Uzbek soups: shurpa, mastava, mashkhurda and lagman explained

Uzbek soup names at a glance

Sho'rva is the Uzbek word for soup. In Russian and English it becomes shurpa or shurva, and on its own it usually means the clear meat broth described below. The other soups have names of their own. These are the ones you will meet most often:

• Shurpa: a clear broth of lamb or beef on the bone with large pieces of vegetable.
• Mastava: a thick rice soup with meat and vegetables.
• Mashkhurda (mashxo'rda in Uzbek): mung beans and rice with meat, close to a porridge.
• Lagman: hand-pulled noodles under a meat and vegetable sauce, served with broth or fried.
• Chuchvara shurva: small dumplings cooked and served in broth.

Shurpa: the clear lamb or beef soup

Shurpa is made from lamb or beef on the bone, simmered slowly with big pieces of potato, carrot, onion, tomato and sweet pepper. The vegetables go in whole or in large chunks, so they flavour the broth without breaking up in it.

The aim is a clear broth. Start the meat in cold water, skim the foam as it comes to the boil, then keep the heat low; a hard boil turns shurpa cloudy. Our lamb shurpa recipe simmers lamb breast or neck for about an hour and a half, then leaves the pot to stand, covered, for 15 minutes. Salt goes in towards the end, because salting early can make the meat tougher.

Qaynatma and qovurma shurva

Uzbek cooks make shurpa in two ways. In qaynatma shurva everything is boiled, which gives a pale, clear broth. In qovurma shurva the meat and vegetables are fried first, so the broth comes out darker and richer.

Shurpa is served in deep bowls with a piece of meat at the bottom, the vegetables on top of it and the broth poured over. Fresh coriander and basil go on top, with a wedge of lemon and non alongside. The vegetables are cut up in the bowl and the meat is lifted out piece by piece, so shurpa is eaten slowly.

Mastava: Uzbek rice soup

Mastava starts the way plov does. Meat is fried in a kazan, a heavy cast-iron pot, followed by onion, carrot and tomato; potato goes in with the water, and the rice is cooked in the broth at the end. The starch from the rice is what thickens the soup, so rinse the rice only lightly.

It is seasoned with zira (cumin) and coriander seed, and served with a spoonful of qatiq, the Uzbek soured milk, and chopped herbs. Our mastava recipe uses beef or lamb and takes about an hour and a half.

A meat-free mastava of vegetables and rice is perfectly normal, and a handful of cooked chickpeas makes it more filling. Some cooks also add mung beans and call the result mastava with mash.

Use laser rice for mastava. Devzira, the classic rice for festive plov, is too dense for soup; our guide to devzira and laser rice explains how the two behave.

Mashkhurda: mung bean and rice soup

Mashkhurda, also written mashhurda, is built on mash, the small green mung bean. The beans cook with rice, meat and vegetables until the soup is thick, closer to a porridge than a broth. It is a filling winter dish.

Soak the mung beans for an hour before cooking and they soften in about half an hour. Our mashkhurda recipe cooks them with lamb on the bone, zira and coriander seed. Serve it with qatiq and herbs, or with a wedge of lemon, which lightens a heavy bowl. Without meat, chickpeas take its place.

Lagman: noodles with a meat and vegetable sauce

Lagman is a dish of hand-pulled noodles topped with a sauce of meat and vegetables: lamb or beef, onion, carrot, sweet pepper, tomato, garlic and white radish. The radish is not optional: it gives the heavy sauce its freshness. The dish is commonly traced to Uyghur cooking, and in the Fergana Valley it is an everyday lunch.

In Uzbekistan lagman comes two ways. As a soup, the noodles sit in a bowl under the sauce and a good amount of broth. As qovurma lagman, the noodles are fried together with the meat and vegetables, with no broth at all. Our lagman recipe makes the soup version and shows how to pull the noodles at home. The noodles are boiled separately and served at once, before they go soft in the sauce.

Chuchvara shurva: dumplings in broth

Small chuchvara dumplings, filled with meat and onion, are cooked straight in the broth and served in it, so one bowl is soup and main course together. Our guide to chuchvara, manti and other Uzbek dumplings covers the shaping and the other ways to serve them.

How the soups differ

• Base: shurpa is a broth, mastava is built on rice, mashkhurda on mung beans and rice, lagman on noodles and chuchvara shurva on dumplings.
• Method: qaynatma shurva is boiled from the start. Mastava, mashkhurda, qovurma shurva and the lagman sauce begin with meat and vegetables fried in oil.
• Texture: shurpa is thin and clear. Mastava and mashkhurda are thick, because rice starch and soft mung beans bind the liquid.
• Vegetables: whole or in large pieces in shurpa, diced in mastava, mashkhurda and lagman.

Qatiq, herbs and bread

Most bowls of Uzbek soup are finished with qatiq, herbs or bread, and often with all of them. Qatiq is a tangy soured milk (katyk in Russian), stirred into mastava and mashkhurda; plain yoghurt or soured cream will do if you cannot find it.

The herbs are dill, coriander leaves (kashnich in Uzbek) and basil (rayhon), often the purple variety. They are chopped and scattered over the bowl just before it goes to the table.

Round Uzbek non comes to the table whole and is broken by hand, then torn into the soup or used to wipe the bowl clean.

What to buy in Riga

• Mung beans: whole mash for mashkhurda, sold loose by weight at Arkan Bazar.
• Rice: laser rice for mastava and mashkhurda.
• Spices: zira and coriander seed, plus bay leaves for shurpa. Buy the seeds whole and crush them just before cooking.
• Meat on the bone: lamb breast or neck for shurpa, lamb or beef for the others. Arkan Bazar's halal meat pre-order is launching soon, with meat produced in Latvia, elsewhere in Europe and in Scandinavia.
• Qatiq: ask at the stall.
• Fresh herbs: dill, coriander and basil, bought on the day you cook.

Keeping and reheating

Mastava keeps for two or three days in the fridge. The rice drinks up the broth overnight, so add a splash of water when you reheat it and bring it back to the boil. Mashkhurda tastes better the next day, once it has had time to rest.

Lagman is the exception: keep the sauce in the fridge and boil fresh noodles each time you serve it.

Which soup to try first

Start with mastava. It cooks in one pot from ingredients sold in most shops and is ready in about an hour and a half.

Shurpa is next: a short list of ingredients, but it needs a low heat, patience and good meat on the bone. Make mashkhurda on a cold day, once you have mung beans in the cupboard. Leave lagman for a weekend, when you have time to pull the noodles by hand.