Ash-e Jo is a thick, creamy Persian barley soup, one of the family of ash pottages that anchor Iranian winter cooking. Pearl barley is simmered long and slow with chickpeas and beans, a generous load of chopped parsley, cilantro and spinach, and softened onion, until the grain breaks down and the whole pot turns velvety. Off the heat it is finished with kashk, the tart fermented-whey paste that gives Persian ash its savory depth, and crowned at the table with fried mint and golden onion. Hearty and warming, it is a homestyle meal-in-a-bowl rather than a starter.
Ash is one of the oldest categories in Persian cooking — the word for these thick herb-and-legume pottages is so central that the Persian term for a cook, ashpaz, literally means ash-maker. Barley is among the most ancient cultivated grains of the Iranian plateau, which makes a barley ash a plausibly very old peasant dish, though no single inventor or date is recorded. Ash-e Jo belongs to the broad national repertoire of ash rather than to one city, and like other ash it is tied to cold weather, frugal cooking and Persian hospitality. Its exact origins are not documented.
Thick and creamy with a slight chew from the barley grains that survive the long simmer, and an almost stew-like density from the broken-down beans. The herbs give it a deep green, vegetal backbone; the kashk adds a tart, cheesy tang that turns it savory and rich. Fried mint lends a dark, toasted aroma and the fried onion a sweet crunch on top. A spoonful is substantial and filling, warming from the inside on a cold day.
The barley does double duty: it is the bulk of the soup and also its thickener, since the starch it sheds over a long simmer gives the broth its creamy body — the pot must be stirred and watched so it does not scorch as it thickens. Kashk is the load-bearing seasoning, drained fermented whey reduced and dried, then reconstituted; high in acid and glutamate, it pulls the herbed broth from flat-green to deeply savory and is stirred in off the heat so it does not split. The herbs are added in quantity and cooked down so their flavor melts into the broth rather than sitting on top. Fried mint, made by frying dried mint in hot oil for a few seconds, is the classic aromatic garnish.
Variations
Some cooks add lentils or a handful of rice along with the barley for extra body, and many use lamb or a meat broth as the base while others keep it vegetarian. The amount of kashk varies by taste and region, and a squeeze of dried-lime or lemon is sometimes added for a sharper sour edge. Where kashk is left out, the soup is milder and lighter.
On the Palate
Where Ash-e Jo sits in the Persian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
9 steps · 25 min
- 110 min
Soak the barley, chickpeas and beans together for several hours or overnight, then drain.
- 28 min
Slice the onions and soften half of them in oil with turmeric in the soup pot.
- 370 min
Add the drained barley and legumes with plenty of water and simmer gently until tender.
- 415 min
Stir in the chopped parsley, cilantro and spinach and cook until the herbs collapse into the broth.
- 525 min
Continue simmering, stirring often, until the barley breaks down and the soup turns thick and creamy.
Watch outKeep stirring as it thickens until the barley breaks down and the soup turns creamy — the starch it sheds is the body, and it scorches if you stop.
- 63 min
Season with salt and pepper and adjust the consistency with hot water if needed.
- 73 min
Stir most of the kashk into the soup off direct boil, reserving some to drizzle on top.
Watch outStir the kashk in off the boil — drop it into hard-boiling soup and the fermented whey splits and turns grainy.
- 86 min
Fry the remaining onion until deep gold and fry dried mint briefly in hot oil for the garnish.
- 92 min
Ladle into bowls and finish with the reserved kashk, fried onion and fried mint.
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