Soup-e Mast

About This Recipe

Soup-e Mast — better known in Iran as abdoogh khiar — is the most elegant answer Persian cuisine gives to a hot afternoon: chilled yogurt thinned to a sippable consistency and laced with cucumber, golden raisins, walnuts, and a garden of mint, dill, and chives, finished with dried rose petals. The interplay is quintessentially Persian: cooling dairy against sweet raisins, crunchy walnuts against crisp cucumber, all perfumed with rose. Traditionally, stale flatbread is crumbled in to soak like savory cereal, turning the soup into a complete light lunch. In traditional Iranian humoral thinking it is the definitive 'cold-natured' summer food, served when the heat makes cooked meals unthinkable.

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 2 cupsfull-fat plain yogurt
• 1 cupcold water or ice water
• 1 largecucumber, finely diced
• 3 tbspgolden raisins
• 3 tbspwalnuts, roughly chopped
• 2 tbspfresh mint, chopped
• 2 tbspfresh dill, chopped
• 1 tbspdried rose petals
• 1/2 tspsalt
• 2 tbspfresh chives, chopped

Instructions

1. 1

   Mix base

   Whisk the yogurt vigorously in a large bowl until completely smooth, then stream in the ice-cold water while whisking until the mixture is pourable but still creamy — the consistency of a thin milkshake. Season with salt.

   Whisk the yogurt smooth before adding any water; adding liquid to lumpy yogurt locks the lumps in.

2. 2

   Add ingredients

   Stir in the diced cucumber, golden raisins, most of the walnuts, and the mint, dill, and chives, reserving a little of everything for garnish. The raisins will begin to plump in the liquid, releasing gentle sweetness into the soup.

   Soak the raisins in warm water for 10 minutes first if you want them fully plump and juicy at serving time.

3. 3

   Chill

   Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes — ideally an hour — so the soup gets properly cold and the herbs, raisins, and cucumber perfume the yogurt base. Stir once before serving, thinning with a splash more ice water if it has thickened.

4. 4

   Serve

   Ladle into chilled bowls and crown with dried rose petals, the reserved walnuts and herbs, and an ice cube or two in each bowl to keep it cold at the table. Offer toasted flatbread for crumbling in, the traditional way to turn it into a full meal.

Variations

• •

  Swap the raisins for pomegranate seeds in autumn for tart, jewel-like bursts.

• •

  Blend everything smooth and strain for an elegant, gazpacho-style dinner-party presentation.

• •

  Use sparkling water instead of still for a lighter, faintly fizzy version popular in Tehran summers.

• •

  Make it heartier with extra cucumber, sliced radish, and a handful of crushed ice for a chunky lunch bowl.

Storage

Refrigerate for up to 2 days in a sealed container; the soup thickens and the cucumber weeps slightly, so stir well and refresh with a splash of cold water before serving. Add bread, rose petals, and garnishes only at the table.

Frequently Asked Questions