How to Make Mast-o-Khiar: The Persian Yogurt and Cucumber Dip

What is mast-o-khiar?

Mast-o-khiar (Persian «ماست و خیار», literally "yogurt and cucumber") is the cool, herby yogurt side that sits on almost every Iranian table. At its simplest it is nothing more than thick yogurt folded with diced or grated cucumber, a little salt and a scatter of dried mint. Dress it up with walnuts, raisins, rose petals and dill and it becomes borani, the festive version you meet at weddings and Nowruz spreads. Thin it a touch and it turns into a dip for warm bread; keep it thick and it becomes the spoonable side that cools the heat of a charcoal-grilled kabab. This guide shows you how to make mast-o-khiar at home, from the five-minute everyday bowl to the dressed-up borani.

An honest note first: this is a home recipe. Our kitchen on Jumeira Street is a Tehran-style kalle pache house, so mast-o-khiar is not something we cook or serve. We are simply glad to show you how to make it properly.

Is mast-o-khiar hard to make?

Not in the slightest — it may be the easiest thing in the whole Persian repertoire. There is no cooking, no heat and no special equipment beyond a bowl and a spoon. The everyday version comes together in about five minutes. Only two things separate a great bowl from a watery, disappointing one: using a genuinely thick yogurt, and taking two minutes to salt and drain the cucumber before it goes in. Get those right and the rest is simply tasting and adjusting.

What ingredients do you need for mast-o-khiar?

These quantities make a generous bowl for about four people as a side.

• 500 g thick, plain full-fat yogurt — Greek-style, strained Persian mast, or labneh loosened with a little water
• 2 to 3 Persian or Lebanese cucumbers (about 300 g), the thin-skinned kind
• 1 tablespoon dried mint, crushed between your fingers
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus a little extra for drawing water out of the cucumber
• Optional: 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
• Optional splash of cold water or milk, to loosen it toward a dip

For the festive borani version, add any or all of these:

• 2 tablespoons walnuts, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon golden raisins or sultanas, soaked in warm water for ten minutes and drained
• 1 tablespoon dried dill, or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 1 tablespoon dried rose petals, lightly crushed, plus a few whole for the top
• A drizzle of good olive oil, to finish

How do you make mast-o-khiar step by step?

Give yourself five minutes, plus a short chill.

1. Wash the cucumbers. If the skin is thick or bitter, peel it in stripes; on thin Persian cucumbers you can leave it on for colour and crunch.
2. Dice the cucumber into small 5 mm cubes for texture, or grate it coarsely for a smoother, more traditional bowl.
3. Toss the cucumber with a good pinch of salt and tip it into a sieve set over a bowl. Leave it for ten to fifteen minutes, then squeeze it firmly in your hands or a clean cloth to remove the water. This is the step most people skip — and the reason so many bowls turn watery.
4. Spoon the yogurt into a serving bowl and whisk it smooth. If it is very stiff, loosen it with a splash of cold water or milk until it is creamy but still holds its shape.
5. Fold in the drained cucumber, the crushed dried mint, the 1/2 teaspoon salt and the grated garlic if using.
6. For borani, fold in the drained raisins, most of the walnuts and the dill now, keeping a little of each back for the top.
7. Taste and adjust — a little more salt for seasoning, a little more mint for lift.
8. Chill for at least 30 minutes so the flavours settle and marry.
9. Just before serving, scatter over the reserved walnuts, raisins, rose petals and a pinch of fresh mint, and finish borani with a thread of olive oil. Serve cold.

Why does salting the cucumber matter so much?

Cucumber is more than ninety per cent water, and that water does not stay politely inside the cubes. Fold raw, unsalted cucumber straight into yogurt and within an hour it weeps, thinning your dip into a pale soup and dulling the seasoning. Salting draws that water out in advance through simple osmosis, so what goes into the bowl is cucumber flavour and crunch without the flood. It is the single most important tip in the recipe, and it costs you only ten idle minutes. If you have grated rather than diced the cucumber, squeeze it especially hard — grated flesh holds even more water.

The second guard against wateriness is the yogurt itself. A thin, pourable yogurt will never firm up. Reach for a properly thick, strained yogurt; if all you have is a looser one, spoon it into a muslin-lined sieve for an hour or two in the fridge and let the whey drip away before you start.

Simple mast-o-khiar or borani — what is the difference?

Both start from the same yogurt-and-cucumber base; borani simply dresses it for a party. Here is how the two compare.

What do you serve mast-o-khiar with?

Mast-o-khiar is a natural partner to almost anything from the grill. A cold spoonful beside a hot, smoky skewer of kabab koobideh is one of the great pleasures of Iranian eating — the cool, tangy yogurt resets your palate against the char and fat. It is just as at home next to a mound of fluffy Persian chelo rice, where people fold spoonfuls straight into the rice. Loosened with a little water it becomes a dip for warm sangak or flatbread, and in the heat of a Dubai summer a bowl of it alongside plain rice makes a light, cooling lunch on its own. Iranians have long thought of yogurt as a cooling food for hot days — that is a matter of tradition and taste, not medical advice, so treat this as general information and speak to a doctor or dietitian for anything health-related.

Can you order mast-o-khiar in Dubai?

Honestly, no — and we would rather be straight with you than pretend. Mast-o-khiar is a home recipe, and this bowl is yours to make. What we do cook, around the clock, is Tehran-style kalle pache: the long-simmered lamb head and trotter broth, with sangak bread, doogh and mixed torshi on the side. Shaun the Sheep is one kitchen at 64 Jumeira Street, Jumeirah 1, open 24 hours and delivering across all of Dubai, with delivery free over AED 300. So make your mast-o-khiar at home to go with tonight's kababs — and when you fancy a proper bowl of kalle pache to go with it, order from our menu or reserve a table and let us cook that part for you.