Abdoogh Khiar Soup (Origin, Recipe, Calories)

Abdoogh Khiar, simply meaning Cucumber Buttermilk in Persian, is a traditional Iranian cold soup usually served in the hot days of summer. The cold soup’s main ingredients include yogurt, cucumbers, mint, and dill. The ancients believed that every season had its own special food. That is, depending on the available ingredients, such as vegetables and ripe fruits of that specific season, the variety of food also changes, and just when the weather starts to warm up, people learn to make cucumber buttermilk or Abdoogh Khiar. For this reason, Abdoogh Khiar brings a lot of memories of summer days for all Iranians. As a popular food consumed mostly in the summer, Abdoogh Khiar is one of the healthiest dishes that can provide you with sufficient fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

Abdoogh Khiar Recipe

The Abdoogh Khiar ingredients are very simple and easy to find. All you need to prepare the perfect Persian Abdoogh Khiar Soup are:

• Full Fat Stirred Yogurt or Greek-style yogurt – 2 cups
• White Mint Buttermilk with Thyme (Iranian Doogh) – ½ Liter
• Water and Ice cubes – 2 cups
• White Breakfast Cream – 2 tablespoons
• Cucumber – 2
• Salt – 1 teaspoon
• Raisins (Optional) – ¼ cup
• Ground Walnuts – ¼ cup
• Chopped and Fresh Fragrant Herbs (Mint, Parsley, Basil, Dill, Tarragon, and Chives) – ½ cup for each herb
• Damask Roses – 2 teaspoons
• Mint (Crushed and Dried) – 2 teaspoons
• Bread of your choice (Dry bread is socked inside the soup when it is ready for serving)

In general, the main vegetables in Abdoogh Khiar are mint, basil, tarragon, chives, and radish, but depending on your taste, the last two may be optional. If you don’t have fresh vegetables, you can also use dry vegetables to prepare cucumber buttermilk soup.

Abdoogh Khiar Soup

Steps to make the delicious Abdoogh Khiar soup:

1. Initial Preparations – To prepare a flavorful cucumber buttermilk soup, you must first prepare its ingredients. Chop the two cucumbers with or without the skin as desired. Then, chop the vegetables and herbs such as mint, parsley, basil, tarragon, and chives, grind the walnuts, and prepare the other ingredients as needed. Choose a large bowl to serve Abdoogh Khiar and place all the ingredients inside it.
2. Preparing the yogurt and the buttermilk – In the second step of preparing Abdoogh Khiar, first, stir the full-fat yogurt until you see a smooth texture. If you wish, you can add two tablespoons of breakfast cream to the yogurt. Adding cream is not mandatory, but it will make the taste of your cucumber buttermilk unique and tasty. Then, add the two cups of water to the yogurt and stir gently.
3. Adding the yogurt to your ingredients – Once you have the ground walnuts, you can add the raisins and salt to the yogurt and cream mixture. Add the chopped cucumbers you cut into pieces earlier, together with the chopped herbs into the rest of the ingredients. Finally, add a glass of mint buttermilk (Mint Persian Doogh) and thyme to the mixture in the buttermilk container and stir until the ingredients are completely mixed.
4. Adding fresh and chopped vegetables to this mixture makes the dish more delicious. You can add onion or chives of your choice, and finally, the ice cubes to the cold soup to refresh your soul on hot summer days. At the same time, if you like, you can add two tablespoons of Ziziphora water to your cucumber buttermilk at the very end. Ziziphora has many properties, and it helps absorb food better and prevent heartburn after meals.
5. Lastly, use dry bread pieces and let them soak for a bit, and now you are ready to enjoy this traditional Persian cucumber buttermilk dish. Bon Appetite!

Abdoogh Khiar Calories and Health Benefits

The nutritional values and benefits of ingredients in Abdoogh Khiar per serving:

Mint is a highly beneficial herb to improves digestive health, prevents infections, reduces allergic reactions, helps brain function, alleviates common cold symptoms, and masks bad breath, decreasing breastfeeding pain. Consuming mint water is typical in Iran to treat an ill digestive system and stomach aches.

Abdoogh Khiar Recipe

Basil can reduce the risk of heart disease and block calcium channels, resulting in lower blood pressure via the eugenol in basil. Using Basil essential oils will aid in lowering your cholesterol and triglycerides. In addition, basils contain magnesium, which improves blow flow by relaxing muscles and blood vessels.

Tarragon, like other herbs and greens with benefits, can help inflammation and pain, reduce blood sugar, and improve sleep cycles. It can also benefit you by improving your appetite and heart health.

Parsley is a true healer! It has a multitude of benefits. Parsley can strengthen the immune system like mint, help and manage diabetes, treat urinary tract infections, improve blood pressure, promote better eyesight and vision, Prevent and treat anemia and iron deficiency, treat fluid retentions, protect your skin, and finally prevent the appearance of kidney stones.

Chives are nutrient greens with low calories. They are rich in vitamins like K, C, and A, as well as folate, calcium, and potassium. Chives’ benefits can include improving mood and sleep, preventing cancer, helping cognitive function, depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease and stroke, eye health, and inflammation.

Yogurt in the Abdoogh Khiar Soup is also a source of calcium and protein for the body and a factor in relieving insomnia at night, so in order for your meal to be low-calorie and low-fat, you can use low-fat yogurt.

Raisins are also a good choice for flavoring this food. Raisins are a medicine for children’s growth and an energizer for the elderly. This nutritious fruit is high in energy, low in fat, and low in sodium, but even though it is high in sugar and calories, due to its high potassium content, it is recommended to not be consumed by people with high blood pressure.

The use of walnuts is also highly recommended because potassium, phosphorus, and folic acid are among its most prominent nutrients. This healthy nut reduces cholesterol in the blood, and by being rich in vitamins, it leads to relief of weakness and fatigue.

Abdoogh Khiar Soup

Iranian cucumber buttermilk is one of the types of cold soups that are used a lot for the summer season and to prevent heatstroke. But its preparation can change depending on the ingredients available at home, and actually, its preparation is a matter of taste.

For example, some people like to know how to make a more sophisticated Abdoogh Khiar soup, but sometimes you may want only plain yogurt and cucumber with only mint and basil. But it is good to follow some tips to have a tasty cucumber Yogurt soup for your family or guests.

Where Did Abdoogh Khiar First Originate From?

The history of Abdoogh Khiar goes back to the city of Shiraz. There are similar dishes to this type of food in many countries like Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, and Armenia. However, cold soups are prepared in these countries with a slight change in ingredients.

Final Word

Abdoogh Khiar, or Cold Cucumber and Yogurt Soup, is a Persian soup made with yogurt, cucumbers, mint, and dill. It’s a refreshing and cold soup that’s perfect for hot summer days. The yogurt gives the soup a creamy texture, while the cucumbers and herbs add a burst of freshness and flavor. This soup is often served as a palate cleanser between courses or as a light and healthy meal option.

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