🇮🇷 Iran
Doogh
دوغ · dūgh
The salted yogurt drink of the kabab table — cold, minty, sometimes fizzy, always in a pitcher full of ice.
Serves 4
Photo to come
Ingredients
- 1½ cups whole-milk plain yogurt, whisked smooth
- 2 cups cold water
- 1 cup club soda (optional, for the fizzy school)
- Salt, to taste — start small, it should be savory, not briny
- A good pinch of dried mint · a pinch of crushed dried rose petals
- Plenty of ice
Method
- Whisk the yogurt until completely smooth.
- Gradually whisk in the water (and soda, if fizzing).
- Season with salt and the dried mint; add the rose petals.
- Pour into a pitcher over plenty of ice — the melting ice is part of the recipe, thinning it as you drink.
- Serve very cold, beside kabab.
The family table
Iran’s daily drink and kabab’s inseparable companion — some drink it still, some fizzy, and homemade lets you rescue it from the aggressive salt of the store bottles. In the Hamadan hills the traditional doogh herbs run past mint into wild celery, thyme and mountain herbs with no English names. Thicker or thinner is a family matter; the ice is not.
Yumma
Middle Eastern home cooking, organized by country. Your family’s version is the one that counts.