Meme Suissa's Moroccan Harira Soup
This is Meme Suissa’s recipe as written down by her daughter, Kathy Shapiro. For a vegetarian version, you may substitute vegetable broth and omit the chicken. That’s our suggestion, not Meme’s.
Ingredients
- 2 cups diced onions
- 2 cups diced celery
- 1 cup chopped parsley
- 1 cup chopped cilantro
- 1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp dried red chili (optional)
- 1-2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 cup green lentils, rinsed
- 1 can (15 ounce) garbanzo beans, peeled
- 1 can (15 ounce) crushed tomatoes or 4 medium chopped fresh tomatoes
- 2 quarts or more good chicken broth*
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup flour
- 4 cups cold water
- 3/4 cup extra fine egg noodles
- Half of a cooked chicken, cubed or shredded, white and dark meat (from chicken used to make broth)
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Whisk together flour and water, set aside.
- Beat egg and lemon juice, set aside.
- Heat oil and add onion, celery, cilantro, parsley, turmeric, chili (if desired) and 1 teaspoon salt.
- Sauté over medium/high heat until well-cooked and blended, about 10 minutes.
- Add 1 quart of the stock, lentils, garbanzos and tomatoes, bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer until lentils are tender but not too mushy, about 20-25 minutes.
- Add remaining stock, chicken, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper and continue to simmer another 5 minutes.
- While stirring slowly, stream in egg/lemon mixture, followed by half of the flour/water mixture.
- Bring to a low boil. Stir in noodles.
- At any point, add a bit of stock, water or flour mixture to desired consistency. The soup should be hearty and somewhat thick.
- Stir in remaining 1/4 cup cilantro. Add salt to taste.
Notes
It's a one-dish meal, complete with garbanzo beans, lentils, noodles, egg, many vegetables and, if you like, chicken. You could eat a salad with it, but you won't have room for much more.
Harira, gentle and nourishing, belongs to both Muslim and Jews in Morocco. The Jews eat it to break the Yom Kippur fast (well, that and a shot of fig liquor). The Muslims serve it during Ramadan.
More after video.
When I first asked Meme to show me how she makes the harira, it was the dead of winter — and I can't imagine a better soup to have on a cold day. But made with the first vegetables of spring or the ripe tomatoes of summer, the soup is adaptable to any season.
As for spicing, Meme told me people in Morocco like the soup with fresh or dried chili. But her family, she lamented, never likes it spicy.
