Faloodeh is an ancient, traditional Persian cold dessert- it’s sort of similar to a sorbet. It contains very thin vermicelli noodles in a semi-frozen flavourful syrup made with sugar and rose water. Faloodeh is often served with lime juice, but I use lemon juice (mainly because I always have lemons on hand in the house!) I’ve been craving this delicious treat and can’t wait for you to try it! In Iran, most ice cream shops always sell two things: a traditional saffron ice cream and faloodeh. I still remember the first time I visited the country in the 90’s and all the delicious treats I got to eat. Faloodeh has been one of my favourites since!
INGREDIENT:
1 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup lime or lemon
2 tablespoons of rosewater
1 & 1/2 cups of the thinnest rice noodles
STEPS:
1. Add half a cup of water to a small saucepan on low heat. 2. Add 1/2 cup of sugar & a pinch of salt to the water and stir until it’s completely dissolved.
3. Add the rest of the sugar and continue stirring until it’s completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and let it cool to room temperature.
4. In a glass, freezer safe dish, stir in 4.5 cups of cold water, the room temperature syrup, 1/2 cup of lime/lemon juice and the 2 tablespoons of rosewater.
5. Place it in freezer until ice crystals begin to form on the edges of the mixture, this happens after an hour.
6. Cooking the noodles: In a medium pot, bring a water to a boil. Pour the boiling water over the noodles and let it cook for 3 minutes. Drain and rinse immediately with cold water (these are the instructions on my packaging of rice noddies- I use Blue Dragon brand). I cut the noodles into smaller 1 inch pieces.
7. Stir the noodles into the partly frozen syrup mixture. Make sure you wait an hour after freezing the mixture.
8. For the next few hours, check on it every hour, scraping and crushing some of the frozen bits with a fork, to prevent huge icy chunks from forming. The mixture should be pretty light and almost airy.
9. I like some extra sourness, so I always have lemon/lime wedges with my faloodeh.
10. Bon appétit!