Baku Dovğa 🥛

Name: Baku Dovğa
Prep time: 14 min
Cook time: 21 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: Azerbaijani
Ingredients: 300 g spinach; 1 bunch each: dill, cilantro, spring onion, mint, parsley, sorrel (or chives); 600 ml yogurt (matsoni/caspi style), room temperature; 200 ml water or light broth; 3 tbsp rice, cooked soft; 50 g butter; Salt, black pepper; Optional: 1 egg yolk to thicken, dried mint for finishing

A bowl of the Caspian summer: a cold (or barely warm) yogurt soup packed with a dozen chopped greens — spinach, dill, cilantro, mint, chives, sorrel and bay leaves — bound with rice and a swirl of butter. Every Azerbaijani household has its own 'seven-herb' or 'ten-herb' dovğa; Baku grandmothers judge yours silently. It comes to the Nowruz table and every family lunch, bright, tangy and green as the Absheron hills after rain.

Absheron Azerbaijani ⏱ 35 min Easy

Method

1

Blanch spinach 1 minute, squeeze dry, chop fine. Chop every herb as finely as you can — dovğa's texture is a green haze, not a salad.
2

Stir cooked rice into the yogurt with water until pourable but creamy; season with salt and pepper.
3

Fold in all the chopped greens; warm gently over low heat (or serve cold in summer) — never boil, or the yogurt splits. An egg yolk whisked in protects it.
4

Melt the butter until nutty, drizzle over the surface with dried mint; serve in deep bowls.

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Baku Dovğa 🥛

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