Harira (Moroccan Lamb Soup)

When it is cold, as it is in Johannesburg right now (2°C with exceptional snow on the ground this morning!), I find it difficult to eat cold salads and vegetables. In order to make sure I do get my veggies in, I turn to soups. Today, I flipped through my Essential Soup Cookbook and picked Harira.

Harira is a chickpea and lamb soup from Morocco usually served in the evening when it's time for the Muslims to break the daily fast during Ramadan. In Senegal, where the vast majority of the population is also Muslim, there are many culinary influences that have come from the Middle East and North Africa, following trade routes across the Sahara desert, riding on the back of various conquests and migrations. So for my version of harira, I combined a traditional Moroccan recipe with my friend Djenaba's to create a Senegalo-Moroccan blend.

The recipe calls for many ingredients and a lot of chopping so it is wise to make a batch and freeze some for later. I actually think it tastes better the day after or reheated after a few days in the freezer. There are few things sweeter than getting home late, thinking you have nothing to eat and not feeling like cooking, only to find some neatly frozen soup in the freezer. I equate the feeling to finding a long lost and definitely forgotten $20 bill in a coat pocket.


Harira
Serves 6

Ingredients

• 500 g of lamb (you can use beef as well), cut into small cubes
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped coarsely
• 1 tablespoon of ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons of ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 6 saffron threads (optional)
• 3 trimmed celery sticks (~220 g), chopped coarsely
• 1 can of chickpeas (425 g)
• 7 medium tomatoes (~1.2 kg), seeded and chopped coarsely or use 2 400g-cans of tomatoes
• 2 1/2 liters (10 cups) of water
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 100 g (1/2 cup) lentils
• 1/4 of fresh coriander leaves, chopped or whole

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Make sure it is large enough to accommodate all the ingredients since this is a one-pot dish.
2. Cook onions until soft.
3. Add spices and stir for ~2 mns until fragrant. Note: I found myself frantically adding spices fast enough and trying to stir to avoid them burning so I would recommend mixing all the spices beforehand in a bowl and pouring them all in at the same time.
4. Add lamb and celery and cook for 2 mns until lamb is all coated with the spices.
5. Add tomato and cook for 10 mns until tomato softens.
6. Add water, chickpeas and salt and bring to a boil. At this stage, Djenaba suggests adding 1 carrot and 1 turnip (both chopped into tiny cubes) if you wish to include even more vegetables.
7. Simmer covered for about 1 1/2 hours.
8. Add lentils and cook covered for another 30 mns.
9. Add coriander just before serving.