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Title: Ash-E Alu (Thick Soup With Prunes)
Categories: Persian, Soup
Yield: 1 Batch

100 g Lapeh (yellow lentils)
200 g Rice
175 g Fresh herbs (coriander,
-flat-leaf parsley, chives
-in almost equal
-proportions); chopped
2 lg Onions
Oil
1 ts Turmeric
1/4 ts Cinnamon (optional)
2 tb Dried mint
12 Alu (prunes, available from
-Persian shops)
Salt; pepper
4 cl Garlic

Soak the lentils overnight in a generous amount of cold water. The
next day, drain then rinse in one change of fresh water.

Wash the rice and soak in cold water for 1 hour.

Wash and shake dry the fresh herbs. Remove the stalks and then finely
chop all the herbs. Set aside in a cool place.

Finely chop one of the onions. Heat some oil in a large pan and fry
the chopped onion until golden. Add the turmeric and cinnamon (if
using) and stir again once, then sprinkle over the dried mint and
stir once more. As soon as the scent of the mint rises, remove the
pan from the heat.

Add the soaked lentils to the onion and mint mixture and pour 2 L
water. Return the pan to the heat, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer
for 30 minutes.

Drain the rice and add to the soup pan with the herbs, prunes and
salt and pepper to taste. Cover, and continue simmering everything
gently for at least another hour.

Before serving, prepare the garnish: peel and finely chop the garlic
cloves, removing any green shoots. Heat a little oil in a small pan
and sauté the garlic until golden, then transfer to a small bowl.

Cut the remaining onion into thin rings. Heat a little oil in a small
pan and fry the onion rings until golden.

To serve, transfer the ash to a large soup tureen and garnish with the
garlic and onion rings.

Tip:

Add water as necessary until you obtain the consistency of a thick
soup.

Note:

Like many other varieties of ash, ash-e alu also has a medicinal
use--it is traditionally administered to calm the nerves.

Variations:

Ash-e sadeh (simple thick soup) and ash-e anar (thick soup with
pomegranate syrup).

For ash-e sadeh, instead of the prunes, the juice of a large lemon is
used as an acidifier; for ash-e anar, about 2 to 3 tb of pomegranate
syrup is used. The amount of acidifier used can be increased or
decreased according to taste.

Recipe by The Persian Kitchen by Neda Afrashi, 2006

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