Bozbash

Bozbash is a rich Azerbaijani soup of slow-cooked lamb, chickpeas, potatoes and dried plums. It is a dish of Azerbaijani home cooking, usually eaten as a main course rather than a starter, with bread and fresh herbs alongside. The dried plums give the broth a fruity sweetness that sits against the savoury lamb and tomato.

What it really is

Bozbash is a simmered soup. Lamb and onion are cooked slowly in water with tomato until the broth is rich and the meat is tender. Chickpeas and potatoes go into the same pot to cook in the broth, and dried plums add their sweetness toward the end. Recipes differ in the proportions of meat, vegetables and tomato, so one bowl can be thin and another thick, and the soup is most often judged on the depth of its broth.

How it's served

• Hot, in a deep bowl, with pieces of lamb, chickpea and potato in the broth.
• With bread on the side, for tearing or dipping into the soup.
• With fresh herbs served separately, so each diner can add their own.
• On its own as a main course, not as a small starter.

How to write it on the menu

• Name the protein: "Bozbash, lamb, chickpeas, potato and dried plum."
• The soup itself has no major allergen in the classic recipe. Flag wheat for the bread served with it.
• State whether the lamb is on the bone or boneless, and the portion size.
• Say whether the herbs and bread come as standard or as an extra.
• Mark dried plums in the description, since guests with fruit sensitivities often ask about them.