Asia → Turkmenistan → Ashgabat
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Unash (Turkmen Bean and Noodle Soup)
A warming soup of lamb and black-eyed beans with hand-cut noodles, onion fried in fat and a whole hot red chili, finished with sour milk or yogurt and a little garlic.
Turkmen · medium · serves 6
prep 30 min · cook 80 min · plus 8 h hands-off time
~406 cal · 22g protein · 40g carbs · 17g fat · 5g fiber · 4g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Unash is a Turkmen home soup of beans and hand-made noodles, eaten above all in winter. It is the dish Turkmen families reach for when someone has caught a cold: the advice is to have a bowl of unash with plenty of pepper and then rest.
The usual method boils lamb and beans together for about an hour, then adds thin noodles cut from a rolled-out sheet of dough, onions fried in fat, and hot red pepper, and cooks the soup until the noodles are done. It is served with sour milk or yogurt stirred through it. There are meatless versions too, made with beans alone and seasoned at the end with yogurt and grated garlic, and today dried unash noodles are made in factories across the country.
The noodles are simply flour, water and salt, rolled thin, folded and sliced, so the soup can be made from the store cupboard in an afternoon.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
- 160 g dried black-eyed beans
- 300 g lamb shoulder or neck, cut into small pieces
- 2 litres water
- 2 tsp salt, or to taste
- 150 g all-purpose flour (for the noodles)
- 100 ml water (for the noodles)
- 1/3 tsp salt (for the noodles)
- 3 tbsp lamb fat or
- 1 large onion, finely sliced
- 1 to 2 whole hot red chili, fresh or dried
- 1 cup sour milk or plain yogurt
- 1 clove garlic
Instructions
- 1Soak the beans overnight, at least 8 hours, in plenty of cold water. Drain and rinse.
- 2Put the beans, lamb, water and salt in a large pot, bring to a boil, skim, and simmer gently for 1 hour, until the beans are soft and the lamb is tender.
- 3Meanwhile make the noodles: mix the flour, salt and water into a firm dough and knead for 3 to 4 minutes until smooth. Rest it for 5 minutes, then roll it out 2 mm thick. Dust with flour, fold it zigzag several times and cut it into thin strips. Shake them loose.
- 4Fry the onion in the fat over medium heat for 8 to 10 minutes until soft and golden.
- 5Bring the soup back to a rolling boil, add the chili, the fried onion with its fat and the noodles, and cook for about 8 minutes, stirring now and then so the noodles do not stick, until they are tender.
- 6Take the pot off the heat and let it cool for a couple of minutes. Stir in the sour milk or yogurt a spoonful at a time, then grate in the garlic. Press the chili against the side of the pot to release more heat if you like, check the salt and serve hot.✎ Chef’s noteAdd the yogurt off the heat and gradually, stirring all the time, or it will curdle.
Turkmen home tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Ashgabat. The desert sets the terms. Most of Turkmenistan is the Karakum, so the herds are sheep and camels and the dairy follows them, soured and dried so it keeps. Bread comes out of a clay tamdyr, plov is the celebration rice, and pastries filled with meat and onion are the food that travels.
🗺️
Turkmenistan. Turkmen cooking is nomadic and Central Asian, built on plov, dograma (a bread-and-meat dish), and grilled lamb. Melons, flatbread, and fermented camel's milk reflect a desert-and-oasis heritage.
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Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Turkmenistan
DogramaHand-crumbled flatbread and boiled meat with onion, moistened with rich broth, Turkmenistan's dish of celebration.
ChorekRound tamdyr-baked bread with a crisp crust and soft crumb, torn warm with tea and butter.
IchlekliA large baked pastry pie filled with spiced meat, onion, and potato, a rustic Turkmen specialty for gatherings.
Browse all Turkmenistan recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Turkmenistan meal
Gök Çay (Turkmen Green Tea)Drink
Pishme (Turkmen Fried Dough Diamonds)Dessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Unash (Turkmen Bean and Noodle Soup)?
A warming soup of lamb and black-eyed beans with hand-cut noodles, onion fried in fat and a whole hot red chili, finished with sour milk or yogurt and a little garlic.
Where does Unash (Turkmen Bean and Noodle Soup) come from?
Unash (Turkmen Bean and Noodle Soup) is a Turkmen dish from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Can Unash (Turkmen Bean and Noodle Soup) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Unash (Turkmen Bean and Noodle Soup) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Unash (Turkmen Bean and Noodle Soup) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Unash (Turkmen Bean and Noodle Soup) take to make?
About 9 h 50 min in all: 30 minutes prep and 80 minutes cooking, plus 8 h of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 6.
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