This refreshing cold yogurt soup (abdoogh khiar), made with cooling ingredients and served icy cold, is the perfect light lunch on a hot day. I enjoy it all summer, and I always have the best naps after eating it. You can make the yogurt mixture ahead and keep it in the fridge, then dish out a bowl whenever you like. Though optional, the rose petals make it pretty and quintessentially Persian. You can usually find food-safe dried rose petals in Middle Eastern supermarkets.
Preparation Details
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: Not available
Total Time: 25 mins
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 2 cups Greek-style yogurt
- 2 teaspoons crushed dried mint
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups cold water, or more as needed
- 2 Persian cucumbers, diced
- ½ cup chopped fresh mint
- ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
- ¼ cup raisins
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts
- 2 teaspoons ground dried Persian rose petals (Optional)
- ice cubes
- 2 pita bread rounds, or to taste
Steps
- Combine yogurt, 2 teaspoons dried mint, and salt in a blender; purée with enough of the 2 cups water to create a smooth, thin soup. It will thicken somewhat when bread added.
- Divide cucumbers, 1/2 cup fresh mint, parsley, raisins, and walnuts among four bowls.
- Divide yogurt mixture among four bowls.
- Top with rose petals; add a few ice cubes to each bowl.
- Tear bread into small pieces; add some to each bowl. Let bread soak 5 to 7 minutes before serving cold.
