How to make Afghan Ashak dumplings

Ashak is an Afghan vegetarian dumpling filled with leek and coriander, covered by two sauces. One of them is made of tomato, garlic, and chana dal (split chickpea lentils), and another sauce is made of yogurt and garlic.

If you are not a fan of vegetarian foods, you can add beef mince to the tomato sauce. The main taste of Aushak is garlic and leek. If you do not enjoy them, maybe Ashak can not be your favorite food.

Ashak is an easy food to cook, and you can cook it very fast if you use wonton wrappers. But if you can not find it, do not worry. I will teach you how to make dough instead of wonton wrappers for your Ashak dumplings.

Ashak recipe ingredients

In this section, I introduce the main ingredients of Ashak food. For more details and the required amount of each ingredient, please look at the recipe card.

Leek

Leek is a vegetable, and it is in the onion family. This vegetable is one of the main ingredients of Ashak food. But washing it is hard, and it is mostly dirty because it has many layers. There is a good way to wash the leek. At first, wash the whole leek. Then cut it into small pieces. After cutting, wash the slices again because they have dirt or sand. Watch them again and if they are still dirty, wash them one more time.

Chana dal (split yellow pea)

Chana dal is half peas. The peas are dried after harvesting, and their skin gets taken off. Then they will be split in half with a machine. Split yellow pea, called lappeh in Persian. It is mostly used in Persian foods like Gheimeh stew and Gheimeh bademjan stew.

To use chana dal, you should wash and soak it for about 30 minutes and then cook it.

Ashak recipe

Ashak dough recipe

The toughest part of cooking Aushak is making dough. If you find wonton wrappers, it would be an easy food, and you do not need to make dough.

For making dough:

1. Pour 480 gr of flour and 1 tbsp of salt, and ½ tbsp of oil in a large bowl.
2. Add about 1 cup of water slowly while mixing and kneading them for about 10 minutes till making a smooth and elastic dough.
3. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 45 minutes in the refrigerator.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces and roll them in the floured workspace. Then put it into a pasta maker machine. Start it first with the biggest number and roll the dough with flour in the machine. Step by step, reduce the number to 3. Finally, cut the dough into circles that are equal to your palm or 6 cm squares.

If you do not have a pasta machine, you can make your dough thinner by rolling pin into 3 mm thick dough and then cutting it into circles or squares. But it takes too long!

Ashak filling

Wash 450 gr leeks and chop them into small pieces. Wash the leek pieces again because they are almost dirty. Add ¼ cup of chopped coriander, ½ tbsp salt, ½ tbsp black pepper, and 1 tbsp soft butter or vegetable oil to the leeks and mix them completely.

For making the dumplings, put 1 tbsp of the filling mixture in the center of the dough. Moisture edge of dough with a little water and seal edges on each other.

Bring a pot of boiling water with salt. Add Ashak dumplings to the boiling water. Let the dumplings boil for 4-5 minutes.

Tomato and garlic sauce with chana dal

For making the tomato sauce for Ashak, you should first wash and soak ½ cup of chana dal for 30 minutes (if you can not find it, use pea or bean instead). Chop 1 big onion and 1-2 cloves garlic into small pieces and sauté them with 2 tbsp vegetable oil. If you want to add meat to your food, add 400 gr minced meat and sauté it with onion and garlic. Add soaked chana dal into the pan. Then add ½ tbsp turmeric, ½ tbsp salt, and ¼ tsp red pepper and stir well. After stirring, add ½ cup of can diced tomato or a mix of tomato paste with water to the sauce. Add ½ cup of boiling water to the sauce, cover the pan, and let them cook for 30 – 40 minutes with low heat.

Yogurt and garlic sauce

Pour ½ cup of yogurt into a bowl. Chop 1 clove of garlic completely and add it to the yogurt. Add 1-2 tbsp dried mint and ½ tbsp salt to the yogurt sauce, and mix well. Finally, add 100 ml water into the bowl and make it diluted. Your yogurt sauce is ready!

How to serve Ashak?

To serve Ashak:

1. Bring a platter and moisture it with 2 tbsp of yogurt sauce.
2. Set Ashak dumplings on the garlic sauce.
3. Pour tomato sauce on the Ashak and then pour yogurt sauce on it.

Your Afghan Ashak dish is ready!

More Afghan recipes:

• Borani Banjan recipe (Afghan eggplant with yogurt sauce)
• Mantu Recipe (Afghan Beef Ravioli)
• Afghan cilantro Sauce recipe

Did you make this recipe?

• please let me know how it was by leaving a comment!
• You can ask me questions about Ashak in the comments. I will answer your questions as soon as possible.
• I would love to see your Ashak! please tag me with @cookingcounty on Facebook or Instagram and make me happy!