Name: Spiced Mung Bean and Meatball Soup (Ash-e-Mash)
Cuisine: Persian
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon each cinnamon and cumin; 500 g minced lamb; 1 teaspoon ground turmeric; ½ bunch each coriander and parsley, washed and chopped roughly; 1 leek, cleaned and chopped; 2 cloves garlic, chopped; 4–5 cloves garlic; salt and pepper; 300 g mung beans, washed and picked through; 2 green chillis, or ½ habanero chilli; 2 medium onions, 1 chopped, 1 grated; 1 tablespoon kashk or yoghurt; 3–4 chopped tomatoes, and 1 tablespoon tomato paste; 2 onions; ½ teaspoon ground chilli; 1 bunch spinach, washed and chopped roughly

Preparation info

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Persia in Peckham

By Sally Butcher

Published 2007

About

I don’t really think we do enough with the little mung bean – he’s pretty, and incredibly versatile. It doesn’t help that someone gave him the wrong name – he’s actually a pea trying to compete in a big bean world. He’s very nutritious, and has the advantage of being a pulse that cooks relatively quickly. Mung beans are part of Persian cuisine, but more in the east of the country – they are extremely important in neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many of my customers have never made th