Azeri Warm Yoghurt Soup by Anna Ansari
Posted on January 22 2026
Talented lawyer-turned-chef, Anna Ansari, has kindly shared this game-changing yoghurt soup recipe with us... from her wonderful new cook book:
Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing
If you're sceptical, don't be! Give it a go - it'll be worth it.
From Anna:
"I was 19 years old when I had my first yogurt soup. It was refreshing and cold, and had cucumbers in it. I felt so grown up eating it; it was refined, cosmopolitan, a bit different, special – everything a 19-year-old in Manhattan thinks (or hopes) they are. I was probably wearing a suit (also my first) while I ate it, because I had that soup for lunch during my summer internship at the Azerbaijani Mission to the United Nations.
Like that dish enjoyed so long ago in Turtle Bay, Uzbekistan’s charlop is a cold yogurt soup; it even has cucumbers. It is also delicious and cooling. This is not that soup. This is dovga, an Azeri yogurt soup that also happens to be a wedding soup. How’s that for refined and special? And, while it can be and sometimes is eaten cold, dovga’s default temperature is warm. Yup. You read that correctly. This is a warm yogurt soup. And it’s weird and wonderful, and kind of a game-changer."
Ingredients:
750g (1lb 10oz) full-fat Fen Farm Natural yogurt
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp chickpea flour or plain flour (use chickpea flour to make this gluten-free)
70–100g (2¼–3½oz) risotto rice
80g (3oz) chopped spinach
75g (2½oz) fresh mixed herbs, chopped (e.g. dill, parsley, chives, coriander, tarragon, and
mint; if using the final two, discard their stems), plus extra to serve
400g (14oz) can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
sea salt and freshly ground
black pepper
dried chilli flakes, to serve (optional)
Method: