Name: Fruit Soup (Ash-e-Miveh)
Cuisine: Persian
Ingredients: 1 small bunch each of coriander, parsley, spinach and chives (or spring onions); a little oil for frying; salt and pepper; 150 g yellow sultanas or raisins; 200 g aloo bokhara (dried yellow plums) or prunes; 100 g barberries (or cranberries); 1 lb minced lamb; 1 teaspoon ground turmeric; 1 teaspoon each oregano and mint; 100 g each of dried chick peas, red kidney beans and mung beans (or you can use canned instead); 1 small onion, grated; 1 small onion, chopped; 1 small apple, finely chopped; yoghurt (optional); 1½ tablespoons dried mint; ½ teaspoon ground turmeric; 1 large onion; 150 g dried apricots (try to get the chopped, dried variety rather than the gooey, often sulphur-coated Turkish-style ones)

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Persia in Peckham

By Sally Butcher

Published 2007

About

This is lots of fun, and has a guaranteed ‘ooh-aah’ factor. It encapsulates both the enterprising and the thrifty nature of Persian cuisine, as it enables the mid-winter chef to produce a sensational and nutritious store-cupboard soup bursting with the flavours of all the seasons. It looks complex at first reading, but is really quite a doddle. It is one of those joyous recipes that you can adapt to what’s lurking in your pantry at any given time. You can use dried herbs, thus sticking to t