No-Waste Beet Borani (Iranian Yogurt Dip)

From Anna Ansari's gorgeous new book Silk Roads

Please excuse me while I gush about my friend Anna Ansari for a minute.

I met Anna on the very first day of my very first trip to China. She was the youngest student in our university’s study abroad group, just about to turn 19, but she radiated confidence. After all, she’d already lived in China for a whole year as part of a high school program. She was thrilled to be back, and her excitement was contagious. Many of the first photos in my album from that summer are of Anna—the two of us at the Summer Palace; Anna and her roommate, Helen, eating jianbing after a Chinese opera performance; Anna and other classmates sitting on a sidewalk in Dali, in Yunnan Province (on the trip that would change my life so much that a decade later I picked up my whole life and moved halfway across the world). Anna was that effortlessly cool girl who made everything look easy and fun, and she helped me find my footing and fall in love with China.

Fast forward 25

years (and 3 months), and Anna is still that friend. Only now she has a master’s in Asian studies, has lived in China for a third time, is a lawyer (though not currently practicing) and a mom living in London, and has just published her first cookbook, Silk Roads—A Flavor Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing (DK, 2025). (She also has a fantastic newsletter.)

Anna’s book is stunning. Part biography and family history, part travelogue, part historical exploration, it traces the foods of the countries along the Silk Road while telling us about her father’s childhood in Iran and hers in Michigan and her studies in China and travels through Georgia and Uzbekistan. Recipes are interspersed with essays about Detroit’s Eastern Market and the many joys of eating tofu. With lots of history along the way. (Did I mention that Anna is a phenomenal writer? You’ll want to take this book to bed with you at night.) And the food! Anna made some for me and my family this past summer, when we visited her in London, and I can’t wait to cook every single recipe in this book. Georgian tomato-strawberry salad, saffron chicken and eggs, cold sesame noodles…. Next week I’m jumping in with both feed and roasting an enormous Uyghur-style leg of lamb.

But first, I had to find something snacky and relatively easy to share with all of you, and as soon as I saw the photo for this beet-infused yogurt dip I knew this was the one. It’s creamy and savory and filling, uses both the beets and their leaves, and flexible enough that you can make a whole meal out of it. (Also, it might be the healthiest dip recipe I’ve ever seen, without tasting like health food!) It’s just a small taste of what this flavorful book has to offer, but hopefully it will whet your appetite for more!

Anna at 19 in Beijing - and 25 years later in London

No-Waste Beet Borani (Iranian Yogurt Dip)

Serves 4–8 as a dip

Borani laboo and borani esfanj are two of the most beloved Iranian yogurt preparations, the former made with beetroot and the latter with spinach. This is my ode to them, as well as to my commitment to kitchen waste reduction, making excellent use of those gorgeous beetroot stalks and leaves you often find attached to the divisively delicious, incredibly nutritious earthy orbs and which, sadly, often find their way to the bin.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, very thinly sliced into half-moons
7oz (200g) beetroot leaves and stalks, leaves roughly chopped, stalks finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons dried mint
9oz (250g) cooked beetroot, coarsely grated
13oz (375g) Greek yogurt
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Zest and juice of 1 lime

To serve (optional)
Pistachios
Flaky sea salt
Mint leaves

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Once hot, reduce the heat to low, add the onion, and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Add the beetroot stalks, garlic, and 1 teaspoon of the dried mint. Cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent any burning. Add the beetroot leaves and cook for 3–5 minutes more, or until the leaves are soft and wilted. Set aside to cool.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the grated beetroot with the yogurt, salt, lime juice, and half the lime zest. Stir to mix well. When the onion and beetroot leaf/stalk mixture is cool, add this to the bowl and stir to mix everything together, before moving the bowl to the refrigerator. Chill for at least 1 hour so the flavours can come together.

3. Just before serving, sprinkle the borani with the last of the dried mint and lime zest. If you like, top it off with some pistachios and flaky sea salt, and garnish with some fresh mint leaves.

Recipe Credit: Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing by Anna Ansari. DK RED

Photo: Laura Edwards