Moroccan Harira Soup (Ramadan Soup)
This is a rich flavorful Moroccan soup made with chicken, lamb, lentils, and a number of fresh herbs and spices. This is commonly eaten in Ramadan and is also known as Ramadan Soup. It’s nice and hearty and is great for the cold weather that we are getting these days.
You can make this soup vegetarian as well by omitting the meat all together and it’s still very flavorful. I almost always make the vegetarian version of Harira Soup.
Moroccan Harira (Ramadan) Soup
Ingredients
- 2 large onions
- 1 cup flat leaf parsley coarsely chopped
- 2 celery sticks (with leaves) sliced
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 inch piece of cassia or one cinnamon stick broken into long shards
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 3 tbsp ghee or
clarified butter or s'men - 1 lb shoulder lamb chops halved (optional)
- 6 chicken wings halved (optional)
- 1/2 cup dried red lentils
- 1 can chickpeas drained
- 1 cup fresh coriander (cilantro leaves) chopped
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- 750 ml tomato puree or canned plum tomatoes blended
- 8 tbsp or 50g fideua fine soup noodles or broken vermicelli
- 2 pinches saffron
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp red chili flakes
Instructions
- Using a large casserole, saute the onions, parsley, celery, pepper, cassia (or cinnamon) and turmeric in ghee for 5 minutes.
- Add the lamb and chicken and continue sauteing for 20 minutes.
- Wash and drain the lentils and pound the coriander and salt into a paste add these to the pot.
- Add in the drained chickpeas & tomatoes.
- Cook for 15 minutes then pour in 1.5 liters or 7 cups of boiling water.
- Cook covered until the lentils are soft and the meat is tender then add the noodles.
- Add the red chili flakes. Grind the saffron with the sea salt to a powder and sprinkle in cooking an additional 15 minutes.
Notes
Serve garnished with extra coriander, lemon halves to squeeze over it and optionally with dates (it’s always served with dates in Morocco).
This recipe is from the book A taste of Morocco by Clare Ferguson
