Ashure or Aşure is also known as Noah's pudding. It is one of the popular desserts in Middle Eastern cuisine. It is made with wheat berries, legumes, fresh and dried fruit. It makes a wonderful breakfast porridge too.
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 cuisine. 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
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📖 Recipe
Ashure Recipe (Noah's Pudding)
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup wheat berries
- ½ cup chickpeas
- 1¾ cups sugar
- ½ cup white beans
- ¼ cup rice
- 1 cup raisin
- ½ cup dried fruit we use figs and almonds, diced
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
Garnish:
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup pomegranate seeds
- 6 medium fresh figs
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
INSTRUCTIONS
- Soak wheat berries, beans, chickpeas and raisin in separate bowls overnight (at least 8 hours before cooking).
- Drain wheat and put it in a pot, fill it with water (about 6 cups) and bring it to boil. Take the foams with a sieve and let it simmer for 40 minutes or until very tender.
- Strain beans and chickpeas and cook them in another pot until tender.
- Wash and drain rice. Add it in the simmering wheat. Cook it over medium low heat until rice is tender. Stir occasionally.
- When water in wheat and rice mixture is about to get thicker (like creamy soup), add sugar, chickpeas and beans. You might need to extra water if it is too thick. Use hot water.
- Slice orange zest in small pieces or just grate it and add into the pot.
- Lastly, add in raisins, chopped apricots and dried figs into the mixture. Keep stirring. Cook it for another 5 minutes and remove from heat.
- Pour it into small bowls, let them cool completely and chill.
- Garnish with cinnamon, pomegranate seeds, fresh figs and pepitas.
NOTES
NUTRITION
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
ADDITIONAL INFO
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Fatima says
My favorite dessert EVER!
Yusuf says
Hi Fatima,
It makes a great breakfast too!
dokuzuncubulut says
Ne kadar güzel anlatmışsın Zerrin'ciğim. Kapıyı açıp da bir tabak aşureyle karşılaşmak ne keyifli bir duygudur. Bu sene yapamadım, yapan hiçbir arkadaşıma denk gelmedim:(( Aşure fotoğrafı görünce içim gidiyor resmen. Şu tadilat işlerini bitireyim hemen yapıp doya doya yiyeceğim... Ellerine sağlık olsun, sevgiler:)
Aysun says
Last weekend was the weekend for asure for my family, i always cook it onçe a year. İ strongly advise this diffenet taste to the ones who have never tried before.
Zerrin says
And isn't it a great part of culture, teaching the importance of sharing? It is beyond a pudding!
Megan says
I would never thought to put chickpeas in a pudding. I'd heard you were suppose to never return an empty dish and now I know where that all stemmed from. Thanks for the great post!
Maria says
Great pudding recipe. Thanks for sharing.