One of the festivities leading to Naw-Rúz is Cháhárshanbe-Souri, an ancient Iranian festival dating back to at least 600+ BC, from the early Zoroastrian Era.
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Cháhárshanbe-Souri (Wednesday Feast/Festival of Fire) takes place on the eve of the last Wednesday of the year (this year it falls on Tuesday, March 19, after dark). The word sour (pronounced sūr) means feast/treat or more plausibly, consider sour to be a variant of sorkh (red), referring either to the ‘fire’ itself or to the ruddiness (sorkhī), meaning good health.
Cháhárshanbe-Souri is a prelude to Naw-Rúz. Bonfires are lit to ‘keep the sun alive’ until early morning. The celebration starts in the evening, with people making bonfires in the streets and jumping over them, singing Sorkhi’e to az man, Zardi’e man az to (literal translation: Give me your beautiful red color. Take back my sickly/yellow pallor! – interpreting it as wanting the fire to take one’s illness/problems and in return give health/energy). It is a purification rite. Although it has Zoroastrian religious significance, cháhárshanbe-souri serves as a cultural festival for Iranian people of all religious ancestries and backgrounds.
Another tradition on this day is to make special ájil (mixed nuts and dried fruits/berries). People wear disguises and go door-to-door, knocking on doors as in Halloween’s trick-or-treating. Receiving ájil is customary… as is receiving a bucket of cold water.
Coming in from the cold outdoors, what best satisfies the appetite is ásh, in this case, ásh’e reshteh (herb and noodle soup). Here is a Youtube easy ásh’e reshteh recipe, using canned beans, which is just fine (usually, dried beans are cooked from scratch).
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Ásh’e reshteh ingredients used in the video:
• 1 med onion + 3 med onions caramelized
• 2 garlic cloves
• vegetable oil
• 15 oz (400 gr) chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils
• 1 bunch each, leek chives, cilantro, dill, parsley, spinach
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• hot water
• 14 oz / 400 gr noodles (reshteh)
• whey (kashk)
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So, what’s cooking in your kitchen?
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Cháhárshanbe-Souri sounds like a special festival. Both your sweet and savory recipes include many of my favorite things! This is a holiday I need to celebrate!
That’s easy to make. We make indian food that makes use of canned chickpeas, lentils, beans, etc… the recipe is similar. I think I’ll try this. We have turmeric at home. Thanks !!!!!
Your posts are always so interesting,Fae! I learn so much from you and this recipe is wonderful…as are all I have seen so far!
I’m a fan of legumes and this looks like a very pleasing vegetarian dish with nice textures and flavors. Very interesting story. Liked the video too. Going to check out the other videos on that channel.
Hi Fae, I’m so glad you included the video in your post. What a delicious looking soup and I think healthy as well.
This sounds really tasty! I’m hungry now.
Fae, this looks delicious and I love the video! Chick peas and kidney beans are my favorite! And with all the other ingredients.., absolutely stunning!
You probably won’t be surprise by this: there are a lot of caramelised onions being used…oh, yes!
Probably my favorite part of Norooz! A few people were telling us that it was last night and I was like: what! Glad to read that you confirm that it is the 19th this year. That’s what I thought as well. I had totally forgotten about the ajeel and cold water thing. LOL! It does resemble Halloween a good deal, doesn’t it? Thanks for a great post Fae!
I bet that soup is yummy! I was watching the video with my 12 year-old daughter, thinking that we should make this. Happy Holidays Fae!
I love ash e reshteh. I forgot how to make it, it’s been many years. Thank you for posting the recipe.