The World That Was - Achaemenid Persian Spinach and Herb Soup

 Hello and Welcome to The World That Was!

This week, I'll be making a spinach and herb soup from Achaemenid Persia! Although spinach was not explicitly recorded in this period - it's not unlikely that green leaves like these were used in dishes, simply going by the name "greens" in modern translations.

In any case, let's now take a look at the World That Was! Follow along with my YouTube video, above!

Ingredients (for about four small bowls of soup)

100g spinach leaves

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

200g chickpeas, drained

200g kidney beans, drained

1 cup parsley, minced

1 cup coriander, minced (or use another cup of parsley)

turmeric

ground coriander

ground cumin

salt

pepper

oil

Method

1 - Prepare Onion and Chickpeas

To begin with, we need to chop and mince our onion. Then, go pour some olive oil into a pot, and place it over a medium high heat. When the oil is shimmering, toss your onion into the pot and let it cook away for about 5 minutes - or until it becomes soft and translucent, and very fragrant. At this point, toss in your drained chickpeas and let them cook for another 5 minutes, or until they start to crisp up a little.

Finally, crush a couple of cloves of garlic into your pot, along with some turmeric, some ground coriander, and some ground cumin. Turmeric was known to the Persian world since the Bronze Age, but it seemingly was used mainly for dyeing cloth - but it may have been used in dishes like these too.

2 - Simmer the Soup, Chop the Herbs

After stirring the spices and chickpeas around until they're fragrant, add in 500ml of water, or a broth of your choice, to the pot. Bring everything to a boil over a high heat. When it hits a rolling boil, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

While its simmering, go chop your parsley and coriander. If coriander tastes like soap to you too, you can substitute this with more parsley. Fenugreek also works really well here too.

When your herbs have been chopped, toss them into your pot. Also add in your drained kidney beans to your soup.

3 - Cook the Soup

Cover the pot and let everything simmer away for about 15-20 minutes. Or until your spinach leaves have wrinkled up and shrunk from the heat slightly. Serve up while it's hot, and eat this with some flatbread.

The finished dish is very herbal and fragrant. Its very filling yet simple to make, and really seems like a predecessor to Ghormeh sabzi - a modern Persian stew made in a similar way - just with the addition of meat. This suggests a continuity of culinary traditions that was adapted to suit the increasing prevalence of easy-to-acquire meat in the region. Chickpeas and beans are two staples for the near and middle east, with cultivation of these plants going back to the Bronze Age - so they're a great addition here. Keep in mind that if you want a crisper chickpea here, you can soak dried ones overnight in some water - before adding them as usual here.