Ash Reshteh | Persian Noodle Soup

Ash Reshteh | Persian Noodle Soup
Ash Reshteh | Persian Noodle Soup

Ash Reshteh is my favorite Persian Soup. It’s hearty, nutritious, and delicious, filled with herbs and greens, onions, beans, and a whole lot of love! It’s typically served at Persian New Year, called Norooz, for a year full of prosperity and good luck.

New Years is one of my favorite holidays.  It gives me the opportunity to start fresh and take a moment to align on personal priorities which may have taken a back seat during the course of the year.  It’s also a great time to reflect on progress and achievements that occurred during the same time period and to be thankful for being healthy.  Lucky for me I get to celebrate New Year’s twice every year – the standard Gregorian date of January 1st, and Norooz which commences at the Spring Equinox approximately on March 20th.

Ash Reshteh | Persian Noodle Soup bowl
Ash Reshteh | Persian Noodle Soup bowl

To mark the New Year, I blend both Persian and American tradition by making Ash-eh-Reshteh with black eyed peas.  Persians have “Reshteh” or Noodles on New Years Day for success and prosperity.  Many Americans, especially Southerns, eat black eyed peas on New Year’s Day for the same reason.  It only made sense for me to combine the two and make my own annual tradition, and share it with family and friends!

My original recipe for Ash Reshteh was the one I would make for New Years Day on Jan 1st – I typically have an open house and invite friends and neighbors to stop by and have a bowl of this amazing soup. I would end up making 3 big pots full and it would take all day to make. I still have the recipe and step by step directions with pictures saved on the blog (click here if you’d like to check it out) but I realize that most people aren’t going to make it like that – and that I personally enjoy making it with a few hacks to save time, so I thought a revised recipe was in order.

Ash Reshteh | Persian Noodle Soup bowls of Ash Reshteh
Ash Reshteh | Persian Noodle Soup bowls of Ash Reshteh

So here it is, with fewer pics, but hopefully enough for you to see what Ash Reshteh should look like. And as with so many Persian dishes, broad regional variations can definitely exist, so feel free to customize any way you’d like. Switch up your beans, or add more herbs, or if you have some beet greens you need to use feel free to add it to the pot. Enjoy, have fun, and let me know how it went if you’d like to share! You can also learn more about it in my podcast called Modern Persian Food. Its episode #12 titled “3 Persian Soups” and can be found on podcast downloading sites or at https://modernpersianfood.com/episodes/

My biggest hacks for this recipe are to use frozen spinach, and canned or frozen beans for the ash. For the garnish I will sometimes use freeze dried onions, and I enjoy mixing the fried mint with yogurt to save a step as well. Saves so much time and I can actually pull off making a batch during the week!

Yield: 1 pot

Ash Reshteh | Persian Noodle Soup

Ash Reshteh | Persian Noodle Soup

Ash Reshteh is a hearty, earthy, and comforting Persian soup with noodles, beans, and greens. The garnishes make the flavor profile complete and a few cheats allow this easy recipe to be ready in well under an hour.

Ingredients

  • 2 large onions, diced and separated
  • 4 Tbsp + 2 Tbsp Vegetable oil
  • 2 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground pepper
  • 2/3 cup kidney or red beans
  • 2/3 cup black eyed peas
  • 2/3 cup garbanzo beans
  • 2/3 cup lentils
  • 1 bunch cilantro (leaves and tender stems), chopped
  • 1 bunch parsley (leaves and tender stems), chopped
  • 1 bunch chives, chopped
  • 2 pounds spinach, lightly chopped
  • 8 ounces of reshteh noodles, or flat noodles such as linguine or fettuccini, broken in half or thirds
  • 2 Tbsp dried mint (optional)
  • 1 cup plain yogurt (optional)
  • Splash of balsamic vinegar (optional)

Instructions

  1. Cook beans in a large pot until almost fully cooked. Note that soaking them overnight will cut the cooking time by a lot. Also note that garbanzo beans take longer than average to cook. Lentils take less time to cook.
  2. In a separate pot, fry the onion in oil on medium high heat until lightly golden, about 10 minutes.
  3. Add turmeric, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Cook for 1 minute.
  4. Add herbs, stir and cook until lightly wilted about 3 minutes.
  5. Add beans and cover with water. Bring to a boil.
  6. Add spinach and cook for 10 minutes.
  7. Add noodles, stir gently, and cook until noodles are softened, about 10 minutes.
  8. In a seperate pan, lightly fry mint in remaining oil for 1 minute. Add yogurt and stir.
  9. Serve soup in a large serving bowl or individually. Garnish with reserved fried onions and the yogurt mint sauce and serve warm. Consider topping with a splash of balsamic vinegar as well.

Notes

For a faster cheat version:
1. Omit step 1 and use canned, jarred, or frozen beans. Rinse canned beans.
2. Substitute fresh spinach with frozen if not available.
3. Use freeze dried onions for a quick topping

I couldn’t resist including this pic from a few years ago at one of my New Year’s Open Houses. That’s me! Serving bowls of Ash Reshteh!

Ash Reshteh Open House
Ash Reshteh Open House

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