Lavash
Paper-thin unleavened flatbread, blistered and scored in the tradition of the hearth.
Step-by-step →Dessert · All regions
ANUSHABUR
Անուշապուր
Christmas pudding of skinned wheat and dried fruit — literally "sweet soup", eaten cold from a wide bowl.
2 h
Total time
Serves 8
Yield
4
Steps
Step by step
HOW IT IS MADE
- 01
Soak overnight
Rinse the wheat and soak it at least eight hours. Soak the dried fruit separately in warm water.
- 02
Simmer the wheat
Cook the wheat in plenty of water for about ninety minutes until the grains split and the liquid turns milky.
- 03
Add fruit and sweeten
Stir in the fruit with its soaking water, the sugar and the spices and cook twenty minutes more.
- 04
Cool and decorate
Pour into a wide dish, cool completely, then arrange walnuts, apricots and cinnamon in patterns across the top.
At a glance
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Energy
- ≈ 300 kcal per serving
- Preparation
- Overnight soaking
- Cooking
- 1 h 50 min
- Season
- December and January
- Occasion
- Armenian Christmas Eve, 5 January
Cook's notes
GET IT RIGHT
- Soak the wheat overnight without fail, or it never softens properly.
- Cook the grain fully before adding sugar; sugar stops it softening.
- Sweeten lightly — the dried fruit does most of the work.
- Decorate only once it is completely cold so the pattern stays sharp.
Variations
Honey anushabur
Honey instead of sugar, added off the heat.
With rice
Some families use rice or pearl barley instead of whole wheat.
Questions
ASKED IN THE KITCHEN
Which wheat?
Skinned whole wheat (dzavar or korkot); pearl barley works as a substitute.
Served warm or cold?
Cold or at room temperature, always.
History & Culture
WHY THIS DISH
Anushabur belongs to Armenian Christmas Eve on 5 January, when the meal is meatless and the whole grain stands for renewal and continuity.
Related dishes exist across the Christian East, but the Armenian version is unmistakably fruit-heavy — apricots above all, the fruit the country treats as its own.
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