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.
Serves 4
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.
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.
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.
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.
Use the best, freshest full-fat yogurt you can find — it is the soup's entire foundation.
Add a small crushed garlic clove to the base for the savory edge many Iranian families prefer.
Serve genuinely ice-cold, with ice cubes floating in each bowl on the hottest days.
Crumble toasted lavash or stale bread into the soup at the table — the soaked bread is the traditional heart of abdoogh khiar.
Toast the walnuts briefly in a dry pan to deepen their flavor against the cool yogurt.
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.
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.
Cold yogurt-and-cucumber preparations have cooled inhabitants of the Iranian plateau for millennia — yogurt (mast) is one of Persia's ancient foodstuffs, and the drinkable yogurt doogh from which this soup descends is referenced in medieval Persian texts. Known in homes as abdoogh khiar, the dish embodies the traditional Iranian system of 'hot' and 'cold' foods, prescribed in summer to balance the body. The rose petals and walnuts elevate a peasant cooler into something served at elegant tables.
Persian and Middle Eastern grocery stores stock culinary dried rose petals (gol-e Mohammadi), as do many health-food shops and online spice merchants. Make sure they are food-grade, not craft or potpourri petals. A small jar lasts ages — they also garnish Persian rice dishes, ice cream, and teas.
Consistency and role. Mast-o-khiar is a thick yogurt-cucumber side dish, like Persian tzatziki, eaten alongside rice and stews. Soup-e mast (abdoogh khiar) thins the same flavors with ice water into a sippable cold soup, enriched with raisins, walnuts, and crumbled bread, served as a meal in itself.
You can, but the soup loses much of its body and silkiness, since fat carries both texture and the herb aromatics. If using low-fat yogurt, reduce the added water to keep some creaminess. Full-fat — or even a spoonful of cream whisked in — gives the authentic, satisfying result.
It is optional but deeply traditional: dried or toasted flatbread crumbled into the soup softens like savory cereal and turns a light starter into the complete summer lunch Iranians know as abdoogh khiar. Add it at the table just before eating so it soaks without fully dissolving.
Per serving (300g / 10.6 oz) · 4 servings total
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