Harira (a Moroccan Soup)

When we visited Luc's sister in Bordeaux, she took us to the markets and a few Moroccan stores nearby. We bought some yummy food for dinner and I also grabbed a couple of packets of soup in case I needed a standby vegetarian meal on my trip. The soup was Harira, a dish I've since learned is traditionally served after a long day's fast during the month of Ramadan. I certainly wasn't fasting in France and ate some truly delicious meals but surprisingly, the packet soup compared favourably!

I made this yesterday for the first time - the recipe a combination of the packet ingredients I remembered, ingredients we had in the house and I also found this recipe in one of my favourite cookbooks - so I'll give you that version with my changes.

Harira
from World Vegetarian Classics by Celia Brooks Brown

Ingredients:
(longish list, yeah, but the soup is easy and quite quick to make!)

2 T olive oil
2 onions (I added leek too as it needed to be used and it flavours soups so well)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 t freshly grated ginger
1 T paprika (I also added about 1t Korean chile powder because it has a great warmth and moreish quality)
1 t cumin seeds
600g / 1 lb 5 oz whole tomatoes / about 5 plump vine-ripened tomatoes
2 c / 500ml / 16 fl oz boiling water
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1x 400g / 14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 T chopped, fresh parsley
3 T chopped, fresh coriander (cilantro)
3 T chopped celery leaves
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 T tomato puree
2 T plain flour, slackened with 3 T cold water
1/3 c / 40g / 2.6 oz vermicelli
3 fresh free-range eggs (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil, to serve

Serves 4-6


Method:

Heat oil in a big saucepan with a lid. Add the onions and fry until translucent, then add the garlic, ginger, paprika and cumin seeds. Fry briefly until fragrant, then add the chopped tomatoes and cook until somewhat softened. Puree this mixture with handheld mixer or in a food processor or blender. Return the pureed mixture to saucepan, add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the chickpeas, herbs, lemon juice and tomato puree. Bring to the boil and simmer 2-5 minutes. Stir in the flour mixture to thicken the soup. Add the vermicelli and simmer for a further 5 minutes. If using eggs, break these in now and stir to break them up. Leave on heat till whites have set (when the white turns white). Serve each bowl with a drizzle of olive oil over the surface. (I used an egg with the packet version but not with yesterday's one, pictured. Both versions were delish!)

NB: some versions I have seen (on how-to videos, etc) cook this for about an hour all up. That probably helps the flavours develop really well but the colour is not as nice - more end of Autumn than the nice red colour you can have with this one. But choose what kind of flavour you like - I loved the freshness of this one.