Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Harira: Delicious Moroccan soup






Here's the soup that Morocco is famous for; the soup that breaks the fast every day during Ramadan. You can leave out the lamb and meat stock if you want a vegetarian version.

Ingredients
250g lean lamb cut into small cubes
olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 can chickpeas
1,5l water or lamb stock
125g red lentils
1 can peeled tomatoes
1 tblsp sundried tomato paste
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 red pepper, chopped
50g rice
fresh coriander, chopped

chopped noodles

1. Heat about 2 tbsp oil and cook the lamb until evenly browned; add the onion and cook until soft.
2. Add the chickpeas, lentils, tomatoes, tomato paste, cinnamon, red pepper and water or stock. Simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Add the rice and simmer for about 15 minutes until the rice and lentils are cooked.
4. Stir in the coriander, chopped noodles, add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice, some dates or some sticky sweet Moroccan pastries.

Note: This soup can be thickened with the addition of a little flour or mashed potato

See all our Moroccan recipes here: MOROCCAN COOKBOOK!

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks! I will certainly try this.

Anonymous said...

You've forgotten to add 1/3 of a cup of flour to ticken the harira and to give it that creamy texture.
Without the flour, you get a chorba or some kind of minestrone .

Anonymous said...

In the photo there are noodles but you don't have them listed in your ingredients.

Sun-dried tomato paste! - never seen it in Moroccan shops.

Anonymous said...

No, anonymous - the good Fezi houses do not add flour to thicken: they add grated potato so as not to upset the tummy.

Anonymous said...

Kenn - My Moroccan friends use flour. And try harder looking for the paste - it is available.

Chef Erik said...

Looks very good, I will try this one for sure.

Anonymous said...

thanks, was looking for an authentic recipe, urs looks the stuff. the photo is very good too - actually both the photos are good, the old man as well as the lovely soup! should i thicken it with flour or leave it as is (in which case it will certainly be like a shorba, as anon said)? if u find the time, let me know, will check back. thanks again!

craig said...

thanks for this recipe. Tried it on the first cool autumn night. Delicious with some crusty bread in front of the fire!