Ash-e Mast is a warm Persian yogurt soup in which rice, split peas or chickpeas and a generous handful of fresh herbs are simmered together, then thickened and soured with yogurt stirred in off a rolling boil. Pieces of chicken, or sometimes tiny meatballs, give it body. The bowl is finished with the classic Iranian garnish of onion fried until dark and sweet with dried mint. Creamy, tangy and herb-flecked, it is comfort food that suits both cold days and warm ones, and is made in homes across Iran, including the Khorasani kitchens of Mashhad.
Ash-e mast belongs to the vast Iranian family of ash — thick, herb-laden soups eaten year-round — and is documented as having strong roots in Azerbaijan, the northwest of Iran, though versions are cooked across the country and in neighboring Turkey and Afghanistan. There is no single fixed recipe: households swap herbs, choose chickpeas or split peas, and add chicken, meatballs or no meat at all. Its defining move is the same everywhere — yogurt stirred in to make the soup creamy and sour without letting it boil and split.
Creamy and gently tangy from the yogurt, thick with soft rice and split peas, and green with mint, parsley and other herbs. The chicken is tender and the dark fried-onion garnish adds a sweet, almost caramelized depth that plays against the sourness. Warm and soothing, the kind of bowl you eat slowly with bread. Tangy without being sharp, rich without being heavy.
Yogurt curdles if boiled, so it is whisked smooth — often with a little flour or an egg yolk to stabilize it — and stirred into the soup once it has come off a hard boil, then kept at the barest simmer. The rice and split peas release starch as they cook, thickening the base and giving the soup its body. The fried-onion-and-mint garnish, made separately and spooned over at the end, brings a sweet, toasted contrast to the cool tang of the yogurt.
Variations
Some make it with tiny meatballs (ash-e mast ba koofteh) instead of shredded chicken, others leave out meat entirely. Spinach, dill or chives may join the herb mix; barley or more chickpeas can be added for a heartier bowl. Served hot in winter, it is also eaten cooler in summer, and is sometimes finished with a swirl of kashk alongside the yogurt.
On the Palate
Where Ash-e Mast sits in the Persian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · 30 min
- 140 min
Soak the split peas or chickpeas, then simmer until tender.
- 220 min
Poach the chicken until cooked, then shred or chop it into pieces.
- 330 min
Add the rice to the pot with the legumes and simmer until soft, topping up with water as needed.
- 412 min
Stir in the chopped fresh herbs and cook until they are tender and the broth is fragrant.
- 55 min
Whisk the yogurt smooth with a little flour or an egg yolk to keep it from splitting.
Watch outWhisk the yogurt smooth with a little flour or egg yolk before it goes in — this stabilizes it so it won't curdle into grainy flecks in the hot soup.
- 68 min
Take the soup off a hard boil, stir in the yogurt and the chicken, and keep at the barest simmer.
Watch outTake the soup off a hard boil before adding the yogurt and keep it at the barest simmer after — boil yogurt and it splits.
- 710 min
Separately fry sliced onion until dark, then stir in dried mint off the heat.
- 83 min
Ladle the soup into bowls and spoon the onion-and-mint garnish over the top.
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