The Nowruz Feast: Reshteh Polo, Kuku Sabzi, and the Samanu Vigil

Celebration

What it is

Beyond the Haft-Seen table, Nowruz is marked by a set of specific celebratory dishes, dominated by the color green — the green of spring herbs, woven through the Nowruz table as an edible declaration that life and growth have returned. These dishes accompany the holiday's family gatherings and carry their own symbolism of renewal, abundance, and the threads of fate.

The food at the center

The signature Nowruz dishes include:

Sabzi polo ba mahi — herbed rice (rice cooked with a generous amount of fresh herbs — dill, cilantro, parsley, chives — until fragrant and green) served with fish. This is the classic Nowruz dinner across much of Iran: the green herb rice for the renewal and growth of spring, the fish for life and abundance.
Reshteh polo — rice cooked with reshteh (toasted noodles). The noodles symbolize the threads or reins of life — eating them at the New Year is taking hold of the strands of one's fate, gaining control and good fortune over the paths the coming year will offer.
Kuku sabzi — a thick, dense herb frittata packed with finely chopped herbs and a little egg to bind, sometimes with walnuts and barberries. Its intense green color represents new growth, rebirth, and the fertility of spring.
Ash reshteh — a thick, hearty noodle-and-herb soup with beans, greens, and the toasted reshteh noodles, finished with kashk (fermented whey) and fried mint and onion. Like reshteh polo, its noodles carry the symbolism of the threads of fate, and it is a beloved Nowruz soup.
Samanu — the sweet sprouted-wheat pudding (also one of the seven Haft-Seen S's), made in quantity and shared.
Ajil — a festive mix of nuts and dried fruits (pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, dried mulberries, raisins, dried figs and apricots), offered to guests throughout the holiday.

Origin story

These dishes grew up around the ancient Nowruz observance as the celebratory foods of the spring renewal. The dominance of herbs and green reflects the festival's core meaning — the rebirth of the natural world at the equinox — translated directly onto the plate. The noodle dishes draw on the old symbolic reading of threads as the strands of destiny, a metaphor woven (literally) into the holiday food. Samanu in particular carries one of the most beautiful preparation traditions in the world: the samanu-paazan, an all-night communal cooking vigil, in which women gather to stir an enormous pot of sprouted-wheat pudding for twelve or more hours, taking turns at the long, arm-tiring work — and crucially, the stirring is accompanied by singing: traditional songs and verses sung through the night as the pudding slowly transforms, by the alchemy of the wheat's own enzymes, from a starchy mash into a deep, sweet, dark pudding with no added sugar at all.

The meaning

Green is the master theme — sabzi polo, kuku sabzi, and the herb-laden ash all turn the table the color of new spring growth, embodying renewal, fertility, and life returning. The fish brings abundance and life. The noodles of reshteh polo and ash reshteh symbolize the threads of fate, and eating them is a wish to "take the reins" and master the coming year's many possible paths. The samanu means sweetness, strength, and plenty — its near-magical transformation from plain wheat to sweet pudding without any added sugar is itself a small miracle of renewal that mirrors the season. And the communal samanu vigil means sisterhood, continuity, and shared labor turned to joy.

How it's celebrated today

The Nowruz feast is observed across the Persianate world and its diaspora through the thirteen days of the festival. Sabzi polo ba mahi remains the iconic Nowruz night dinner; ash reshteh and kuku sabzi appear throughout the holiday; ajil sits out for the constant stream of visiting guests. The samanu vigil, while less universal than it once was, is still kept by communities and families who treasure it, and it remains one of the most evocative living food rituals of the Persian New Year — an all-night gathering of women, song, and slowly thickening sweetness.

Regional variations

Across Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Kurdish regions, the specific Nowruz dishes vary considerably. Afghan Nowruz features haft mewa (a compote of seven dried fruits and nuts steeped in syrup) and sabzi (a spinach-and-greens dish), reflecting the same green-renewal logic. Central Asian Nowruz centers on sumalak (the local form of samanu) and its own all-night stirring vigils, and on festive pilafs. The herb rice, the noodle dishes, and the nut-and-dried-fruit mixes recur in regional forms throughout the Persianate world, each adapted to local taste and ingredients.

The joy factor

The joy of the Nowruz feast is the joy of spring made edible — a table turned green with the first herbs of the season, fragrant and fresh, declaring that the long winter is over and life has returned. There is joy in the family gatherings across thirteen days of visiting and feasting, in the constant bowls of ajil shared with every guest, and above all in the samanu vigil: women gathered through the night around a great pot, taking turns to stir, singing the old songs, watching plain wheat become dark sweetness by morning — a ritual of patience, community, and the simple wonder of transformation that perfectly embodies the renewal Nowruz is all about.

Reference notes

Related entries: the Haft-Seen Table above; Noodles of the World (MENA / Persian reshteh); Rice Varieties of the World (Persian polo); any future "Fresh Herbs of the World" and the existing "Dried Herbs" content thread. Related cuisines: Persian / Iranian, Afghan, Central Asian, Kurdish, Azerbaijani. Related ingredients: dill, cilantro, parsley, chives, reshteh noodles, eggs, kashk, sprouted wheat, mixed nuts and dried fruit. Suggested cross-links: the reshteh "threads of fate" noodle links to the global "long noodle" cluster (Chinese longevity noodle, toshikoshi soba) but with a distinct fate/destiny meaning worth highlighting; the samanu all-night stirring vigil is a beautiful cross-link with the Vietnamese bánh chưng overnight pot vigil under a "communal overnight cooking ritual" theme.

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