Nura’s recipe
This is a “poor man’s” soup—very basic and cheap to prepare, yet quite satisfying. It is served in an interesting manner.
Servings: About 4
Ingredients
Beef bone with meat
1 onion, quartered
1/4 c. garbanzo or white beans
1/4 c. yellow split peas
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 c. chopped tomatoes or juice
2 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 Oman lime, or 1/3 fresh lime
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt
Turmeric
Instructions
Step 1: Soak the beans overnight. Discard the water.
Step 2: Boil the meat bone, beans, salt and pepper in 4-5 cups of water for 1.5 hours.
Step 3: Add the split peas, quartered onion, potatoes, tomatoes, lime (with peel if using fresh), and a sprinkle of turmeric. Simmer for 45 minutes.
Step 4: Pour off the broth into a serving bowl. Remove the bones and skim any fat off.
Step 5: With a potato masher, mash the meat scraps, potatoes, onion, tomatoes, and beans. Put the mashed mixture into a serving bowl.
To serve, put a big scoop of the mashed mixture in the center of a bowl, and pour some broth over it.
Recipe © Nura Amerson 1991
Layli’s Reflections
I have to admit, I found the idea of ab-gusht odd at first. I like to keep my food categories separate (perhaps a mild form of brumotactillophobia), so serving a mash in the midst of stock sounded gastronomically blasphemous! But, to my pleasant surprise, this hybrid dish turned out to be quite tasty.
As I was unable to find a soup bone, I used chopped steak, which admittedly made my creation less of a “poor man’s” soup. (I couldn’t bring myself to mash the meat into the potato-bean mixture, so the steak stayed in the broth.) I also used cumin to add some more flavor. In the end, it was rather fun to eat Potato Island in the depths of the Broth Sea.
Layli Maria Miron 