High protein anti-inflammatory noodle soup (aush reshteh) 👩🏻‍🍳

Today we're going to make a high-protein, anti-inflammatory soup that I grew up literally eating all the time. There was always a really big pot of this simmering away on the stove. And it's a Persian noodle soup that's called Ashreshteh. Just to share how much of a staple this dish is, the Farsi word for chef is ashpaz, which literally means the person who cooks ash. And every single family has a different way of making this, but today I'm going to share with how my mom made it for us growing up. So let's get started. The heart and soul of this dish are the legumes. They're packed with nutrients, and they have so many compounds that help to reduce inflammation in the body. They're rich in antioxidants, fiber, and minerals, and as an added bonus, they're a great source of plant proteins as well. Usually we use pre-cooked beans for our recipes because we're trying to speed things along, but today we're going to do it the traditional way, and we're going to cook everything from dry. So for this recipe, we're going to need half of a cup each of dry chickpeas, kidney beans, mung beans, and brown or green lentils. Either is fine. The chickpeas and kidney beans, we're going to add to the same bowl and then cover it with plenty of water. And then in a separate bowl, we're going to add the lentils and mung beans, and similarly covering it with loads of water. Then we're going to let these soak overnight. The next day, you're going to see that the legumes have already increased significantly in volume. A benefit of soaking legumes like this is that it makes certain minerals like iron, magnesium, and calcium more easy for our bodies to absorb. But one little tip, if you want to reduce the gas-producing compounds that are in legumes, try to replace the soaking water a couple of times if you can. This is going to be especially helpful if you're someone who is sensitive to the gassiness that these can bring. When you're ready to get cooking, just drain off the soaking water and add the drained chickpeas and kidney beans to a large pot. Then add in two and a half liters of water and let the mixture come to a boil uncovered. Once it starts boiling, you're going to see some foam starting to form on the surface. Just use a spatula to scoop this off. Then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cover the pot completely with a lid. Now we're going to let that cook for about 50 to 60 minutes. And while it's simmering away, we're going to prep our aromatics. This involves chopping two medium onions and thinly slicing eight cloves of garlic. Next, we're going to add a third of a cup of neutral vegetable oil to a large pan. This is more oil than we usually use in any pick-up lines recipes. I just kind of wanted to make this the authentic way. If you want to use less oil, go for it. To the pan, we're also going to add the chopped onions and half of a teaspoon of salt, which helps to draw some water out of the onions, helping them cook faster. We'll just cook this all until it's lightly golden, and then we can add in the garlic and cook that until it's golden as well. And now comes the part where we're going to add two spices that gives ash its characteristic flavor and color. We're going to add a tablespoon of dried mint leaves and half of a tablespoon of golden anti-inflammatory ground turmeric. Now just stir and toast this for 20 seconds and then remove it from the heat. We're going to reserve half of the mixture that we're going to set aside in a bowl for later, and the other half we're going to add to the large pot containing the beans. After the beans have been cooking for nearly an hour, just give them a taste test to see if they're mostly cooked through. They don't have to be completely cooked through, because at this stage we're going to actually add in the drained mung beans and lentils, bring the pot back to a boil, reduce to a gentle simmer, cover fully with a lid, and let this cook for another 15 minutes. While that last bit is cooking up, we're going to start chopping our greens. Just a little tip, if you do have access to a Persian or Turkish grocery store, I'd recommend buying your greens from there because you get big bundles like this for a fraction of the cost. So now we're going to very finely chop up a small handful of fresh parsley. Feel free to use up the stems as well. We'll also chop some fresh cilantro and some spinach. Lastly we'll thinly slice an optional stalk of green onion, and now you can set aside all of these greens. We're going to return to the pot now and we're going to add in some noodles. This is called reshteh. It's a bit saltier, a bit starchier than regular Italian noodles, but if you can't find a Persian supermarket nearby you, you can use linguine noodles instead. We'll snap about 100 grams of the noodles in half and add them to the pot, and then just cook this for about seven to eight minutes or until al dente. The benefit of these noodles is that they leach some of their starch into the cooking water, and that helps to thicken the soup a little bit, but if you find that the soup is thickening too much, just add a bit more water. At the very end we're going to add in all of our chopped greens, along with half of a tablespoon of salt, two teaspoons of dried fenugreek, and a bit of black pepper. We're going to cook this all for just another couple of minutes. So I just checked, this soup is super nutritious. I think because of the legumes and all the different greens in there, but there's over 25 grams of protein and over seven grams of iron per serving, and this is also going to be a shameless plug for our app, but if you are interested in more high iron and high protein recipes, we've got a filter for that. If you want to try out one week for free, check out the link in the description box below. For now, let's plate up our soup. Traditionally, ash is served with something called gurut or cash. It's this really potent tasting fermented dairy product, but to make this plant-based, we're just going to be using some unsweetened soy yogurt instead. And don't forget to garnish it with a reserved onion and garlic mixture. You can always also serve it with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. And now this dish is ready to enjoy. It feels super special sharing this with you today because this is my childhood right here. If you do give it a try, I hope you enjoy it. The full breakdown, the link is in the description box below. Thanks for hanging with me today, friends. I really appreciate it. Pick Up Lime signing off, I'll see you in the next video. Wow, this looks exactly like how like exactly like how your mother makes it. What a compliment. High protein anti-inflammatory soup that I grew up literally eating. If you can't find a local Persian supermarket, then feel free to use linguine noodles instead. I used to do that all the time before I found where to find these in our city. Why did I keep talking? That was perfect. You can always just use dry linguine noodles instead. This is a failure. And a little tip, if you've got a little little tip. I love it. Come on, it's adding more energy. More energy, more passion, more footwork. Have you seen this song? Good. Do you need me to do it again or is that okay?