Ashure Recipe (Noah's Pudding)

Aşure has a special place among all Turkish desserts as it has a story behind it. It is always made in big amounts and shared with lots of friends and neighbors. This is what makes aşure different from famous easy baklava and kunefe dessert.

And if you like creamy puddings, check out Turkish sutlac and keskul pudding too!

History Of Ashure

Just like Ramadan gullac, this asure recipe is very special among muslims. They especially make this dessert on a special Ashura day. They believe that a lot of miracles happened on that day. God forgave Adam on that day, Noah and other living things on his boat were saved from flood on that day, Yunus was taken from the stomach of a fish, Musa passed over Red Sea, and Jesus was born, saved from death and uprose alive to heavens on the same day, and some other miraculous events.

Because of these miracles, it’s a common tradition to celebrate the day of Ashura (tenth of Muharram month in Islamic calendar) with a dessert called ashure (pronounced a-shur-a) within 20 days in that month. Islamic calendar is based on moon, so it is 10 days shorter than Gregorian calendar. As a result, the date of this day changes every year. Turkish people are mostly muslims and every chef has their own ashure recipe.

However, people don’t wait for that special day to make this dessert even though it is based on some religious events as it is very delicious.

Ashura Dessert In Turkish Culture

Aşure has an important role in Turkish culture. Traditionally, people make it to share it with neighbors. You have an idea about each one's asure recipe this way. On these days, it’s very ordinary to hear your door bell and see a neighbor with a bowl of asure in her hand. You immediately take it thankfully and clean the bowl and give it back. If you don’t give the bowl back at that moment, you return it full of something else on another day. This is a part of Turkish culture. Whenever a neighbor brings something, you return that bowl full on another day.

Aşure Ingredients

Aşure is mainly made with wheat berries, legumes like white beans and chickpeas, rice and dried fruit of your choice. In addition to these ingredients, you can put almost anything you like in the pot. For example, nuts or fresh fruit enrich the dessert perfectly.

Also, you can flavor it with orange or lemon zest to have a subtle refreshing flavor.

Another type of ingredient for flavor is cloves or rosewater. These two make a remarkable effect on this unique Middle East pudding recipe.

Story of ingredients: Noah’s ark was finally saved from the huge flood and landed on Mount Ararat. To thank god, Noah and other living things fasted that day. And at the end of that day, they cook ed this dessert with the foods they could save from flood. That’s why you may not associate these ingredients with any kind of dessert. You can also use additional ingredients depending on your taste to create your own asure recipe.

More Middle Eastern Desserts