup’r Delicious 2014
Jacqueline’s Charity: World Awareness Children’s Museum - go! Where Children Discover the World
Week 2: March 10-14, 2014

This soup will be featured at the cafe for one week in March as part of our Soup’r Delicious charity event. Check back for the complete Soup’r Delicious schedule! Each participant chooses a charity and 50% of their soup sales will benefit the selected not-for-profit.

Āsh (Persian: آش‎) is part of Iranian cuisine, similar to soup but thicker, which is usually served hot. Depending on the type of āsh, it could contain different types of grain,legumes (chick peas, black-eye beans, lentils),vegetables, herbs (parsley, spinach, dill, spring onion ends, coriander, dried mint), onions, oil, meat, garlic,reshteh (in Ash Reshteh) and spices, such as salt,pepper, turmeric, saffron, etc.

Recipe Yield: 2 gallons

1 chicken breast, skinned and deboned
1 bag of spinach
1 bunch of parsley
6 bunches of scallions
1 large onion
8-10 very small potatoes
1 cup of long grain rice
1/2 cup kidney beans
1/2 cup navy beans
1/2 cup of other beans (not lima)
1/2 cup of chickpeas
3 tbsp of dried leeks
3 tbsp of dried basil
2 tbsp of cilantro
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 eight quart pot

Wash the chicken thoroughly, cut into pieces not too small
Put in pot with about half a pot of water and start cooking
Take the stems off the spinach leaves.
Wash the spinach thoroughly until no sand is in the bottom of the washing basin
Put into the pot to cook
Cut the tops off the parsley stems and wash thoroughly until no sand left
Put into the pot
Cut the green parts of the scallionsinto 1/2 inch pieces
Wash thoroughly and put into the pot
Cut up the large onion into small pieces and put into the pot
Add the rice, beans, and chickpeas
Add the leeks, basil, cilantro, salt, and pepper
Wash the potatoes and put into the pot
Add water to bring up to the 3/4 mark
Bring to a boil and then put on a low simmer until the chickpeas and beans are cooked.
Probably at least 2 hours on low

Garnish:
yogurt