KO EN Azerbaijani Soup⏱ 60 minEdit history

Dovga (Herb and Yoghurt Soup)

Name: Dovga (Herb and Yoghurt Soup)
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Azerbaijani
Ingredients: 1 L plain yoghurt; 1 egg; 2 tbsp plain flour; 300 ml water; 1 tsp salt; 60 g coriander; 40 g dill; 20 g mint; 100 g spinach; 2 spring onions; 100 g chickpeas; 3 tbsp rice; 12 lamb meatballs

The Azerbaijani soup whose liquid is yoghurt. This site's dairy guide files yoghurt as the most fragile dairy of all and sets three rules on it: room temperature, off the heat, and in stages. Dovga breaks all three and simmers a litre of it. It works because an egg and a little flour are beaten in before any heat touches it, and that protein and starch get between the casein so it cannot clump. The remaining danger is the climb to the boil, so it is stirred without stopping until it gets there.

Steps

Put the yoghurt in a large bowl and beat in the egg and the flour first, until completely smooth. This is the whole soup: the egg protein and the starch take up position between the casein so that heat cannot make it clump into grains.
⏲ 5 min
Thin it with the 300ml of water and the salt. Thick yoghurt straight into the pan catches on the base and boils locally.
⏲ 3 min
Pour it into a cold pan, set it over medium-low heat and stir in one direction without stopping with a wooden spoon. The climb to the boil is the dangerous part: unstirred, the base cooks first and that part floats up in curds.
⏲ 15 min
Once the surface swells and it comes to the boil it is stable. Drop the heat and give it 10 minutes more, which is what cooks the raw taste out of the flour.
⏲ 10 min
Add the cooked chickpeas, rice and meatballs now if you are using them, and simmer 5 minutes.
⏲ 5 min
Take it off the heat and put all the herbs in. There should be nearly as much herb as liquid, and once in they get only two or three minutes to wilt — as fresh herbs says, cooked longer they lose their aroma and their colour.
⏲ 3 min
Serve it hot in winter and completely chilled in summer. Taste it again when cold — as serving temperature puts it, cold suppresses saltiness.
⏲ 5 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

Thickened with rice: more traditional than flour. The grains break down and give up their starch, which does the same job — but they have to be half-cooked before they go in.
Wedding dovga: it is served at Azerbaijani banquets, between the meat courses, to lighten the table. That version has the meatballs in it.
Cold: chilled right down in summer. It thickens as it cools, so thin it a little more and taste the salt again.
Against ayran and tzatziki: tzatziki uses the same yoghurt and never puts it near heat; ayran is a drink. Dovga is the one that simmers it.
With abgoosht: Iran and Azerbaijan share a stew family (piti and abgoosht), but dovga has no counterpart there.

Tips

The egg and flour go in before any heat. Dairy and heat files yoghurt as "the most fragile dairy of all" and sets three rules on it — room temperature, off the heat, in stages. Dovga breaks all three, and the reason it survives is the same one that guide gives for evaporated milk: proteins already stabilised take boiling well. Here the stabiliser is egg and starch.
The danger is the climb to the boil, not the boil. Once it is boiling it is stable. Until then the base must never get locally hot, which is why you start it in a cold pan and never stop stirring.
Stir in one direction. Reversing tears the protein network that has already set up. It is a traditional instruction with a reason behind it.
There should be nearly as much herb as liquid. A modest handful gives you plain yoghurt soup. Here the herbs are the ingredient, not the garnish.
And it is the exact opposite of ghormeh sabzi. That dish fries its herbs for twenty-five minutes specifically to drive the fresh green smell off; dovga adds them after the heat is off and keeps it. Same pile of herbs, opposite direction.
Once it is grainy there is no going back, exactly as that guide says: no amount of stirring recovers it. It is still edible; it is not a smooth soup.
Ten minutes after it boils, for the flour. With flour in it, thickening applies — it has to be cooked out. Kill the heat the moment it boils and it tastes of raw flour.