Asure Noah's Pudding
One pot, ten bowls, and your spoon standing up in it once it cools. That is asure, the Turkish wheat pudding built from the pantry: 200 g of hulled wheat berries simmer with chickpeas, white beans, dried apricots, figs and raisins, then take orange zest, cinnamon and cloves. It is vegan, needs no oven, and improves after a night in the fridge. Soak the wheat overnight. The rest is mostly stirring.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 90 min
- Total
- 240 min
- Additional time
- 120 min
- Serves
- 10
Ingredients
What you’ll need — tap to tick off as you go
- 200 g
- 150 g
- 150 g
- 200 g
- 100 g
- 100 g
- 50 g
- 1 tbsp
- 1 tsp
- ¼ tsp
- 1 tsp
- 50 g
- 30 g
- 100 g
- 2 l
Process
Timers built in · swap anything · ask as you cook
Rinse the 200 g of wheat berries under cold water, rubbing them between your hands until the water runs clear, then cover them with plenty of cold water and soak for at least 8 hours. The soak softens the bran so the grains cook evenly; skip it and the outsides split while the centres stay chalky.
Drain the berries, tip them into a 5 to 6 litre pot with the 2 litres of water, and bring to a boil. Drop the heat to low and simmer partially covered (a lid set ajar is enough) for 45 to 60 minutes, stirring now and then and topping up with hot water to keep the grains covered. You are done when a berry mashes easily and has split at its seam.
Stir the 150 g of chickpeas and the 150 g of white beans into the pot and simmer for 10 minutes. They are already cooked, so this stage is about heat and exchange, with the pulses drinking in the wheaty liquid while your pot returns to a lazy bubble. Low heat, always. A hard boil would shred them.
Add the 200 g of sugar, the 100 g of chopped apricots, 100 g of figs, 50 g of raisins, 1 tbsp of orange zest, 1 tsp of cinnamon and 0.25 tsp of ground cloves. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring often and scraping the base, until the fruit is soft and the pudding coats your spoon. Add hot water whenever it tightens.
If you are using it, take the pot off the heat and stir in 1 tsp of vanilla (there is no need to cook it in). Let the pudding stand for a few minutes, until the bubbles settle and it stops steaming hard, because vanilla is volatile and the residual heat carries it through without driving it off.
Ladle the pudding into small bowls or one large dish and chill for at least 2 hours. If it looks looser than you expect while hot, don't worry, because that is deliberate and wheat starch sets as it cools; stir each bowl once on the way into the fridge to stop a skin forming.
Just before serving, scatter the 50 g of walnuts, 30 g of hazelnuts, 100 g of pomegranate seeds and a little extra cinnamon over the top. Garnish last, always. Nuts soften and seeds bleed once they sit in the pudding, and the crunch against cold, sweet grain is the point of the finish.
Why this recipe works
Wheat berries are whole grains with an intact bran layer, so water needs hours to reach the starch inside. Your overnight soak does that work before the pot heats, so by the time the berries simmer, their starch gelatinises and clouds the water, which is where the body comes from. Sugar goes in only after the grains are soft. The order is the part that matters. Why the wait? Dissolved sugar competes for water and raises the temperature at which wheat starch gelatinises, so an early addition keeps the berries firm far longer than you want to wait. The pulses arrive already cooked, so they warm through without collapsing. Cooling finishes the job: the starch sets into a spoonable gel, and the fruit flavours settle into it.
Equipment
- 5 to 6 litre heavy-bottomed pot with a lid
- Fine-mesh colander
- Long wooden spoon
- 1 litre measuring jug
- Fine zester or microplane
- Small heatproof bowls, or one 3 litre serving dish
- Kitchen scale
Kitchen notes
Kitchen notes
- Rinse the soaked wheat until the water runs clear, because the loose bran and surface starch you pour away are what make a cloudy, pasty pudding.
- Use a wide, heavy pot rather than a tall narrow one: the wider pot is the better choice here, since more surface area means gentler evaporation and far less scorching at the base.
- Keep hot water beside the stove, since cold water stalls the simmer and that is how you end up with berries that cook unevenly.
- Zest the orange straight over the pot, not onto a board, because the oils spray as you grate and that spray is the perfume.
- Toast the walnuts in a dry pan (no oil needed) and cool them before they go on. Worth the extra pan, every time.
Common mistakes
- Gluey, tight set: too little water in the pot, or sugar that went in before the wheat softened, so keep the grains covered as they simmer, top up with hot water, and hold the sugar until a berry mashes cleanly.
- Chalky centres after an hour: an old crop or a skipped soak. Soak the full 8 hours and stick with a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, since hard boiling splits the bran before the centre hydrates and your berries finish unevenly.
- A scorched base: wheat starch and sugar settle and catch on high heat. Stay at the stove. During the last 20 minutes, stir every few minutes with a wooden spoon that reaches the corners.
- Dried figs turn the pot muddy: chopped small, they dissolve into the liquid. Cut them larger than the apricots and stir gently once they are in.
- Cloves take over the whole bowl: 0.25 tsp is a ceiling, not a suggestion, so measure it level or use 2 whole cloves and lift them out before your pudding goes into the fridge.
- Thick as porridge the next day: chilled starch keeps firming. Too thick to spoon? Loosen it with hot water or milk, a spoonful at a time, and it will slacken again as it warms.
Serving suggestions
- Serve in small bowls, cool from the fridge or at cool room temperature, since heat flattens the spices and turns the pudding porridge-like.
- Set out extra cinnamon and a small bowl of pomegranate seeds so each person can sharpen their own bowl.
- A glass of strong black tea is the traditional partner. One bowl each. Nothing else is needed.
- Leftover asure loosened with milk makes a good cold breakfast. Stir a spoonful into yogurt and it turns into dessert.
- This is a pot made for sharing, so send a bowl to a neighbour and keep one for tomorrow.
Variations
- Rose water version: stir 1 tsp of rose water in off the heat with the vanilla, for the floral edge some regions favour.
- Barley version: pearl barley in place of the wheat berries, soaked overnight; expect a chewier grain and a slightly longer simmer.
- Nut-free version: replace the walnuts and hazelnuts with toasted pumpkin seeds, the same total weight, for a pot that can go to school.
- Dried fruit variation: swap the 50 g of raisins for currants or chopped dried peaches, keeping the weight the same.
Refrigerator
- RefrigeratorCool the pot within 2 hours, divide it into shallow containers so it chills fast, and keep it covered for up to 4 days (USDA guidance for cooked leftovers). It firms as it sits, so stir in hot water or milk before you serve it.
- ReheatingWarm a portion gently in a saucepan with a splash of water, stirring, until it reaches 74°C if you want it hot; asure is usually eaten cool, so often all it needs is loosening.
- FreezingFreeze in lidded tubs for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, stir well, and expect the pulses to soften while the wheat comes back nearly unchanged.
- Make aheadMake it up to 3 days ahead and keep it chilled, because the spices settle and the fruit deepens by the second day. Garnish only at the moment you serve it.
Updated:
How this recipe was developed
- Turkish Cuisine Week, Wheat Berry Pudding with Dried Fruits and Nuts (addition order; sugar only after the wheat is tender; figs late; a deliberately loose consistency while hot; stirring during cooling to avoid a skin)
- Give Recipe, Ashure (Turkish Noah's Pudding) (whole hulled wheat berries rather than bulgur or cracked wheat; canned chickpeas and beans as a shortcut; the Muharram sharing tradition)
- Cereal Chemistry (AACC International), Starch Gelatinization in Sugar Solutions (dissolved sugar competes for water and raises the gelatinization temperature of wheat starch, which is why sugar waits until the grains are soft)
- USDA FSIS, Leftovers and Food Safety (refrigerate within 2 hours; 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator; 3 to 4 months frozen; reheat to 74°C)
Editorial references are kept internally for verification. This page makes no claim of external certification or professional testing.
FAQ
The questions we get asked most
How do I know when the wheat berries are fully cooked?
Bite into one. A done berry is tender all the way through and has split at its seam, with a creamy, slightly chewy centre and no chalk, and after an overnight soak it should take 45 to 60 minutes; if it still grits, keep simmering and top up with hot water.
Why did my asure turn out thick and gluey?
Usually too little water during the simmer, or sugar that went in before the grains softened. Asure should look looser than the finished pudding while it is hot. Why? The starch keeps setting as it cools. Loosen a tight pot with hot water, a little at a time, off the heat.
Can I make asure ahead of time?
Yes, and it is better that way. Keep it lidded in the fridge for up to 3 days, then loosen it with a splash of hot water and garnish at the table, because the spices round out overnight and the fruit flavours deepen.
Can I freeze asure?
Yes, in lidded tubs for up to 2 months. Freeze it flat. Thaw it overnight in the fridge, stir well, and add the pomegranate fresh, since the pulses soften while the wheat comes back almost unchanged.
Is asure gluten-free?
No. Wheat berries are the body of the dish and they carry gluten, so no substitution keeps the dish intact, and though a rice or quinoa pudding can be good it is a different dessert with a different texture.
Can I use canned chickpeas and white beans?
Yes, and the 150 g of each in this recipe already assumes cooked pulses, so drain and rinse them well, add them at the same point, and let them heat through for 10 minutes; they need no further cooking.
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