Aushak

Afghan dumplings filled with chopped gandana leek, laid on garlicky yoghurt and topped with spiced minced lamb and dried mint

Origin: Kabul & Afghanistan

From the journey of Leek.

Aushak is a dumpling defined entirely by what is inside it, and what is inside it is greens. Gandana, the Afghan allium the dish is built on, is chopped fine, salted, wrung out, and packed raw into thin wrappers with nothing but chilli and pepper for company; the flavour is grassy, sharp, and unmistakably oniony, and it is the whole point of the dish. Nothing else in the Afghan repertoire tastes like it. A word on the plant, since it matters at the market. Gandana is usually translated as Afghan leek, and leek is the standard substitute in the diaspora, but the plant is closer to a flat-leaved garlic chive than to a European leek: narrow, soft, and used by the bunch rather than the stalk. Recipes written abroad reach for leeks, spring onion tops, or Chinese garlic chives, and cooks argue about which is nearest. Chives give the right sharpness and leeks the right body, which is why many households use both. The assembly is a three-layer construction and the order is fixed. Garlicky yoghurt goes down first and is spread across the base of the dish; the boiled dumplings are laid on it; a spiced lamb qorma is spooned over; more yoghurt goes on top; and the whole is finished with dried mint crushed between the palms. It is served warm rather than hot, and the yoghurt is deliberately not heated, since the contrast of cool yoghurt against hot dumplings is half of what the dish is doing. Aushak's twin is mantu, which uses the same wrappers and the same yoghurt but fills them with onion and beef, and Afghan households make both. The division is roughly that mantu is steamed and aushak is boiled, and that aushak is the vegetarian half of the pair until the meat sauce goes over it.

Ingredients

Dough

400 g plain flour
1 tsp salt
220 ml warm water, approximately

Filling

500 g gandana, or 2 leeks plus a large bunch of garlic chives, very finely chopped
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp red chilli flakes
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp oil

Qorma

400 g minced lamb or beef
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tsp ground coriander
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
200 ml water

Yoghurt

500 g thick natural yoghurt
3 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with salt

To finish

2 tsp dried mint

Method

Make the dough: mix the flour and salt, work in the water to a firm dough, knead for eight minutes until smooth, then rest it covered for thirty minutes.
Chop the greens as finely as you can. Toss them with the 1.5 tsp of salt and leave them in a colander for twenty minutes.
Squeeze the salted greens hard in your hands or in a cloth. A surprising amount of water comes out, and any left behind will burst the dumplings.
Mix the wrung greens with the chilli, pepper, and oil. Taste: it should be sharp and well seasoned, since the yoghurt will mute it.
Make the qorma: fry the onion until golden, add the mince and brown it properly, then the tomato purée, coriander, and turmeric. Add the water and simmer for twenty-five minutes until thick.
Stir the crushed garlic into the yoghurt with a pinch of salt and set it aside at room temperature. It must not be cold when the dumplings go on it.
Roll the dough as thin as you can manage, in batches, and cut it into 8cm rounds.
Put a heaped teaspoon of filling on each round, fold into a half-moon, and press the edges firmly. They can also be pinched into a pleated purse.
Boil them in well-salted water in batches for five or six minutes, until they float and the wrapper turns translucent. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and drain.
Spread half the garlic yoghurt across a wide warm platter. Lay the drained dumplings on it in a single layer.
Spoon the hot lamb qorma over the middle, dot the remaining yoghurt around, and crush the dried mint between your palms over the whole dish.
Serve at once, warm rather than scalding. The yoghurt is never heated.

Notes

Wringing the greens is the step that decides whether this works: unsqueezed filling releases water into the wrapper during boiling and the dumplings split. If you cannot find gandana, use two parts leek to one part garlic chives, which between them give the body and the sharpness of the real thing; spring onion tops are the fallback. Roll the dough thin, since a thick wrapper makes the dish heavy and the filling is the point. The dumplings freeze well raw on a floured tray and go into the water straight from frozen with two minutes added. Do not warm the yoghurt.

The Gastrographer

Name: Aushak
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Kabul & Afghanistan
Ingredients: 400 g plain flour; 1 tsp salt; 220 ml warm water, approximately; 500 g gandana, or 2 leeks plus a large bunch of garlic chives, very finely chopped; 1.5 tsp salt; 1 tsp red chilli flakes; 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper; 2 tbsp oil; 400 g minced lamb or beef; 1 onion, finely chopped; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 1 tsp ground coriander; 0.5 tsp ground turmeric; 200 ml water; 500 g thick natural yoghurt; 3 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with salt; 2 tsp dried mint

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control