Nigel Slater served up a tasty Persian ash-e-reshteh noodle soup with yoghurt and haricot beans, chickpeas and caramelised onions on Nigel Slater’s Middle East.

The ingredients are: 3 tbsp olive oil, 4 onions, 2 roughly chopped, 2 thinly sliced, 2 tsp ground turmeric, 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped, 400g tin chickpeas, drained, 100g small brown lentils, 400g haricot beans, drained, 1 litre pint vegetable stock, 40g butter, 100g linguine or Iranian reshtey noodles, 200g spinach, 30g fresh parsley, 20g fresh coriander, 15g fresh mint and 2 x 250ml tubs soured cream.