Ashure
Known as Noah's pudding — legend has it that it was made from whatever remained in the stores when the flood receded, which is why so many different ingredients share one pot. In practice it is a dessert built on one technique: the wheat is simmered until the grains split and give up their starch, which thickens everything. There is no milk, cream or egg — the creaminess comes from the starch of the wheat and pulses alone.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Soaking 720 min
- Cooking the wheat 90 min
- Dried fruit 40 min
- Chilling 50 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoak the grain and pulses separately
Cover the wheat, chickpeas and beans separately, in cold water, for 12 hours. Separately, because they cook at completely different rates — thrown in together you get either hard wheat or collapsed beans.
Ingredients: 250 g wheat berries · 80 g chickpeas · 80 g white beans · 2500 ml water · 300 g sugar · 1 pinch salt
Cook the wheat until the grains split
Simmer the wheat in plenty of water for 90 minutes, until the grains split and the water turns cloudy and viscous. That cloudiness is starch and it is what thickens the pudding — do not drain it, it is part of the recipe.
Ingredients: 250 g wheat berries · 80 g chickpeas · 80 g white beans · 2500 ml water · 300 g sugar · 1 pinch salt
Split grains, cloudy water — the starch is the thickener.Cook the pulses separately and add them
Cook the chickpeas and beans until tender in separate pans, slip the skins off the chickpeas and add both to the wheat. Skinning takes a quarter of an hour, but the skins are unpleasant in the finished pudding.
Ingredients: 250 g wheat berries · 80 g chickpeas · 80 g white beans · 2500 ml water · 300 g sugar · 1 pinch salt
Add sugar and chopped dried fruit
Add the sugar, the chopped apricots, figs, raisins and orange zest and cook over low heat for 30–40 minutes, stirring often. The sugar goes in only now — added earlier it would slow down the softening of the grains and pulses.
Ingredients: 100 g dried apricots · 80 g dried figs · 80 g raisins · 1 pcs orange · 1 tbsp rose water · 1 tsp cinnamon
Sugar only after the grains are cooked, never before.Thicken to loose porridge
Cook until the mixture is as thick as loose porridge — remember it thickens noticeably more as it cools. If it stiffens too far, add boiling water; if it is thin now, it will be thin cold too.
Ingredients: 250 g wheat berries · 80 g chickpeas · 80 g white beans · 2500 ml water · 300 g sugar · 1 pinch salt
Stir in the rose water off the heat
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the rose water and cinnamon. Off the heat, because the delicate aroma of rose water quickly disappears during cooking.
Ingredients: 100 g dried apricots · 80 g dried figs · 80 g raisins · 1 pcs orange · 1 tbsp rose water · 1 tsp cinnamon
Divide into bowls and cool
Ladle into bowls, smooth the surface and cool 50 minutes to room temperature, then refrigerate. Ashure is usually served chilled — warm, it is looser and more like a sweet soup than a dessert.
Ingredients: 250 g wheat berries · 80 g chickpeas · 80 g white beans · 2500 ml water · 300 g sugar · 1 pinch salt
Decorate generously before serving
Arrange the walnuts, pistachios, pomegranate seeds and sesame on top in concentric circles. The decoration is not ornament: ashure is a dessert for sharing, and a rich top is part of what it means.
Ingredients: 80 g walnuts · 100 g pomegranate seeds · 40 g pistachios · 2 tbsp sesame seeds
Circles of nuts and pomegranate — tradition, not garnish.
Before you start
A dessert for giving away
Ashure is made in a large pot and carried round to neighbours — hence the twelve portions and hence the custom that the recipe is never small. You can halve it, but it loses the point.
Substitutes for wheat berries
If you cannot find hulled wheat, use pearl barley — it cooks faster (50 minutes) and gives similar viscosity. Rice gives a different result: a pudding-like mass without the springy, distinct grains.
Four days in the fridge
Ashure keeps four days and thickens daily — loosen with a spoonful of water before serving. Add the decoration fresh, since nuts on a damp pudding soften within hours.
