Birinc bi Maş: The Kurdish Rice and Mung Beans That Feed a Family

Sherko Sabir
May 29
4 min read

Birinc bi Maş: The Kurdish Rice and Mung Beans That Feed a Family

Birinc bi maş is Kurdish rice cooked with green mung beans, caramelised onions, turmeric, and butter. It is a rustic home dish — the food a Kurdish family eats on a Tuesday night when there is no meat and no occasion. International recipe sites call it maash polow and label it Persian. The Kurdish name birinc bi maş does not appear on any English-language recipe site. The dish is simple: rice and beans cooked together in one pot. But it represents something this series has been building toward — the ordinary Kurdish meal, the one that has no story except that it fed a family. In March 2026, Kurdish chef Pary Baban published Nandên: Recipes From My Kurdish Kitchen, documenting the rice traditions she collected while fleeing her home village of Qaladzê on foot, learning to cook from the people she met in every village. Her cookbook is a record of the dishes that kept Kurdish families alive. Birinc bi maş is that kind of dish: cheap, filling, nutritious, and cooked in one pot over one fire.

Key Takeaways

• Rice cooked with green mung beans, caramelised onions, turmeric, and butter in one pot

• Rustic Kurdish home food — cheap, filling, meatless, the Tuesday-night dinner

• Labelled “Persian maash polow” on every recipe site — Kurdish name birinc bi maş invisible online

• Part of the Kurdish rice family: biryanî (festive), birinca sor (everyday tomato), birinc bi maş (rustic legume)

Quick Facts

Kurdish Name: Birinc bi Maş (برنج بی ماش) — “rice with mung beans”

Rebranded As: Maash Polow (“Persian rice with mung beans”) — the name used on all English-language recipe sites

Type: Rustic one-pot rice-and-legume dish — everyday home food

Ingredients: Rice, green mung beans, onions, turmeric, cumin, butter, salt

Traditional Preparation

Green mung beans are soaked for several hours, then boiled until soft but not mushy. Separately, onions are sliced and fried in butter or oil until deeply golden and caramelised — the sweetness of the onions is critical to the dish. Turmeric and cumin are stirred into the onions. The cooked mung beans are added and mixed gently. Rinsed basmati rice is added with water or stock. The pot is brought to a boil, then the heat is dropped to the lowest setting and the pot is sealed with a lid (traditionally with a cloth between the lid and pot to absorb moisture). The rice and beans cook together for thirty minutes until every grain is tender and the mung beans are distributed throughout. The bottom develops the prized golden crust — the same tahdig/qazmag documented in birinca sor. The finished dish is turned onto a platter: golden-crusted on top, green-flecked and fragrant below. It is served with plain yogurt, fresh herbs, or date syrup (dibs) on the side.

Four Kurdish Rice Dishes, Four Registers

This series has now documented four Kurdish rice traditions, each at a different register of daily life. Biryanî is the festive rice: saffron, dried fruits, nuts, served at weddings and Nowruz. Birinca sor is the everyday rice: tomato broth, meat stock, served every night. Meqlûbî is the dramatic rice: inverted onto a platter in a theatrical moment. And birinc bi maş is the rustic rice: mung beans and onions, no meat, one pot, the cheapest dinner that still fills a family. Together, these four dishes map the entire range of Kurdish rice cooking from the most expensive to the most economical, from the most ceremonial to the most domestic. A Kurdish kitchen moves between all four depending on the day, the budget, and the occasion.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is birinc bi maş?

Birinc bi maş means “rice with mung beans” in Kurdish. It is a one-pot rustic dish of basmati rice cooked with green mung beans, caramelised onions, turmeric, and cumin. It is the cheapest rice dish in the Kurdish repertoire — filling, meatless, and made with pantry staples. International recipe sites label it “Persian maash polow”; the Kurdish name does not appear.

How does birinc bi maş differ from birinca sor and biryanî?

Biryanî is festive Kurdish rice with saffron, dried fruits, nuts, and meat — served at celebrations. Birinca sor is everyday Kurdish red rice cooked in tomato broth with meat stock. Birinc bi maş is the cheapest option: rice and mung beans with caramelised onions, no meat, one pot. They represent three different registers of Kurdish rice cooking — celebration, everyday, and rustic.

What is Nandên: Recipes From My Kurdish Kitchen?

Nandên is a 2026 cookbook by Kurdish chef Pary Baban, owner of Nandine restaurant in London. Baban was born in South Kurdistan and fled her home village of Qaladzê on foot, travelling from village to village for nine days and collecting recipes from the people she met. The book documents Kurdish rice traditions and other dishes as a celebration of Kurdish culinary heritage.

Conclusion

Birinc bi maş is the sixty-eighth article in this series and the least dramatic dish documented so far. It has no contested history. No one banned it. No one renamed it by decree. It was simply absorbed into Persian food media under a Persian name, and the Kurdish name disappeared quietly, the way most Kurdish names do. But a cuisine is not just its spectacles. It is also its Tuesday nights. Birinc bi maş is the dish that fed Kurdish families when there was no meat, no celebration, no reason to cook except that people needed to eat. Sixty-eight articles in, this series has documented the feasts and the survival food and the breakfast and the wedding food and the closing compote. Birinc bi maş is the only thing left: the unremarkable dinner. The one that no one talks about. The one that kept everyone alive.